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I am going to be building a pair of 20" T39s, 3012lf loaded, for a small live band setup. In reading up on the need for limiting on the subs, I decided I should get either the drpa+ or dcx/deq2496 combo. The behringer combo is feature packed, but I am concerned about reliability with those units. The drpa+ should do what I need for delay, rta, eq, and such, but it does not have brickwall limiters.

My question: Are the limiters on the drpa+, with proper gain structuring, enough to protect the subs or do I have to take a chance with the behringer gear? Also, my budget is $500.

I can't answer that question because I have the same question. However I was able to find the DRPA+ for $400 at www.karaokeequipment.com. Seems they have a lot of equipment at good prices. I never have bought through them though so I am not sure if they are a good seller.

500 for the processor? You should easily get a used dBa Driverack for that. Eq, limiters, the works, wish I had budget for one myself.

I strongly suggest you consider buying a Crown XTi or Peavey IPR with DSP amp. Both have powerful DSP built in, no need for any other outboard equipment, extremely lightweight, very expandable, and you can sell your current amps to fund the purchase.

DJPhatman wrote:I strongly suggest you consider buying a Crown XTi or Peavey IPR with DSP amp. Both have powerful DSP built in, no need for any other outboard equipment, extremely lightweight, very expandable, and you can sell your current amps to fund the purchase.

FYI -

neither the XTi nor the IPR series have peak limiters..

I was hoping to do processor and rta mic for <$500.

I have the DRPA and, while not having the brickwall limiter, it does the job. Like you said, just mind the gain structure. Of course for added safety, instead of putting the whole 60volts into the 3012, lower it by 10volts as the plans recommend and you will have less of a problem, even if you don't have brick wall. However, if you're afraid of blowing the drivers and must have it, you would it either need the behringer combination or a 4 channel compressor/limiter between the drpa and amps. Granted that you're wanting to do stereo, if mono, you'd just need two channel compressor/limiter. Oh and another thing to note, the behringer multi-effect units can and will process a stereo signal, BUT they will process it with the identical setting, so you could the delay the signal in stereo by, let's say, 11 milliseconds, but you would not be able to one channel 11ms and the other 5ms, for example.

jcmbowman wrote:

DJPhatman wrote:I strongly suggest you consider buying a Crown XTi or Peavey IPR with DSP amp. Both have powerful DSP built in, no need for any other outboard equipment, extremely lightweight, very expandable, and you can sell your current amps to fund the purchase.

FYI -

neither the XTi nor the IPR series have peak limiters..

But they do have brickwall limiters, which the OP asked for. This is a suggestion since the OP is concerned about reliability. Since everything but RTA is available in the XTi, I made the suggestion. RTA can be done once outdoors, and the system can be tweaked from there at each venue, and saved in the XTi. IMHO, less is better, less in the signal chain, less equipment to load in and out, less weight to carry.

DJPhatman wrote:

jcmbowman wrote:

DJPhatman wrote:I strongly suggest you consider buying a Crown XTi or Peavey IPR with DSP amp. Both have powerful DSP built in, no need for any other outboard equipment, extremely lightweight, very expandable, and you can sell your current amps to fund the purchase.

FYI -

neither the XTi nor the IPR series have peak limiters..

But they do have brickwall limiters, which the OP asked for. This is a suggestion since the OP is concerned about reliability. Since everything but RTA is available in the XTi, I made the suggestion. RTA can be done once outdoors, and the system can be tweaked from there at each venue, and saved in the XTi. IMHO, less is better, less in the signal chain, less equipment to load in and out, less weight to carry.

The only thing I didn't like about using the DSP in my XTi's was that, if I fed it a single input signal from my mixer and used the XTi crossover function, I could not adjust the input gain of the subs and tops independently since they were coming in as a single signal. That meant that the balance between subs and tops was fixed and could not be adjusted. For me, this was a major bummer. Everything else seemed to be fine.

I hadn't thought of that yet, good point. You would have to hook up a laptop to the XTi in order to do that.

AntonZ wrote:I hadn't thought of that yet, good point. You would have to hook up a laptop to the XTi in order to do that.

I don't think so. I had everything connected to my PC while I was testing it, and even through the Band Manager software, I couldn't find a way to do it. It makes sense if you think about it because what you are adjusting when you turn the knobs is input gain, and there is only one input signal which is being split after it enters the amp.

EDIT: I've slept a few times since I sold my XTi amps, so I can't guarantee that this is not possible via the software, but I don't remember finding a way to do it.

pa+ has 10ms delay so if thats enough for you.. a great piece

David Carter wrote:

AntonZ wrote:I hadn't thought of that yet, good point. You would have to hook up a laptop to the XTi in order to do that.

I don't think so. I had everything connected to my PC while I was testing it, and even through the Band Manager software, I couldn't find a way to do it. It makes sense if you think about it because what you are adjusting when you turn the knobs is input gain, and there is only one input signal which is being split after it enters the amp.

EDIT: I've slept a few times since I sold my XTi amps, so I can't guarantee that this is not possible via the software, but I don't remember finding a way to do it.

The input gain controls are pre DSP, so they will not individually control LP and HP output indeed. I have never used Band Manager with my XTi, in System Architect it would be possible. If you put the amp in crossover mode, there are controls in the Crossover Settings window for "Bandpass Gain" on both the HP and the LP channel.

AntonZ wrote: The input gain controls are pre DSP, so they will not individually control LP and HP output indeed. I have never used Band Manager with my XTi, in System Architect it would be possible. If you put the amp in crossover mode, there are controls in the Crossover Settings window for "Bandpass Gain" on both the HP and the LP channel.

WTF??? well...that takes care of that future plan to get the xti. What i'm understanding is that not even the attenuators on the amp will let you control each individual channel after is processed, is this correct? otherwise would it not be as simple to turn one of the knobs to max and the other half way for tops?

If indeed you cannot even control the processed output even with the attenuators, then I'll take my two channel behringer powered mixer and my drpa any day over the xti.

Read what he posted again. Contol bandpass gains via the crossover menu. Still a pita compared to tweeking an attenuator.