Rockville: What Is 70 Volt?

Introduction: 

What is 70 volt? 70 volt systems are the number one choice for any application where you want to install multiple speakers in parallel(daisy-chained off a single amp output). They are most commonly used in commercial and retail applications.

Setup Info: 

With 70 volt there are a lot of advantages over 8-ohm systems. One of the main advantages is the simplicity of the wiring as well as how easy it is to match up speakers with the amplifier. For example, with a180 watt / 70 volt amplifier, you can install speakers that total close to 150 watts. It does not matter if it is 10 speakers that are 15 watts each or 25 speakers that are tapped at 5 watts each. You always want your 70 volt amp to have at least 15 or 20% more power than the combined watts your speakers are tapped at. When we say the word tap, what we are referring to are the selectors that many speakers in 70 volt have on them. For example, some speakers might have selectable options of 1.5w, 3w, 5w, 10w. What this does is limit how many watts the built-in transformer on the speaker will allow the speaker to get from the amplifier. What this allows for is full customization of your sound for your space. In a restaurant for example you can tap your dining room speakers at 5 watts, the speakers by the bar area at 10 watts, the ones in the hallway at 3 watts and the speakers in the bathrooms at 1.5 watts. Another great feature with 70 volt is you can mix and match any 70 volt speakers whether they are ceiling speakers, wall mounted speakers, subwoofers, etc. 70 volt systems allow you to run very long lines of speaker wire without signal loss. This makes it ideal when running long speaker leads. The wiring is simple. You just wire all the positive terminals of the speakers to the positive 70 volt terminals of the amplifier. The negative terminals on the speaker simply get wired to the negative terminals on the amp. You do not have to worry about impedance. The power is constant.