Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

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Spit13
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Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Spit13 » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:22 pm

I have FOUR Peavey C-700 Speakers Rated 100Watt @ 8 ohms - I just got a new power amp, Rockville RPA16 10000 Watt Peak / 3000w RMS. So, my desire is to daisy chain the speakers so I have two per channel on the amp. I Have one speaker run full range and connected to the LOW input of the other for extra bass. I have a decent sized barn I like to rock out in, so I want to crank the volume, but don't want to damage my equipment. The Amp has a "Built in limiter protects your speakers from distortion and clipping", is that going to be enough? I'm just concerned about the 100watt speakers not being able to handle the power. I'll attach some links, I hope this helps. Thank you for any input you can share on how to set this up correctly

amp
https://www.amazon.com/Rockville-RPA14- ... HJ1ZQ&th=1

speakers
https://www.shoppok.com/smd/a,55,91558, ... h--MD-.htm
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Rockville amp.jpg
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Enzo
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Enzo » Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:22 pm

Well, just offhand I wonder why we would use a 3000 watt amplifier for speakers that as a group can only handle 400 watts.

The "built in limiter" doesn't protect speakers from being overpowered, it prevents the amp from being overdriven. Your amp could probably make those speakers catch fire.

Stryker57
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Stryker57 » Sat Aug 14, 2021 6:50 am

if you do this please place a small box in front of each speaker to catch the scraps from the speakers as you blow the paper off the cones.

Dookie
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Dookie » Sat Aug 14, 2021 1:08 pm

For an amp with a list price of $375 dollars it really has big spec's ;-) . I believe these are stretched quite a bit!

RMS Power Output:
Stereo 8 Ohm: 2 x 1,000W
Stereo 4 Ohm: 2 x 1,500W
Bridged 8 Ohm: 1 x 3000W
Peak Power Output:
Stereo 4 Ohm: 2 x 5,000W Max
Bridged 8 Ohm: 1 x 10,000W Max

It is listed as 2 X 1500 watts at 4 ohms. If you put 2 of your speakers in parallel off each amp channel you'll be giving each speaker 750 watts rms if you drive the amp very hard. The clip light on all the time. If you stay below a input level where the clip light just comes on very (very) rarely then you'll be around 1/3 to 1/2 power or somewhere around 200 to 300 watts to "Each" speaker. That would be as hard as I would recommend pushing. The amp doesn't seem to have any low cut filters for speaker protection with a quick look at the manual. Do you have something that will take around 50hz and below out of the signal going to the speakers? Also these are very old speakers. The cones may be weak with years of use. You may not even get by with that much power going to them.

2nd going into the "Low" input is a straight shot to the woofer. The woofer is being asked to do the full frequency response. This will give more power to the woofers voice coil and make it heat up more. You may be better off to get a real "subwoofer" to do the lows. Your amp does have a crossover in it. If you don't mind "Mono" then you may be able to use the amp different then you are now. Have the crossover on. Use one channel set to 160hz and one pair of your speakers for subs. With these old speakers I'd recommend setting it to 160hz and the other channel either full range or 160hz and above going to the other pair of speakers. I haven't looked close to the manual yet to see how the amp can be configured. Remember an Amp doesn't Blow a speaker. The person running the mixer/amp who pushes too hard and ask for too much from the system does. You can put a 100 watt speaker on a 100,000 watt amp and use it so long as you only use 100 watts of the 100,000 that the amp puts out. Push hard beyond that and it's "YOUR" fault not the amps or speakers that the speaker are blown.

Doug

Spit13
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Spit13 » Mon Aug 16, 2021 4:06 pm

Thank you all the info, seems like I'm pretty mismatched on the amp & speakers setup. I've heard these amps are very exaggerated on the actual power output, and the speakers are not accurate as to their load rating either. I had a 500watt power mixer that didn't have enough power and would cut out, so that's why I got as many watts as I could afford with this new power amp. I'm not sure how the gain controls functions on a power amp, all my old power amps had just a On/Off switch. Does the gain control the amount of watts output or just the volume? Could it work if I keep the gain knobs below the clip level? should I exchange this for a different lower level amp? I know just enough about this to be dangerous, hahaha. thank you again

Dookie
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Dookie » Tue Aug 17, 2021 5:19 pm

Spit13 wrote:
Mon Aug 16, 2021 4:06 pm
Thank you all the info, seems like I'm pretty mismatched on the amp & speakers setup. I've heard these amps are very exaggerated on the actual power output, and the speakers are not accurate as to their load rating either. I had a 500watt power mixer that didn't have enough power and would cut out, so that's why I got as many watts as I could afford with this new power amp. I'm not sure how the gain controls functions on a power amp, all my old power amps had just a On/Off switch. Does the gain control the amount of watts output or just the volume? Could it work if I keep the gain knobs below the clip level? should I exchange this for a different lower level amp? I know just enough about this to be dangerous, hahaha. thank you again
The gain knobs on front of the power amp determine how much "Input Voltage" sent from the mixer is needed to make the amp reach full power. Turn the knobs all the way up it may take .775 volts from the mixer for the amp to clip or give full output. If the power amps input knobs are turned down it may take 3 volts from the mixer for the amp to clip. In both cases the amp is still putting out the exact same amount of power when the clip lights come on it just takes move "voltage" from the mixer before it reaches that full output.

Up to you if you want to keep the amp or not. You'll have to show some restraint and not push the mixer hard enough to clip the amp to damage the speakers.
Hope your armed with a little more information so you can make your speakers last.

Doug

Bartman
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Bartman » Wed Aug 18, 2021 9:20 am

That amp's 10,000 watt max rating is ridiculous. Maybe it could theoretically put out that much with a pure square wave input for a tiny fraction of a second.

Spit13
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Spit13 » Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:56 pm

Oh yeah - I suspect it's way off on the actual rating. Here's the link

https://smile.amazon.com/Rockville-RPA1 ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

One reviewer said:
I doubt this does over 400 watts @ 8 ohms with both channels driven.
Clips and runs near 100C.
Pretty frustrating, I figured the outputs would be lower than what they claim but it's under HALF of the listed specs.

**EDIT**

After more testing the max voltage on a single channels is 62v which is like 465 watts into 8ohms. SO the specs are a complete joke from the start.
I tried doing a little testing with different input signals. The max this thing can do before clipping is about 375 Watts RMS into an 8OHM load. During this test the amp was over 100c.
At some point ill test a 4ohm load but I really want to force Rockville to refund my money at this point.
There is a reason Rockville is being sued over falsely claiming subwoofer specs. Should have done more research before buying. -

Soooo---- with this in mind, Am I still going to blow up my speakers??? Thanks again guys

Bartman
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Re: Vintage c-700 Speakers - trying to pair with new power amp

Post by Bartman » Thu Aug 19, 2021 9:13 am

Just listen for any distortion, regardless what size amp you end up using, and you should be fine.

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