"Long-throw" speakers?

VellaJ

Do these still exist? I saw an old Elk 2x12 cab a couple of years ago with what the salesman described as "long-throw" speakers. I'm no amp expert, so I'll take his word for it. It makes sense though, in the days before PA, to have some speakers that could project a greater distance...

Reason I ask is the following. I have my 4x12 cab through which I run my Peavey VK112 if we're using our personal PA (I don't mic up my amp if I can avoid it), which we only use for vocals and DI the bass through it. We gigged with this setup a couple of weeks ago. The guys up to about mid-way in the venue said the sound was great, but the guys at the back of the venue couldn't really hear the guitar.

So I'm wondering about replacing 2 of the 4 speakers in my cab with long-throws and keeping 2 medium-fields for the closer audience. Make sense? Comments?

Gearhead

Long throw refers to the excursion of the speakers rather than to their projection. It means that the length of the coil and the stroke of the suspension are designed for 4mm rather than 2mm, for example. Not related to your requirement.

VellaJ

Gearhead wrote: Long throw refers to the excursion of the speakers rather than to their projection. It means that the length of the coil and the stroke of the suspension are designed for 4mm rather than 2mm, for example. Not related to your requirement.

Ah, I see. Are there speakers out there that relate to my requirement?

AlanRatcliffe

In PA, throw is also often used to mean projection of sound.

Speakers with a narrower coverage/dispersion (narrower throats to the horns) tend to throw further, but don't throw as wide. In a mid-size system it makes sense to mix high frequency drivers with different throws/dispersion patterns - wide dispersion closer to the stage and longer throw to the back of the room.

In smaller venues this complaint is more likely a problem with the speakers being mounted too low so the high frequency is absorbed by the audience before it can get to the back of the room.

AlanRatcliffe

Sorry - I misunderstood, thinking the PA throw was the complaint.

It actually sounds like you should start micing up so you can let the PA speakers give you a better coverage and throw. Bias the miked sound a bit towards the higher frequencies and you won't need much to add clarity to the guitar sound in the room and it won't need much of the PA's headroom.