BillFitzmaurice.info

Hi there,
I was recently told about the Peavey IPR 2 3000 and that theyre a very good amp for running two omnis and two tubas with LAB 12's. But alas they seem to be few and far between in the EU (for any reasonable price)

However i have a local PKN dealer.. And theres currently a sale on so I was looking at the XE4000U With built in limiter..http://www.pknaudio.com/xeu.html

My problem is i wouldnt be as well versed in the technical knowledge as you guys.. So im asking for your help! Would this be a suitable replacement amp?
Thanks!

All I can say is that PKN are very expensive and aimed solely at the pro market.

Hmm.. They have a 30% discount on right now.. Do you reckon itd be north of a grand? Would you guys have any idea if i could get away with running a PKN XE2500 instead? (From same site above)

The only pricing I could find for the XE 2500 was in the Netherlands at 1800 Euro.

I did find it interesting that PKN amps are sold here in Australia.

The XE2500 puts out 650W/8ohms/channel, or 1250W/4ohms/channel.
That = around 70V

That is quite good for a couple of lab 12 loaded parallel wired subs on one channel, or a single cab per channel.

It is way to much power though for Otops. You would struggle to safely limit voltage to the cabs.

Have a look at your local pricing on Crown XLS drivecore or XLS drivecore II amps.
They should be much cheaper.

While the XLS 2500 is barely enough output for your subs, honestly, if you're running subs up to their limit, you need to build more subs!

Whereabouts are you OP? From your vernacular I'd say UK, but I'd be guessing.

A few of us on the forum use the Synq digital amps (1 rack unit high) referred on the second line on this UK distributors page. Nice and light.

http://www.terralec.co.uk/audio/audio_a ... 1_12c.html

They work well. The only obvious thing to me is that the jump between the bottom model (Dig1k0) and next one up is quite large, both on performance and cost, so it just might throw you onto another manufacturer. The crown are popular. People say Behringer inukes are good also.

Having a PKN distributor in your town is in practical terms probably similar to living next door to a Bentley dealership.

Grant, thanks a million for taking a look. Hopefully one day i can repay the favour.. Hm, maybe PKN aren't the route to go down.. As nice as they look from an aesthetic point of view
Ill definitely check out crown as you suggested!

Charles, the references are brilliant, ill be sure to check out all the amps you suggested in the morning. You were so very close, southern ireland is where im from, I should probably edit my bio. Any particular sites you would recommend? (Since we share a locale!)

Have to admit that analogy made me laugh. Cheers guys, ill report back when I scout out these amps!

Meticula wrote:Grant, thanks a million for taking a look. Hopefully one day i can repay the favour.. Hm, maybe PKN aren't the route to go down.. As nice as they look from an aesthetic point of view
Ill definitely check out crown as you suggested!

As Grant said, the XLS2500 is a little shy for subs (some run 'em just fine on there), but I run the XLS1500s in bridge mode for subs. It's a nice match. They've run without a hiccup for the last few years.....I have a total of 7 of the XLS Drivecore series amps.

I reread your post, and I'm going to say:
Yep, use Crown XLS drivecore amps, but you will need proper outboard DSP if you do.

I think it's the Crown XTI series that have decent DSP onboard...

Well guys I've had a little bit of a search around, Charles, I see what you mean about the Synq amps, big price difference between the initial and second best.
While still a bit pricey, http://www.terralec.co.uk/power_amplifi ... 915_p.html looks like a good choice to the very untrained eye..

This is my current understanding of impedance and that, so on each channel i'll have one top and one sub. The sub being 4 ohms and the top (with a kappalite 3012) being 6 ohms..
So that's 2.66ohms resistance off the two total? (which would mean i'd be using a the 4ohm channel, i think?!)

Otherwise, as you suggested grant i could go with the XTI series.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CROWN-XTi-200 ... EACj_UJaPw

That's what i was looking at.. so a couple questions.. (again, i'm sorry!) Would buying that amp mean I wouldn't have to buy a seperate limiter, EQ, and crossover? Saving me a good shot of cash (if it does)
the other thing is, it's 800w at 4ohms.. would that be scraping the barrel or would i want overhead?!

Meticula wrote: so on each channel i'll have one top and one sub.

No, you won't. Each pass band needs its own channel.

Meticula, have you built the cabs and-or do you have the plans?

No I haven't built them yet, but i have the plans.. I think i need to do my research and read over them again. Do a bit more before i bother you guys with any questions..

I have all the plywood sitting in my workshop, just need to clean up before I get started on it.

Apologies!

Edit: I'm starting off initially by building the tuba 30s. Will buy the plans for the omnitops once i finish up.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:

Meticula wrote: so on each channel i'll have one top and one sub.

No, you won't. Each pass band needs its own channel.

A DSP placed after the mixer, and before the amp, is needed to provide limiting, basic EQ, cross-over, delay, etc.. From the DSP would be two "outs", one for tops and one for subs, which go into L and R inputs of the amp. The tops would be on one channel and the subs on the other channel.

A bit of background on what you want to do Meticula, with your yet to build system would be good. If you've written it elsewhere, then that's OK. It usually goes along the lines of what music you want to play, what flexibility for other genres, plus your transport means / packspace constraints. Portability / weight is the thing with digital amps versus 'old iron'. If you don't mind a bit of weight Thomann do some good transformed based amps, powerful and cheap as chips. But you can't get away from need for DSP.

Tom, it probably seems like the most basic of things, but thank you it really helps! As soon as Bill said it, I realized my mistake haha

Well Charles, Drum and bass, techno and house is the style of music i'll be playing.. so quite loud! The only other genre's I could possibly end up playing through them would be electroswing or reggae.
Transport and packspace arent really much of an issue for me, and I don't mind lugging around 'old iron' as you say. I've been reading that if I'm going to be pushing my Tubas to the limit, the best thing is to build more!