It's been a while! Sub power amp question...

[Consume]

Well guys, it has been quite a while since I was on the board. This has been a rough week for me. Monday was my 49th Birthday. Wednesday night my mom died at 10:30PM.

I'm fairly certain I am still in shock, considering the fact that I keep crying every time I try to talk about it. She got Alzheimer's a few years ago and as she progressively got worse enrolled her in the local Hospice program. I quit my job, moved back in with my parents. My Dad sold the family home for quite a bit of money, and we moved 30 miles away where he bought a new house and paid it off, put the rest in the bank, and my dad and I took care of her here at home. Two weeks ago, an aggressive form of cancer set in - she went from no visible sign of it, except for a small red line by her neck, to having a tumor/cyst that was the size of a softball that completely grew around her Carotid Artery in 9 days. There was nothing that could be done for her; the doctor told my Dad that chemo would kill her faster than doing nothing. So I got to sit and watch my mom starve to death. And I have to say, it was hard. I told my Dad,"I didn't know I was going to be forced to participate in her murder." I was under the impression that while in Hospice, it meant that she would be at home and when she got near the end, rather than keeping her alive on machines, they would put her on drugs, and she would essentially sleep until she passed way. It was hard to take, but I guess no death is easy; our Hospice nurse said,"Very few people are lucky enough to die in their sleep." Which was kind of a sobering reality for me, because anytime anyone dies they almost always seem to have died in their sleep, or drop dead on the spot. I only know of a few people who had long, drawn-out episodes when it came to death.

I guess I just wasn't ready, or expecting, to lose her so early in my life. My Dad is dealing with her passing far better than my brother and I are and he's like,"You guys need to man up! Don't make it about you." I told him,"Easy for you to say, your mom lived 20 years longer than mine did!"

 

Anyway, I need some stuff to take my mind off of this, so I'm working on audio stuff today.

 

Since the last time I was here eons ago, I bought an old set of EAW tops and subs.(The cabinets look almost brand new.)

A Pair of #152HR tops 15"+1" Horn (350 Watts AES)

A Pair of #SB180 Subs.18" Sub (1000 Watts AES)

 

I need an Amplifier for the Tops and the Subs.

 

So, if you were playing 150-250 capacity average bars with these. Hard Rock & Old School Heavy Metal. What would you buy to power these? I would really appreciate if Agedhorse would chime in on this.

 

I also picked up a set of 6 custom built floor wedges from a Church that upgraded to IEM, but these monitors are made from all birch void-free plywood, and you can look at them and tell they were professionally made, and they have a 12"/1" concentric Eminence driver in each one. They just wanted to get rid of them, so I got half a dozen of them for $200!

 

They sound awesome. So, we are going to coat those in truck bed liner. Whoever built them did not do the finish on them, and sadly the church's youth group Rattle-canned them with Krylon Green and NO primer, so the paint began coming off in strips. He said the paint getting scratched off was just from them moving the speakers around in the storage room where that have been stored for the last year. My guitarist and I are going to strip the wedges down, and sand them down to bare wood, then prime them, and then I'm taking them to the local Line-X place and having them sprayed.

 

But let's get back to the Subs and tops amplifiers, what model amp would you use for each of these purposes. I have amps already, but I want an amp for the subs. And I will most likely be buying used, although I have looked at the Crest #CC5500 and thought,"Well, I CAN actually afford it, but do I really need it. In theory, I could run my entire front end on that one amp

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

Ed

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[Audiopile]

My two primary small show PA systems are EAW SB-180's with JBL SRX 712M mid-highs. I really like the systems. I'm powering both systems with Peavey IPR 3000's... utilizing the on-board amplifier crossovers. 5-6+(?) years track record doing "a lot of shows" and no regrets on amp choice... getting close to considering the IPR's on-par with other seeming standards like SM-58's, vintage Atlas round base stands, Audix D6, Permetex gaff tape, Midas M32, etc...

[happwith12strin]

hello! extreamly sorry to hear about your mom!! consume!

[Consume]

My two primary small show PA systems are EAW SB-180's with JBL SRX 712M mid-highs. I really like the systems. I'm powering both systems with Peavey IPR 3200's... utilizing the on-board amplifier crossovers. 5-6+(?) years track record doing "a lot of shows" and no regrets on amp choice... getting close to considering the IPR's on-par with other seeming standards like SM-58's' date=' vintage Atlas round base stands, Audix D6, Permetex gaff tape, Midas M32, etc...[/quote']

 

So the IPR's can handle Sub duty without any issues?

