Can you hook an amp up to powered speakers?

[Paladyne]

OK, I have the Mackie 824's. They are the type of speakers which have an amp built in. I sometimes would like a little more volume. Can I hook my Ramsa power amp up to them as if they were regular speakers, as long as I am not sending crazy levels? A close friend said I would blow my stuff up, I really value my speakers and amp, so I dont want to do something foolish.

 

[AudioGaff]

I really value my speakers and amp, so I dont want to do something foolish.

Then only use them as they were designed and intended to be used...

 

[AudioGaff]

 

[Paladyne]

gotcha!

the only reason I thought of this is because of the discussion between "quested and genelecs", someone said that the amp is going to make a big difference in the end... I figured if you can hook an amp up to a set of Genelecs, one might be able to do so with my Mackies...

glad I played it safe!

Eric

 

[AudioGaff]

The Genelecs and Mackie are active monitors so they have built in amps that are decent enough in power and quality and are fairly well matched to their components. On passive monitors, the amp is a very big part of their total capability in sound quality so matching up the right amp is very important.

 

[Davedog]

NO.


simple eh.


However in order to move you forward in your recording equipment life, I suggest you blow up the Mackies.


Then you'll have to buy a set of Genelec/Dynaudio/ATC/Westlake etc etc.


See....I'm helping you grow.

 

[Paladyne]

hahahaha. thanks guys.

 

[Steve Halko]

I've been using the HR-824s for 2 years now, and the one thing I've NEVER needed from them is more volume!

 

[realdynamix]

Originally posted by Paladyne:
...I sometimes would like a little more volume.

What are you driving your powered speakers with? Do you have a preamp, the monitor out of a mixer, or the direct out's of a soundcard?

The reason I ask is that you may not be driving the inputs of the speakers with enough level. If you are using an unbalanced input, you must make sure that it is unbalanced correctly, or your drive level will be way lower than it should be.


--Rick

 

[Paladyne]

Originally posted by Rick Hammang:

Originally posted by Paladyne:
...I sometimes would like a little more volume.

What are you driving your powered speakers with? Do you have a preamp, the monitor out of a mixer, or the direct out's of a soundcard?

The reason I ask is that you may not be driving the inputs of the speakers with enough level. If you are using an unbalanced input, you must make sure that it is unbalanced correctly, or your drive level will be way lower than it should be.


--Rick

right now I have them coming out the back of my digi001 sound card.

I get pretty loud sound coming out of them, but I was just curious if I could get them just a little louder. One of my electric basses is extremly quiet, but it has great tone.(stu hamm urge w/ bartollinis, the original pickups were trashed when I got it).

I think what I really need is a DI w/ a preamp just for my bass; its fine when I play thru my amp, but alone I can not even hear my bass with drums really quiet.

also, the stands for my speakers came today, now they are in the equilateral triangle position, so I am getting the full sound.

thanks,
Eric