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How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 2:09 am
by NCcrashman
Sadly, amp's is the area of which I am seriously lacking knowledge and I am going to change this. Hopefully, this question isn't so stupid easy you guy's will flame me real bad. I want to make sure I get this straight. If you have (2) 8 ohm speakers, can't you daisy-chain them together and run your amp at 4 ohm's? I've seen guy's talking about running 2 sub's per channel (4 total on 1 amp) and I would really like to know how if I have this wrong...lol.
Thanks so much,
Crash.

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 2:17 am
by gilscales
Yes you are right, actually the Titan subs with the horn loading are about 10 ohms impedance or a 5 ohm load with 2 on ea. channel.

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 2:20 am
by NCcrashman
gilscales wrote:Yes you are right, actually the Titan subs with the horn loading are about 10 ohms impedance or a 5 ohm load with 2 on ea. channel.
Is this going to be an issue running a amp@ 4ohms?

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 2:29 am
by gilscales
A lot of pro amps claim to drive a 2 ohm load although it seems no one on this forum does this as they believe it is pushing the amp to hard not to mention the fact that current demands tend to almost double when driving into a 2 ohm load as opposed to a 4 ohm load, then there are problems with excess heat , crown xti amps are very popular here as they have built in dsp, limiters, eq, xovers and they will drive a 4 ohm load without issues

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 4:14 am
by Chris_Allen
I would say that any modern amp, even the cheapest of the cheap, will handle a 4Ohm load without a problem - but as mentioned, I would be concerned about heat dissipation.

Three Titans per channel would be just over 3Ohm load, which I would be comfortable running, however impedance changes with frequency, so it is possible to get a much lower load if the content is in a very narrow frequency spectrum in the right place.

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:28 am
by NCcrashman
I am current looking at Behringer amps starting off and when I can afford it, I will buy some crown amps. I have played through Crown Macro's on several occasions, but I live on a disability income and no way can afford Crowns right now. I am going to get a little financial help building my speakers. As soon as I get the cash, I'm buying my speaker plans :-) I am CRAZY excited!!! I'm going to own some hot PA speakers..!!!

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:45 am
by sine143
AFAIK the Behringer EP series have great reviews. the only downside to them is their weight (50 pounds lol). if you are looking into getting a non dsp amp, you are going to need an external crossover (behringer dcx is a popular option). Maybe look at the peavey IPR or the crown xls series? they ae both in the new lightweight families, and you can get them with or without dsp.

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:51 am
by Zack Brock
I can vouch for the Behringer EP series amps - I own three of the EP2500's, the oldest is 5+ years old (give or take a year or two), and I just recently purchased the newer EP4000. The EP4000 seems to be about the same as the EP2500's.

Other than needing external signal processing and the weight, I can't think of any negatives. I've had zero issues. Even after accidentally shorting one of them.

One cool thing the Behringer's can do, and maybe other amps can do this too but I dont' know, is that you can daisy chain them when in parallel mode. Channel 1's input is the main input, sending the input to both channel 1 and channel 2's output. Channel 2's input becomes an output allowing you to send it to another Behringer amp. Works good when you need more subs or tops than a single amp can handle but don't have something like a DriveRack 4800 ($4k) to give you eight outputs from your mixer.

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:41 pm
by gilscales
NCcrashman wrote:I am current looking at Behringer amps starting off and when I can afford it, I will buy some crown amps. I have played through Crown Macro's on several occasions, but I live on a disability income and no way can afford Crowns right now. I am going to get a little financial help building my speakers. As soon as I get the cash, I'm buying my speaker plans :-) I am CRAZY excited!!! I'm going to own some hot PA speakers..!!!
Bought my crown xti 1000 for $309 with no tax and free shipping from proaudiostar on Ebay, it is b stock but cannot tell from new and they also have good deals on the 2000 and 4000 if you needed the extra power, most people would say you need at least a 2000 for subs on one channel and tops on another, I will probably get a 4000 and use the 1000 for 4 of the wedgehorns.
I was just looking on bay and the b stock xti 2000 is $459 delivered , I think the ep4000 is about $308, from a budget standpoint though the 2000 seems more of a bargain as you can get by with the internal EQ for now and you have limiters which you will need, delay as well as Xovers all built into the amp, power is similar with the ep4000 putting out 950 rms into 4 ohms at 1% thd while the crown 2000 is rated at 800 rms into 4 ohms at 1/2% thd, I would think that for the extra $151 you are getting a better deal and crown comes with the 3 year no fault warranty, I read a story online about a guy whose friend gave him a couple of xti amps after his dog urinated on them so he sent them to crown and they fixed them no charge, and presumably cleaned them too!
http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/amps/139472-3.pdf

Re: How many speakers per amp??

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 11:30 pm
by NCcrashman
WOW! I wonder how that went around the Crown shop....lol. "Hey john, this one is full of dog piss...lol..hahaha". Great story. I worked for IBM in Raleigh NC and we got a desktop back once that had a candy bar in it from someone on the line...lol.

There is no question Crowns are the way to go, but since money is such a issue I have to get what I can afford. I do have some rack effect's and thank God, buying a amp is still a couple month's down the road.
Thanks again for the replies.
Patrick
gilscales wrote:
NCcrashman wrote:I am current looking at Behringer amps starting off and when I can afford it, I will buy some crown amps. I have played through Crown Macro's on several occasions, but I live on a disability income and no way can afford Crowns right now. I am going to get a little financial help building my speakers. As soon as I get the cash, I'm buying my speaker plans :-) I am CRAZY excited!!! I'm going to own some hot PA speakers..!!!
Bought my crown xti 1000 for $309 with no tax and free shipping from proaudiostar on Ebay, it is b stock but cannot tell from new and they also have good deals on the 2000 and 4000 if you needed the extra power, most people would say you need at least a 2000 for subs on one channel and tops on another, I will probably get a 4000 and use the 1000 for 4 of the wedgehorns.
I was just looking on bay and the b stock xti 2000 is $459 delivered , I think the ep4000 is about $308, from a budget standpoint though the 2000 seems more of a bargain as you can get by with the internal EQ for now and you have limiters which you will need, delay as well as Xovers all built into the amp, power is similar with the ep4000 putting out 950 rms into 4 ohms at 1% thd while the crown 2000 is rated at 800 rms into 4 ohms at 1/2% thd, I would think that for the extra $151 you are getting a better deal and crown comes with the 3 year no fault warranty, I read a story online about a guy whose friend gave him a couple of xti amps after his dog urinated on them so he sent them to crown and they fixed them no charge, and presumably cleaned them too!
http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/amps/139472-3.pdf