Switch Between Speech or Music
8th in a series about PA gear, their features, and how to operate them.
Just when you thought you knew and understood what every knob, switch and button on a PA system is for, lo and behold you come across the “speech/music” switch. What might this be for you ask? No need to ponder any longer.
When set to the ‘speech’ mode, this subtle but helpful feature changes the frequency spectrum of the microphone input by filtering out the undesirable sounds within your voice to increase clarity. Some of the bass and treble frequencies are filtered to reduce the effects of popping and hissing in your voice when using a wired microphone. When set to ‘music,’ the microphone input uses a flat frequency response for a full range of music frequencies and in order to produce a more complete sound that is just right for signals from an MP3 or other media player.
The Speech/Music switch shown on the rear panels of the PA150 (left) and the PA919 (right)
Califone offers the speech/music switch on its PowerPro (PA919 & PA919SD), and the battery powered PresentationPro speakers. On the PA919, and PA919SD speakers, this feature is located in back above the MIC1 & MIC2 inputs. On the PA150, it can be found directly above the MIC IN jack on the rear of the speaker. (The mic input is the only input which the speech/music switch affects.)
If you were to connect a media player, such as a boombox or MP3 player, for your dance class, you would simply switch to the “music” function on the speaker so that you get a full range of sound. The reason for this is because should you need to make some sort of speech or announcement using a wired microphone, you would switch to the “speech” function. This feature works only with a wired mic, not a wireless one.
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