Bi-amping Peavey QW's

[BigMike31]

I am curious about bi-amping (not bi-curious, for those who were going to ask) and was wanting some input as to whether this would be worth the effort. Here's my current setup:

2 Peavey QW2's (1x15), both powered by bridged Peavey GPS 2600's for mid/highs.

2 Peavey SP218's powered by a single GPS 3500.

I was told by a "real sound guy" (I'm just a guitar player that loves this stuff) that my best bet would be to run the 2600's on the subs, and put the 3500 on the mids, while getting another GPS1500 for the highs. I've gone over some of the power ratings and such, but I understand that 1. many of the numbers are inaccurate and 2. I should be careful running anything bridged at all.

I'm just looking for thoughts, suggestions, whatever you have that may be helpful.

[Unalaska]

While the QW on paper has a very high power handlin gyou may find it is just fine with the 2600 in stereo and 1500 on horns.

 

1500 HF

2600 MF

3500 LF

 

all in stereo mode on each amp, no bridging. Long term it will be easier on the drivers and won't be prone to accidents that cause you looking for a recone shop.

[agedhorse]

More marketing power handling stuff to confuse the issue.

 

The LF on the QW2 is 800 watts RMS and IME about 1000 watts is just about right. The HF is a 44 driver, a pretty robust unit that's best powered around 200 watts RMS.

 

You do have speaker processing with proper limiting... or with a proper corssover you could use the limiting on the amps at the power levels I recommended abover.

 

For your subs, they are rated at 600 watts RMS per driver or 1200 watts RMS per sub. IME, they do pretty well powered at around 1500-1600 watts provided you have a 24dB/octave HPF around 35Hz. If you don't have this, you are better off at no more than 1200 watts RMS per box.

 

Unalaska's amp recommendations are pretty close, and it's hard to find much in small amps to power HF sections anymore. I do not know if the 44 driver is 8 oms or 16 ohms, but 16 ohms would be helpful in matching to more common "smaller" andp that are available, as the power would be more limited int 16 ohms.

[BigMike31]

Thanks so much for your advice. One thing I still don't understand, I get that the power ratings on speakers may be exaggerated, but does that go for the amps too? For example, Unalaska says that a 3500 would work on the subs in stereo (which I do now and it sounds okay) but according to the "specs" I'm only getting like 775 watts per side that way, which is signficantly less than the 1200 that agedhorse says would be okay. Are the amps actually giving me the wattage they claim to? It would be nice that if Peavey (and many others) were exaggerating their specs, they could at least do so proportionately for their speakers and amps so I could match things without doing algebra w/ too many variables haha. Thanks again-

[Unalaska]

The SP218 is a 4 ohm box, 1200w per channel. People tend to mix and match power to speakers, some amps are designed to work with certain speakers but overall it's not done that way. Peavey makes a PV1600-BiPak which is to be used with the SP2 and the PV3800 for subs.

[Dookietwo]

Thanks so much for your advice. One thing I still don't understand, I get that the power ratings on speakers may be exaggerated, but does that go for the amps too? For example, Unalaska says that a 3500 would work on the subs in stereo (which I do now and it sounds okay) but according to the "specs" I'm only getting like 775 watts per side that way, which is signficantly less than the 1200 that agedhorse says would be okay. Are the amps actually giving me the wattage they claim to? It would be nice that if Peavey (and many others) were exaggerating their specs, they could at least do so proportionately for their speakers and amps so I could match things without doing algebra w/ too many variables haha. Thanks again-

 

The GPS3500 is:

1750 watts at 2 ohms

1200 watts at 4 ohms

775 watts at 8 ohms

 

Your subs are 4 0hm boxess so your getting 1200 watts to the box or 600 watts to each driver in your boxes.

 

"""Unalaska """ -While the QW on paper has a very high power handlin gyou may find it is just fine with the 2600 in stereo and 1500 on horns.-

 

1500 HF

2600 MF

3500 LF ***

 

This would be fine as you have the 3500 and 2600 now. A 3500 on the mids would be 0k as well. Your call and money.

 

Look at peaveys digital crossover to go with this system.

 

Dookietwo