Cheap watts for sub array?

[Bogie]

I've got four Quatro 15 drivers (beside the two for the living room).

Gonna need around 250rms each for 'em in the current alignment.

I know I can buy a crossover and a pro-style amp, or something like that 1,000 watt plate amp that Parts Express sells, but are there any other (reasonable) options?

[bhg41088]

I really dont think you need that kind of power for them. Your going to have good eff. from 4 subs anyway. Try to get about 600rms.

[simon5]

I think the best option is the 1000W amp from partsexpress if you care about the little noise from low-noise fans.

There's a pro amplifier, the QSC RMX 850 that would be cheaper at 299$ for 830W RMS in 4 ohms. Or for the same price as the partsexpress amplifier, the QSC RMX 1450 with 1400W RMS in 4 ohms is a good choice.

[Bogie]

With pro amp, I understand I'm going to need a crossover to tune it, right? I've got limited settings on my 2803. Would one of the behringers work okay?

Already got a BFD.

And how am I going to adjust gain? May use my DH-500, and if it doesn't play well with the signal coming out of my 2803, I don't wanna toast $150 worth of speaks right off the bat.

[big_chris]

for close to the same price you could find a used Adcom GFA555. That will push 600wrms x 1 @ 8hms and should be perfect for those subs. check ebay or audiogon.

[simon5]

The Adcom GFA555 is stable in a 4 ohms load?
If yes, that's great.

Yeah, Bogie, a used Pro amplifier on eBay or something is a great solution.

If you want more information about QSC RMX Pro amplifiers...
http://www.acoustic-visions.com/~aco...fiers/qsc_rmx/

You get front mounted gain control, Independent user-defeatable clip limiters, but yes you'll need some kind of crossover.

[Bogie]

So for $370, counting a Behringer crossover, I get 800+ usable watts?

Hmm... I can run 800 into a four speaker 4 ohm load, or I can run two 2 ohm packages... Hmmm.

[rmhuizenga]

Ebay is definitely a good solution. If you're careful and wait--and know precisely what to look for--you can get incredibly high quality wattage for pennies on the dollar. I recent bought an amplifier that puts out 600 watts RMS (rated) per channel into 4 ohms, flat response down to about 7Hz, at less than .05% THD. Account for the 2000VA transformer, and 20 17A high speed output devices, 93V rails, and my high voltage, and the amplifier will easily do over 750 per channel. The design is your standard complementary differential with fully complementary outputs. No switching power supplies or any of that mumbo jumbo. Price paid? A whole whopping $100 bucks plus $45 to ship it. Now them's is cheap good watts that'll keep up with a classic Bryston all day! It should do a nice job on my 15" XBL^2 Sonosub, soon to be assembled.. The dumb part? I already have three of those amps.. but who can say no to that much cheap power?

[Bogie]

So, hey, could I ask you to at least e-mail (bogie7@mindspring.com) me with the kind/brand/model of that amp? Looks impressive.

In my home theater, I coulda spent a few thousand $$, or...

Instead, I've got a pair of Hafler DH-500s and a DH-225 - Total I've got in 'em is under $750, including shipping. I can take one of the DH-500s off the main rack for the subs, but it really wouldn't be the best use for it.

You'd think it'd suck to be my neighbor, but I've asked everyone if they've heard anything, and nobody has said anything. Of course, there may be some poor soul a block over...

[rmhuizenga]

The amplifier was made by Cerwin Vega in the very early eighties. Those with long memories for trivia will remember a line of high end audio gear they tried to do called METRON. It flopped because they were losing money hand over fist on each unit they sold because parts costs was apparently much higher than anticipated and they didn't have the name to do it.

The METRON A4000 version was almost the same except for added meters, and they tossed in two huge toroidal transformers in place of the single gigantic EI frame transformer. I actually thought the thing was vaporware until one turned up on eBay about a year ago. There was also a preamp with a custom ordered Alps silver plated step attenuator for volume and balance.. AND bass and treble. I actually managed to dig one of those up and paid less than the attenuator was worth.

My plan is to feed the full output of one of my A600s into a Resonant Engineering XXX15 (Adire Tumult almost-twin) for an honest 1400 watts or so. The 250L Sonosub enclosure is almost done.. just have to router out more circles for the endcaps. I've got two on the top and three for the bottom right now, but I'm afraid that 65lb monster sub might rip that to pieces.