AHM as Speaker Processor Only

AHM AHM General Discussions
1

I thought I would quiz this knowledgeable group! Perhaps I’ve missed discussion around this very topic.

Background - FOH speakers and processors are getting old (2003) and we have had trouble with some of the Crown amps but no problems yet with the EAW MX processors. Wondering if the AHM would be a suitable replacement for the (2) EAW units where we use 4 in and 14 outputs all analog. On those 14 outs we could reduce to 10 if we put R & L fills together which are already processed identically.

So far we have replaced our monitor amps with Crown DCi Network series and I like that I can see this with Crown software over the same network running dLive Director. Stage is NOT running through our processor. I find the Crown (Harman) software a bit clunky but it works. Having both dLive and amplifier control on the laptop simultaneously is something we could never do with our old stuff and I like this. The EAW software requires a serial connection (old school).

We were leaning toward all new DCi Network amps and just eliminate the processor. Another choice would be processor with basic dumb amplifiers and that might be lower cost but less control and no look at how the amplifiers are running(or not). High level option would be both processor and networked amps so we could do anything. I sort of like the idea of doing all the time delay, EQ, Xover in the processor and do the limiting and speaker protection in the amp but perhaps that’s getting too complicated.

Looking around I haven’t focus on anything yet. The BSS Soundweb stuff I know has Blu Link like the Crown amps but is pricey. Another view is someone I know who is a big fan of the Lake processors. Does the AHM fit well for this purpose or is it a different animal.

Comment and suggestions appreciated.

2

I think there are a lot of people using the AHM as a speaker processer. It’s not as fully featured as some of the higher end DSP units, but I bet it has 95% of the features at this point including crossovers, EQ (with “all pass” filters), delays, limiters and more.

When the AHM was first released, it was lacking some functionality needed to be a good DSP (like all pass filters), but A&H has continued to improve the AHM as a speaker processor and I think it is a very passable option today.

3

Thanks for that. I have looked at the software and it’s got a LOT more functionality than I need making it a little cumbersome to do the simple basic DSP. I can see how that can be done though. Unless I missed it, I didn’t see familiar crossover types present, yes high and lo pass filter but not Bessel, L-R, etc. Did I miss this?

4

Speaker processing for crossovers is under Channels → Zones → Speaker Processing block (right before the Outputs/Limiters block) - and then you need to choose which number of processing ways you want.
Each extra way consumes a processing zone, and changes to numbers of ways will briefly interrupt audio.