Looking for amp advice to power subs....

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knardini

DJ
Dec 3, 2006
1,618
6
49
Kansas City
Hey ya'll, need some pro advice

The amp I run my subs with now (and for the past 3 years) is a cheap but reliable Behringer Ep2500. It's been great....until now. It's clipping out sooner and sooner when I push my system - especially being affected by low frequency bass. I bridge from the amp to the subs and wonder if that has been harder on the amp over the years?

Anyway I want to upgrade to an amp that can handle what I throw at it...I only use these subs at HS dances but really push them.

My boxes are MT118 Eminence sigma pro's (18's)
The are rated at 650 watts and are 8 0hm

I really like the sound a performance of the speaker and the custom enclosures I had built, but want an amp to match

What would you reccommed? I know I'll get some great ideas to start looking at from everyone!

Thanks in advance.

Nardini
 
First off for subs get an iron core amp, yes they are going to be heavy but they pay dividends when it comes to subs. For bass get twice the amp rating of the program handling power of the speaker or the max rating. For instance if the speaker has a continuous rating of 300 watts a program rating of 600 watts and a max rating of 1200 watts at 8 ohms then get an amp that will put out at least 1000 watts or better yet 1200 watts at an 8 ohm load, then don't push them for everything you can because you don't need to.

While I don't think you would hurt a normal amp by bridging it (unless you are pushing an ohm load it can't handle) I don't hold much faith in Behringer gear. Buy Peavey, QSC Crown. The problen is finding good iron core amps "cheap" any more because most have gone to switch rail amps now. Crown still has them but they are expensive QSC may still make them but I am not sure Peavey I am not sure of either. If you go for a switching power supply amp add another 24% to the power rating and then be carefull of how you run them.

Sorry about that! The Peavey GPS series amps are iron core! (I should have know that! DUH I use them) take a look at the GPS 2600 for your needs it produces 2600 at 4 ohms bridged!
 
Check out Carvin's DCM2500. There's no iron deficiency in this amp. :)

We load a pair of trapezoid sub boxes with Eminence 18s, similar to what you're working with. The 2500 bridged pushes them babies hard with headroom to spare. It will run cooler that way. That's 2500 watts RMS to a 4 ohm load. If we don't need both subs, one will do for an 8 ohm load.

Class A/B, toroid power supply with big capacitors. This amp is a workhorse and we love it. And it's made right here in the USA. :)
 
First-Try to vacum the dust out of the amp and try to save the 2500.

If i want to buy an amp at the moment-Ill go digital and lightweight.Loock around maybe you find something not so pricy and try it out.Digital amps are half weight as tradicional amps.
Othervise im with Thunder-Qsc,Crest,Crown...
 
Awesome Ideas from guys I trust. I did clean it out Marco, just think 4 year of hard use is showing on this middle of the road amp. I only use this amp about 25% of the time now days so I don't care about weight....looking into the Peavy and whatever Fred's suggestion (can't remember the name right now).....keep the advice coming if anyone has any more!
 
Fred Stewart said:
Check out Carvin's DCM2500. There's no iron deficiency in this amp. :)

We load a pair of trapezoid sub boxes with Eminence 18s, similar to what you're working with. The 2500 bridged pushes them babies hard with headroom to spare. It will run cooler that way. That's 2500 watts RMS to a 4 ohm load. If we don't need both subs, one will do for an 8 ohm load.

Class A/B, toroid power supply with big capacitors. This amp is a workhorse and we love it. And it's made right here in the USA. :)
Click to expand...

Wow, I like the looks of the amp - and the pricetag :sqbiggrin: I may give this a shot!
 
knardini said:
The amp I run my subs with now (and for the past 3 years) is a cheap but reliable Behringer Ep2500. It's been great....until now. It's clipping out sooner and sooner when I push my system - especially being affected by low frequency bass. I bridge from the amp to the subs and wonder if that has been harder on the amp over the years?
Click to expand...

There is no good reason to bridge an EP2500 into a pair of subs rated for 650w. In bridge mono, the EP2500 produced 2400w into 4 ohms. That is 2x the rating for your subs. From that point of view the amp should have been "coasting" the whole time...even as the subs were being driven to their limit.

Do you have a brickwall limiter in your system? If not, you should consider getting one. What crossover frequency are you using from the subs to tops?

Set the dip switches to run the amp in stereo, and to parallel the input. Set the 30Hz or 50Hz high pass filter (try both and see if you can hear a difference...based on your speakers I'm betting that there is not an interesting amount of difference...so run with 50Hz).

Do you properly place the subs at your events? Do you make use of boundary loading?

It sounds like you have a short in some wire connection and/or the amp fans need a good cleaning.

Start by cleaning the amp. Take the cover off and use a can of the compressed computer cleaner to blow out any dust on the fans, and any dust on the heat sinks.

Then double check every wire you use to hook up your system. Start with the patch cables to the mixer, then the cables to the crossover, then the cables to the amp, then the cables from the amp to the speakers. Next, open the speakers and check the connections from the connector plate to the woofers.

Next use a 1kHz or 100Hz signal from your source and check the voltage through the full signal chain. Make sure that nothing is seriously out of whack as you move through the signal path.
 
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