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When i see a reputable manufacturer like QSC bring out a value-priced line like the GX series I wonder to myself, what's missing? What did they cut out to achieve a price point? You can delete features, change construction techniques or assembly locations, use less expensive materials, use less elaborate power supplies and filtering, use lower grade components etc. Something's gotta give.

 

QSC has other lines with which this GX-series would directly compete yet they haven't really drawn the lines of demarcation between the GX / RMX / PLX2 series that I can see. If a GX is everything that an RMX is but at a lower price point, why would you buy an RMX?

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The RMX is fairly fully-featured for a "budget" power amp, IMO. High-pass filters with switchable frequencies, limiters, etc. If they cut out most of those features, some I/O options, etc., then they could put out a slightly-lower-priced power amp. Notice on the back of the GX5 (going purely by the picture on the Musicians' Friend website, since I don't have an actual amp to look at) the whole row of dip switches has been replaced by a single Full Range / Crossover switch, which appears to split channel 1 and channel 2 into low/high signals. I don't see any power ratings or information for bridged operation either, which causes me to suspect this amp isn't rated for bridging.

 

So, they've cut some things out that the RMX line has. But it looks like it could make a decent monitor amp. :)

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The differences are clear to me. The GX is not 2 ohm capable, and lacks other features of the RMX. The big benefit to some users is the shallow chassis and many will not miss the 2 ohm capability.

 

The PLX is light weight and shallow chassis with distinctions also being made for 2 ohm versus 4 ohm capabilities, and the PL's are a bit higher duty cycle capable with additional features relating to the data port and remote monitoring/digital audio routing options.

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I thought the GX did have a 2-ohm rating on it, no? :confused: I could be mistaken, as I've only looked at it online a couple of times.

 

edit: As I look at the QSC website, I see it does NOT have a 2-ohm rating. I saw a misprint on another website. My bad. :)

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I thought the GX did have a 2-ohm rating on it, no?
:confused:
I could be mistaken, as I've only looked at it online a couple of times.


edit: As I look at the QSC website, I see it does NOT have a 2-ohm rating. I saw a misprint on another website. My bad.
:)

 

The real question then is what's the difference between GX-3 vs. PLX1104 and GX-5 vs. PLX1804?

 

These would seem to be very similar then in feature set and focus, but there's that pesky price difference again. Is it just the lightweight switching power supplies? The PLX-series are about half the weight of the GX-series. The couple of hundred dollars of price difference between would seem be due to more than just power supplies?

 

If the sound quality were the same between the two with just power supplies & weight being the major difference, these would be a great deal. Seems to me though that it's more than just that.

 

Are the GX-series sonically comparable to the rest of the line? That's what I would like to know.

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Yes there is a limiter, and from what I understand from my sources, it's also in part duty cycle controlled in that if you are drivingit very hard, and it gets hot, the output level will reduce which IMO is a good approach to this type of fault. These are not high duty cycle amps, but for many applications they will be ideal.

 

The GX series does not have bridging, switchable filters, switchable parallel features like the RMX, and do not have the internal signal processing headers like the PLX/PL. They are also almost twice as heavy as the 4 ohm PLX2's.

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I'm thinking of picking one up to use for driving monitors, in addition to my RMX-850. Then I can run four monitor mixes. How often do I need to do that? Seldom. But there have been a few times when three mixes would have been useful recently.

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