EV ZX1-90 / EV SB-122 - Amp Match Question

[oldmistergrump]

Hi Audio experts - I'm not quite a newbie when it comes to sound, but definitely no expert. I probably know just enough to be dangerous and end up destroying my equipment, so I was hoping for some advice.

 

I recently picked up a used set of speakers at a price too hard to pass up. I got a pair of EV ZX1-90 mains and a pair of EV SB-122 subs. I want to use the speakers to do very small size DJ set-ups. Mostly modern pop music, so a bit bass heavy, but not at all club volume.

 

The EV ZX1-90s are 8 ohm 200 watts continuous, 400 watts program

The EV SB-122s are 8 ohm 400 watts continuous, 800 watts program

 

My original thought was to pick up a crossover and run 2 amps - one that puts out 400 watts per side at 8 ohms for the tops and a second that puts out 800 watts per side at 8 ohms for the bottoms. Pretty simple and plenty of headroom.

 

Then, I looked at the EV manual that came with the ZX1-90s - They have a suggested set-up using the internal crossover in the SB-122 and daisy chaining the speakers with the Speakon connections to run at 4 ohms per side.

So it would go:

Amp Channel 1 to Sub 1 in, Sub 1 out to Main 1 in

Amp Channel 2 to Sub 2 in, Sub 2 out to Main 2 in

 

They suggest the EV Q66 amp.

 

While I do not own A Q66, I do own a QSX GX7 which has very similar specs. The benefit of already owning the amp and not having to buy a crossover makes this approach appealing.

 

The QSC GX7 is

725 watts per channel at 8 ohms

1000 watts per channel at 4 ohms

 

 

So, here is my question:

Would it be a good match to run a single QSC GX7 to drive all 4 speakers, 4 ohms per side, in stereo?

 

 

According to the EV manual, this should work, but I would have thought that running both a Sub and a Main off the same side, I would be under powering the sub (500 watts when I should have 600-800 watts) and overpowering the tops (500 watts when I should have 300-400 watts). This might be where my inexperience comes in. Maybe with the internal crossover the watts are not distributed evenly?

 

I would like to end up with a nice system that sounds good without having to drive everything to the max, and that won't get damaged by my misunderstanding what I should do.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[oldmistergrump]

help - anyone?

[agedhorse]

I would recommend an active crossover and 2 amps (or you can run mono with one amp, channel 1 driving the subs and channel 2 driving the tops.

 

In general, I would stick to close to the continuous ratings of the speakers unless you have good judgement and make no mistakes.