Its 2018.
Surely there is something better in the market then the ep4000 aka ep2500 re-release for 2ohm with the goal of powering multiple speakers?
I've looked at the nu4-6000 and the RMS on it from what I can tell is lower then the ep2500/ep4000.
Inuke nu4-6000 (not to be confused with the inuke 6000)
Output power (per channel, four channels): 315 watts RMS, 440 watts peak (8 ohms), 680 watts RMS, 860 watts peak (4 ohms), 1040 watts RMS, 1600 watts peak (2 ohms) • Output power (per channel pair, bridge mono): 1250 watts RMS, 1600 watts peak (8 ohms), 2050 watts RMS, 3000 watts peak (4 ohms) • Frequency response: 20 - 20,000 Hz, +0/-2 dB • Distortion: < 0.2% • Signal-to-noise ratio: > 100 dB • Power supply: 120V, 60 Hz • Dimensions: 3.5" H x 19" W x 12.2" D (95 x 482 x 310 mm) • Weight: 12.4 lbs.
ep4000 (same thing as ep2500, rebranded to be able to sell again as "new" cuz ep2500 is extremely old)
Output power (20 Hz-20 kHz @ 0.1% THD, both channels driven) per channel stereo mode: 550 watts RMS @ 8Ω, 950 watts RMS @ 4Ω, 1,250 watts @ 2Ω • Output power (1% THD, sine wave) bridged mono mode: 1,750 watts RMS @ 8Ω, 2,400 watts RMS @ 4Ω • Output power (peak power) bridged mode: 2,800 watts @ 8Ω, 4,000 watts @ 4Ω • Weight: 36.6 lbs. • Mains voltage/Breaker: 100~120V, 50/60 Hz, 15A • Dimensions: 3.5" H x 19" W x 15.8" D.
The inuke nu4-6000 is going for roughly $350 new while the ep4000 is going for roughly $330 new. This makes the inuke nu4-6000 look like the better deal since while it has lower power at 2ohm (1040w vs 1200w for 160w less) it instead has four channels instead of 2 channels, giving you the ability to power twice as many speakers. From what I can tell, the nu4-6000 is two inuke 3000's in one case, without the dsp.
Now back to the main question: Its 2018, surely there is something better out there or at least in the same ballpark?
I ask since you can find things like rmx2450's or ex2500's around, used, for higher prices then the inuke or ep4000 brand new... And all of qsc or crowns new stuff is double or most the price to get even near the same wattage, so those are out of my price range when they cost 1k+ for most of them. At 1k+ each its hard to justify when you could have two or three ep4000s or inukes that would let you power more speakers.
Is there another company out there aside of behringer making decent power at a price that isn't crazy high? I need at least 1k+ at 2ohm, more would be better up to 1800-2k at 2ohm, but the only amps I see that can do stuff like that is either behringer for the low end or powersoft for the high end (and extremely out of my price range).. surely there is something inbetween or some other budget brands?
Surely there is something better in the market then the ep4000 aka ep2500 re-release for 2ohm with the goal of powering multiple speakers?
I've looked at the nu4-6000 and the RMS on it from what I can tell is lower then the ep2500/ep4000.
Inuke nu4-6000 (not to be confused with the inuke 6000)
Output power (per channel, four channels): 315 watts RMS, 440 watts peak (8 ohms), 680 watts RMS, 860 watts peak (4 ohms), 1040 watts RMS, 1600 watts peak (2 ohms) • Output power (per channel pair, bridge mono): 1250 watts RMS, 1600 watts peak (8 ohms), 2050 watts RMS, 3000 watts peak (4 ohms) • Frequency response: 20 - 20,000 Hz, +0/-2 dB • Distortion: < 0.2% • Signal-to-noise ratio: > 100 dB • Power supply: 120V, 60 Hz • Dimensions: 3.5" H x 19" W x 12.2" D (95 x 482 x 310 mm) • Weight: 12.4 lbs.
ep4000 (same thing as ep2500, rebranded to be able to sell again as "new" cuz ep2500 is extremely old)
Output power (20 Hz-20 kHz @ 0.1% THD, both channels driven) per channel stereo mode: 550 watts RMS @ 8Ω, 950 watts RMS @ 4Ω, 1,250 watts @ 2Ω • Output power (1% THD, sine wave) bridged mono mode: 1,750 watts RMS @ 8Ω, 2,400 watts RMS @ 4Ω • Output power (peak power) bridged mode: 2,800 watts @ 8Ω, 4,000 watts @ 4Ω • Weight: 36.6 lbs. • Mains voltage/Breaker: 100~120V, 50/60 Hz, 15A • Dimensions: 3.5" H x 19" W x 15.8" D.
