Lycanthrope Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Hi folks I've just bought a Hartke HCV-810 (8x10) cab and a Rocktron Blue Thunder, so that will act as pre-amp I'm lookinf for a power-amp and would welcome suggestions. I was thinking about the Hartke LH500... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 If you are after a power amp only, get one made for PA, QSC or Crown are good names. Because there is more demand for bit power amps in that field, you get more for your money due to economies of scale etc. There are a few in for sale section I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycanthrope Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='764855' date='Mar 5 2010, 11:22 AM']If you are after a power amp only, get one made for PA, QSC or Crown are good names. Because there is more demand for bit power amps in that field, you get more for your money due to economies of scale etc. There are a few in for sale section I think.[/quote] I'll take a look, cheers Excuse my ignorance, but wouldn't a dedicated bass amp be more suitable, or is it only the preamp that's specific to the bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conan Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 As I understand it, all the power amp does is AMPLIFY the signal it receives from the pre-amp - so the pre-amp/bass output section sets the "tone" and the power amp makes it "louder" before feeding it to the speakers... So basically, the higher the quality of the components and design, the more chance you have of getting the sound of your bass/pre-amp out of your speakers. Why would a "bass" power amp be any better at this that a PA one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 [quote name='Lycanthrope' post='765049' date='Mar 5 2010, 12:46 PM']I'll take a look, cheers Excuse my ignorance, but wouldn't a dedicated bass amp be more suitable, or is it only the preamp that's specific to the bass?[/quote] There are certain things that make an amp more suitable for bass reproduction, but these are more likely to be found in PA amps. Lots more headroom mostly. But yeah, the preamp is the source of colouration for bass, unless you get into driven power valve territory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycanthrope Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 OK, so all these fancy Trace, Hartke, GK etc bass amps are all about a good bass preamp with a high quality PA Gotcha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 [quote name='Lycanthrope' post='765145' date='Mar 5 2010, 02:03 PM']OK, so all these fancy Trace, Hartke, GK etc bass amps are all about a good bass preamp with a high quality PA Gotcha! [/quote] I think the GK 'growl' is a power amp thing, so might not count for them. The Trace sound is in the preamp, Shockwave has a Trace pre into a PA power amp, sounds like Trace. If you like the sound of your preamp, a power amp will just make that sound louder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraktal Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 +1000 for QSC brand. Those PA amps are decades ahead in technology when compared to ANY bass amp. Ask any self-respecting sound engineer and they will drool as soon as they hear QSC. I used a bridged QSC PLX 2402 for 3 years driving a 2x15" 4Ohms. So that was a 2400w RMS power amp into a 600w RMS cab. Smells like burnt speakers, you say? Nope. They never failed, even though I drove them extremely hard (all gain/master knobs at full power), giving out earthshattering lows and I never heard distortion. I also wired my sennheisser headphones to the output of a QSC PLX 3002 to try to blow them up the hardcore way... And I failed. In fact, those are the ones Im using at this precise moment. There arent many brands out there offering such reliability. Serious stuff! If you buy QSC you will never regret, I swear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 [quote name='Fraktal' post='765272' date='Mar 5 2010, 03:35 PM']I also wired my sennheisser headphones to the output of a QSC PLX 3002 to try to blow them up the hardcore way... And I failed. In fact, those are the ones Im using at this precise moment.[/quote] Fairly curious as to why there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 We have a QSC RMX2450 power amp for sale, haven't been able to get access to it yet as it's locked away in storage but will be able to get it out to test and photograph next week Should be more than you'll ever need, there's tons of power in these! Looking for £370 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraktal Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='765280' date='Mar 5 2010, 04:45 PM']Fairly curious as to why there.[/quote] Partly because of the fun and partly because a very good local sound engineer was showing me there was no risk of blowing my 2x15 with a QSC power amp after I asked him. I was obviously very concerned about driving my dear 600w cab with a 2400w amp at full power, I always thought that was the quickest way to build up totally justified GAS for a new cab! To be completely honest here, I still cant understand what happened there. Maybe those amps monitor the speaker displacement somehow and limit themselves accordingly? The sound guy insisted it was safe to drive any given speaker with a goop pro PA amp several times the wattage as long as there is a "lack of square-wavy distortion", but I have heard equally respected professionals stating that is all bullshit. It would be great if Bill Fitzmaurice or Alex show some light on this subject (If you all can excuse this "off-topicness"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Mariner Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 I don't know about SS amps, but with valve amps you would certainly tailor the output stage quite specifically for bass IF designing for that purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycanthrope Posted March 6, 2010 Author Share Posted March 6, 2010 [quote name='lemmywinks' post='765349' date='Mar 5 2010, 05:29 PM']We have a QSC RMX2450 power amp for sale, haven't been able to get access to it yet as it's locked away in storage but will be able to get it out to test and photograph next week Should be more than you'll ever need, there's tons of power in these! Looking for £370[/quote] That's quite a powerful beast... So what's so special about these QSC's then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycanthrope Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 I ordered an Hartke LH500 - I figured for €345 I really couldn't go far wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycanthrope Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 I ordered an Hartke LH500 - I figured for €345 I really couldn't go far wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 [quote name='Fraktal' post='765416' date='Mar 5 2010, 05:23 PM']Partly because of the fun and partly because a very good local sound engineer was showing me there was no risk of blowing my 2x15 with a QSC power amp after I asked him. I was obviously very concerned about driving my dear 600w cab with a 2400w amp at full power, I always thought that was the quickest way to build up totally justified GAS for a new cab! To be completely honest here, I still cant understand what happened there. Maybe those amps monitor the speaker displacement somehow and limit themselves accordingly? The sound guy insisted it was safe to drive any given speaker with a goop pro PA amp several times the wattage as long as there is a "lack of square-wavy distortion", but I have heard equally respected professionals stating that is all bullshit. It would be great if Bill Fitzmaurice or Alex show some light on this subject (If you all can excuse this "off-topicness").[/quote] It is fairly simple. you have loud bits and quiet bits in your playing. if your dynamic range is 40dB then your loud bits are 20dB above your average level. 10 dB is 1/10th of the power and 20dB is 1/100th so a 100W amp, not peaking, is probably only giving an average of 1W. Your speaker is rated at 600W 'average' over a long period (several hours)and it is the waste heat that will blow it. So long as you have no distortion and the clipping light stays off then your speaker may limit the sound but it won't cook. The square wave stuff is because the amp will turn a sound wave into square waves if you drive it hard enough and this will contain up to 1.414 times the energy. Most of this is high frequency so watch the tweeters if you have them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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