 

Also, is it worth the price difference to go up to whatever Crest's version of these amps are? I'm not an audio snob in any way shape or form, so I have zero problems with the Peavey power amps, and I love the idea of going lightweight and losing the huge amp rack. I've used Peavey and Carvin stuff for years - I have a pair of the Carvin FET-1000 amps, which I love and they have performed flawlessly since 1994, but at roughly 40lbs each, along with the old school Audio Centron RMA 2000 which is roughly the same size and weight as the 1980's Peavey CS1200 amps (plus it is all in a Peavey 3/4" 16-space roadcase that weighs probably 80lbs empty) It is just a bit too much for me to manhandle by myself. I even started lifting weights just to be able to move the gear. lol

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Consume]

hello! extreamly sorry to hear about your mom!! consume!

 

Thank you. It has been devastating for me.

[Audiopile]

 

So the IPR's can handle Sub duty without any issues?

 

I love the idea of going lightweight and losing the huge amp rack.

 

 

Concerning sub duty: I'm running 4 ohm loads on both the subs and mid-highs sides of the amps with seemingly no issues what-so-ever. However: I don't push the systems hard... typically well shy of hitting the DDT limiting of the amps. I generally use these two systems for our own band's performances, and our style is "soft" on the low-end compared to some. The drums and bass guitar are generally a bit less than predominate in our mix. We do play a fair amount of small outdoor festivals, street dances, etc... of typically 100 - 200 audience size and we commonly have other bands performing on the rig, some of whom are heavier hitters on the low-end... but then I'm typically running the knobs and keep it "civilized". So your mileage may vary from mine depending on driving conditions/style.

 

Yes: the lightweight and power efficiency have been big pluses.

 

 

[Consume]

 

Concerning sub duty: I'm running 4 ohm loads on both the subs and mid-highs sides of the amps with seemingly no issues what-so-ever. However: I don't push the systems hard... typically well shy of hitting the DDT limiting of the amps. I generally use these two systems for our own band's performances, and our style is "soft" on the low-end compared to some. The drums and bass guitar are generally a bit less than predominate in our mix. We do play a fair amount of small outdoor festivals, street dances, etc... of typically 100 - 200 audience size and we commonly have other bands performing on the rig, some of whom are heavier hitters on the low-end... but then I'm typically running the knobs and keep it "civilized". So your mileage may vary from mine depending on driving conditions/style.

 

Yes: the lightweight and power efficiency have been big pluses.

 

 

That's Awesome!

Thanks. I'd start out running at 8 ohms, and if needed, add another pair of subs.. Actually, I'd probably make the jump to a pair of 2x18" EAW's. I can't think of the model, but they have a model that was essentially their double version of the SB-180, so I'd just look into getting those for 4 Ohm duty.

[Audiopile]

I forgot (till now): In addition to the two IPR-3000's I have in my two "personal" band systems, I also have 10 IPR's in my festival system, 8 of which are IPR-3000's and two are IPR-1600's. 4 of the IPR-3000's are on monitor duty (running 4 to 8 ohm loads depending), 2 are on FOH subs (running 4 ohm stereo loads), 2 are on the FOH mids (4 ohm stereo loads), and 2 are IPR-1600 running FOH highs (8 ohm stereo loads). My festival system does see some "pushed to the limits" action... including commonly other operators (not myself).

 

Concerning "worth it for the Crest versions"? I dunno... I have no experience comparison-wise. I'll say over the years and operating hours on the IPR's: I've had a couple of IPR glitches that I sent to Peavey for repair... and I have a back-up IPR-3000... and I'll say concerning the couple glitches: Peavey was absolutely stellar on repairing.

[Consume]

Updating this old thread.

 

Tonight I purchased THREE Crest Pro-Lite 2.0's,(rebranded as "Christie Vive" Audio) on Ebay. These are brand new, in the box, but they are not the "DSP" models, but I got a GREAT price on them.

 

So next up, some kind of speaker management system. I would have preferred to bought amps with the full DSP built in, but at the end of the day - dbx driveracks aren't that expensive anymore. So we'll see how this good stuff works.