EV Phoenix Bass px2181

Hello Taj, welcome to the site! I have the EV Phoenix line in my inventory. We power the PX2181 ( Dual 18's ) with the EV CP4000 amps. Each dual 18 gets a CP4000 of its own. For your tops you could take a look at either the EV CP3000 or to save some money and get a little bit of a heavier amp, you could look into an EV Q1212 or if each top gets its own amp the EV Q99 amplifiers. We use the Q series amplifiers on our EV Tour X boxes. I hope this helps you!

Taja,

I am an EV equipment guy, just like Loneavenger above. First off you have great speakers, don't cheat them with cheap amps or no DSP!

You have a lot of options, but it would be easier to answer this question if we had a budget. I have EV ZX and TX speakers 20 of them. I also have CP4000 and Q1212 amps. The cheapest way to run them (if weight is not an issue is Q1212, weighs 39 lbs), is to bridge a Q1212 per bass cab and run a pair/four of tops off a Q1212 or your XTI4000. I have four Q1212 amps in one rolling case and they will play a large gym or convention center easily. You will get a couple more db out of the CP4000 and a loss of 20 lbs, but you can buy two Q1212 amps for what you can get one CP4000 for. If money is no option then buy five CP4000s amps and don't look back.

I would warn against trying to run your bass cabs in a 2 ohm load. I have tried it, and to be honest with you, my stuff sounds the best at an 8 ohm load, with very little noticeable difference at 4 ohms. When you get to 2 ohms the power draw and heat produced by the amps is tremendous and the dampening factor pretty much disappears (the bass goes boomy instead of staying tight and solid).

You can run all four of your ZX5's off the XTI4000 amp, process them at 80-100hz up to around 18.5khz. Run the subs from 35-40hz (according to what type music you play) up to the tops crossover point. If you did this you could buy one Q1212 amp per sub cabinet and bridge them.

If you are worried about the difference in the Q1212 an CP4000, the Q1212 has a 14 lb conventional power supply and the CP4000 has a 1 lb switch mode power supply. They both have a class H output supply. The Q1212 with the conventional power supply sounds better to me, even though it cost half of what the CP4000 cost. The Q1212 is made in China, but it looks like EV has there own QC in the factory, as it is very nice inside and out. The CP4000 is made in Germany, and looks to be very well manufactured. The Q1212 actually has a better signal to noise ratio.

Good luck and I hope this helps! I love my EV equipment!!!

Ray J.

oldschooldj said:

Taja,

...If you are worried about the difference in the Q1212 an CP4000, the Q1212 has a 14 lb conventional power supply and the CP4000 has a 1 lb switch mode power supply. They both have a class H output supply. The Q1212 with the conventional power supply sounds better to me...
Ray J.

Click to expand...

That's sort of surprising to me considering the cost of the CP4000s being so much higher. I'm guessing your testing wasn't scientific or conducted with true detail? Did you listen to them on subs or full-range speakers? I like EV amplifiers and own a couple CP3000s amps that are bridged on a pair of subs.

I always recommend an amp that can produce at least 150% of what the cabinet is rated for. You DO NOT want to run your amps full-on. You want your amps to have plenty of headroom so they can 'cruise' when put to work.

Gaffle,

I own more EV amps than is in my signature block. Yes the CP series is a higher end amp than the Q1212. My testing/listening is not scientific with test tones and high end measuring equipment. It is with hours of listening time on the same speakers and the same music with the Q series and the CP series amps, DCONE's used on all my passive systems (always, no exceptions).

I love both series of amps, and when it comes to my small racks that I have to carry in, I spend the extra money on CP amps. When weight is not an issue, as I am using roll in racks for larger areas, I prefer the sound and response of the Q series amps.

I will tell you there is a noticable difference in sound from the EV amps and my Crown XLS and Peavey IPR amps. I am not speaking bad of those amps, I just don't like the sound of them as much compared to the EV amps.

Taj,

You definetly need to get your processing right if you are already blowing drivers. Good processing doesn't only include setting up crossovers points, though crossover points are very important to the quality of sound and protection. Proper processing will set up limiters that will reduce the signal to the power amps to help keep the amps from over driving the speakers. I use the DCONE and for me it had a pretty steep learning curve, but I received tremendous support and education from EV.

Most people in my area that blow drivers either do not have proper processing, do not set proper gain structure to the system or do not understand the limits of their system. If you have to play your system continually over 70%, you do not have enough rig for the gig!

As far as the amps go, if you go with the Q1212 you will need one bridged per (single)2181, you could also get about the same power with a bridged CP3000 and a little more power with a bridged CP4000, but the CP series comes with a big price tag, like the Crown 6002. If you go with the Crown 6002, you can get away with one amp per pair of 2181, but it will not have the continous power or headroom as one bridged Q1212. I pay around $900.00 US for my Q1212 amps.

If you process your tops corectly and just send 100hz and up, you should be able to get plenty of volume out of your Crown 4002 amp. I get more than enough volume out of my TX 12" or 15" tops (on Q1212 or CP amps) and they easily run with eight of my 18" single subs, in fact the subs have their tongues hanging out to keep up with the tops. My subs are not as nice as yours they are TX sereies.

Good luck, but spend money on processing, before you spend money on more power and you will have less failures.