I have been concerned about whether or not our sound system is sufficiently powerful for an outdoor concert. Sure, it is obnoxiously loud in my basement, but what about outside? Today I took the mixer, the amplifier, and a kill-a-watt meter to the Arboretum for an outdoor test. I wanted to investigate 2 things:
1. Is the system loud enough for that setting?
2. If the system is loud enough, how many watts is it drawing?
First, we plugged one mic into the amplifier. It drew about 25 watts. The volume was sufficient. We added a second mic and then discovered that if one yodels or sings extra loudly into the mic, the wattage jumps up significantly. At first we got up to 120 watts, then 142, and even 170 (which equals the rating of the amplifier). Thus, it will not be hard to max out the amplifier and we definitely need to plan on drawing the full 200 watts for mixer + amplifier.
1. Is the system loud enough for that setting?
2. If the system is loud enough, how many watts is it drawing?
First, we plugged one mic into the amplifier. It drew about 25 watts. The volume was sufficient. We added a second mic and then discovered that if one yodels or sings extra loudly into the mic, the wattage jumps up significantly. At first we got up to 120 watts, then 142, and even 170 (which equals the rating of the amplifier). Thus, it will not be hard to max out the amplifier and we definitely need to plan on drawing the full 200 watts for mixer + amplifier.