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The various components of PA systems
Home » Gadgets » PA Systems » The various components of PA systemsThere are four major parts of every PA system. The first part is the microphone. A microphone is sometimes referred to as a mic or mike. This starts out the process of moving your voice to the ears of the people that can't hear you through your normal voice. There are going to be many different kinds of microphone, but the ones that you are probably going to be using 3 major ones - a handheld-corded microphone, a lapel microphone, and a handheld wireless microphone. There are other kinds of microphone but these are going to be major ones with the handheld-corded microphone being the most common. The next part of the PA system is the mixer or soundboard. The electronic signal moves from the microphone through a microphone cord and into one of the inputs on the mixer. At this point there are many options. Some soundboards consist of just a volume control, while others allow you to change the EQ of the voice or hundreds of other possibilities.
From this point the electronic signal heads from the mixer to the output - the speakers. Once again you will have a wide variety of speakers, but most people will simple get just good enough to make their voice go far enough for their needs. Speakers come active or passive in electrical needs. Passive speakers are the most common but active speakers allow for you not to have an amplifier because it is located inside the speaker. That is the fourth part of the PA system, the amplifier. Running from speaker is an amplifier. This is simply your power source. You can just run a cord from an outlet to your speakers if your speakers happen to be passive because the power needs to be conditioned and made into something that sound can use. That is what the amplifier does. It also makes sure that speakers get the right amount of power for the sound and not too much or too little - otherwise the amp will shut off.
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