How do I…
Set a speaker to powered or 70V
Mark a speaker or subwoofer as powered, put a passive one on a 70-volt line, or place them powered from the start.
Where to find it: select a speaker or subwoofer › Properties › Device › Power; to place them powered, Palette › Equipment › Speakers › Powered
Every speaker and subwoofer starts passive: wired from an amplifier at the rack, and drawn with a white centre and coloured letters. The surround placeholders (L, C, R, SL and the rest) start passive too.
- Select the device and open Properties. Power is in its Device section.
- Choose Powered for a speaker or subwoofer with its own amplifier. It is drawn solid, with white letters, on the sheet, in the PDF and in shared presentations. It keeps its cable, and its Cables gain a Power row, 120 V (230 V in Europe), which its card and the cable schedule show; see add power to a device.
- Choose 8Ω for a plain passive speaker, the case that adds nothing to its label.
- Choose 70V for a passive speaker or subwoofer on a 70-volt line. The icon stays the same; the label says it, such as LS/70V-1, and 70V speakers are counted on their own, so the device takes the next number in that count.
A speaker on 70V that you make Powered keeps its line, and goes back to it if you choose 70V again. A surround placeholder offers Powered and Passive, since it never goes on a line.
To place a whole system powered, choose Powered at the top of Speakers in the palette. The speakers, subwoofers and surround placeholders there are drawn solid, and every one you place, surround presets included, starts powered, with a powered speaker's cables. Soundbars follow the switch too: Powered lists only the powered ones, Passive only the passive ones. Your choice is remembered in this browser.
A powered speaker or subwoofer placed wireless from the surround builder keeps no cable: its Cables read No cable · wireless, and Reset gives it its default cable back, a Cat6 for a speaker.
Select several speakers to set them all at once: Power reads Mixed while they differ, and one choice sets every one of them, one undo step.
A new landscape speaker starts at 70V, unless it is placed powered; every other speaker and subwoofer starts at 8Ω. Landscape speakers placed before this keep reading 8Ω and keep their numbers until you change them.
A 70V speaker joins a line at its rack or panel; on a line switched to 100V the choice reads 100V, and its speakers read LS/100V-1. In a European workspace it reads 100V too, and a new landscape speaker starts at 100V. See build a 70V or 100V line.
A 70V speaker cannot join a surround system, so it is offered no Surround, and 70V and 8Ω speakers do not share a zone — except an 8Ω subwoofer, which goes on the zone's line. A change that would break either is refused, and the message says why.
The rest of a device's settings are in the same panel; see change a device's details.