Customers will often begin using their TS3 series speaker and immediately notice that there are two graphics of volume ranges printed on their speaker.
These two ranges are Mic Level and Line Level. Where you should be on that range depends on the device you're inputting into the speaker, but as a general rule of thumb you should know that there is a balance to your setup- the more gain your device is capable of, the lower the volume on your speaker you need to use.
Line Level Sources
The solid range is for line level devices- Guitars, Mixers, DJ Controllers, Phones, Drum Kits etc. Devices which have line level inputs can be broken up into high gain and low gain.
High Gain- Mixers, DJ Controllers, Guitars with pedals, music played from a home amplifier. As a general rule of thumb, anything that has both a gain setting and a volume setting has the capability to be a high gain device. As a result, we will want to keep the volume on the TS3 lower, somewhere below the 0 bB line(think 10 o'clock).
At the 0 dB line, the amp inside the speaker is already boosting signals to come into it at a 0 dB threshold and amplifying them. When a high gain signal comes in, the amplifier multiplies that gain; and though the speaker isn't getting a signal limit from the input, once it is amplified it can damage the drivers of the signal.
Low Gain- Acoustic Guitars, Phones/MP3 Players, Commercial Players, Drum Kits and anything else that only has a volume knob. Most of these can go to the 0 dB line safely, and some of the weaker sources like Acoustic Guitars and MP3 players can go even a little higher, but should never exceed the end of that solid range under any circumstances.
Mic Range Sources
The range indicated by the empty center is your Mic Level range. Now please note, you do not have to go beyond the end of the Line range to get a microphone signal- Many dynamic mics have more than enough gain to work at or before the 0 dB range. This is why the Mic Range starts back there.
Microphones through a mixer, preamp or amplifier are no longer Mic Level signals as they have already been amplified and are doing the same job as the Mic volume range, making them effectively Line Level. As we previously discussed, you should never go beyond the limit of the Line Level range with a Line Level Signal. Doing so could damage the speaker. For mics that do need this extra power boost, you an feel free to adjust it until you have a good balance with without feedback.