The inuke nu4-6000 is going for roughly $350 new while the ep4000 is going for roughly $330 new. This makes the inuke nu4-6000 look like the better deal since while it has lower power at 2ohm (1040w vs 1200w for 160w less) it instead has four channels instead of 2 channels, giving you the ability to power twice as many speakers. From what I can tell, the nu4-6000 is two inuke 3000's in one case, without the dsp.
Now back to the main question: Its 2018, surely there is something better out there or at least in the same ballpark?
I ask since you can find things like rmx2450's or ex2500's around, used, for higher prices then the inuke or ep4000 brand new... And all of qsc or crowns new stuff is double or most the price to get even near the same wattage, so those are out of my price range when they cost 1k+ for most of them. At 1k+ each its hard to justify when you could have two or three ep4000s or inukes that would let you power more speakers.
Is there another company out there aside of behringer making decent power at a price that isn't crazy high? I need at least 1k+ at 2ohm, more would be better up to 1800-2k at 2ohm, but the only amps I see that can do stuff like that is either behringer for the low end or powersoft for the high end (and extremely out of my price range).. surely there is something inbetween or some other budget brands?
Really? You want to talk about that need a bit ?
2 ohm is, was and remains a crazy point to be operating as it means you're running 40A - 50A for the numbers you're talking about, with all the attendant losses.
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Well I mean any less would be less then I already have and am already using with my ep4000.... May seem crazy to you but a ep4000 isn't as "out there" as your claiming.
Power amps are not 1:1 wattage pull to wattage given, so I'm not sure I agree that I'll need 50A, I commonly use my ep4000 on 20A brakers and I've never blown one.
I know someone with a inuke 6000 (NOT the inuke nu4-6000) and he ran his off a 30A braker without any issues despite it being roughly two ep4000s in rms power when fully driven. The 6000 is technically two inuke 3000s bridged in one case, meaning your always fully running these if you run both 2 channels in 4ohm, so I would think that running a few channels at 2ohm would be less of a load then fully bridging all 4 channels... so I don't think I'd have a issue with 30A lines on a nu4 if theres no issues on a regular 6000.
So yes: I really NEED at least that power, (more would be better) at 2ohm and I'm able to use it without blowing a braker.
I'm not asking for a 20 year old crown or qsc amp (that could easily be 30A-50A like your talking about) I'm looking for new 2016-2017-2018 amps, possibly even by new companies that are in this power range and near it in price range.
Been there, done that. Stupid me used cheap low sensitively speakers and spent all those watts heating up voice coils and getting thermal compression (and even less efficiency)
As I said somewhere else
thoglette said:
I'm talking about your speakers, not the wall. 1kW into 2ohm => I^2 = 500 => I =~ 20A RMS. Lots of opportunity for loss. 0.1 ohm will cost you more than 50W.
Again, what for? What problem are you trying to solve?
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The EP4000 is about as good a deal as you're going to get, period, for power at 2 ohms. ALL of the inexpensive class D amps suffer from the same issues. There is a practical limit of +/- 80 volt rails, with a hard limit of less than 100. It is a function of the inexpensive turnkey solution of using the IRS2092 or one of its variants as the front end modulator/driver. Doesn't matter whose you buy, they all use it. There are higher voltage solutions, but they all cost so there goes that option. And all these amps struggle when bridged into 2 ohms to get more power. The driver chips can't handle more output FETs in parallel without adding more expensive circuitry - and knowing how to design it. Then on top of that the iNukes don't have enough thermal capacity to operate at really high power anyway. Repeated thermal cycling will cause mechanical failures in these amps.
The original RMX2450 is a better amp than the EP4000. The build quality is better and will tolerate hard use (like 2 ohm operation) better over time. It is a better PCB layout - not packed in as tightly and more attention paid to heat producing components on the board. Price on the RMX used to be around $500. Not anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to see it going for over $1k in a couple years. When they make cheap amps really cheap, everything else goes up.
The original RMX2450 is a better amp than the EP4000. The build quality is better and will tolerate hard use (like 2 ohm operation) better over time. It is a better PCB layout - not packed in as tightly and more attention paid to heat producing components on the board. Price on the RMX used to be around $500. Not anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to see it going for over $1k in a couple years. When they make cheap amps really cheap, everything else goes up.
I find it interesting to look at all those Behringer products and consider everything else overpriced. Those good Crown or QCS amps cost a lot more, but they are a far higher quality product. I think it is more a matter of Behringer is pretty cheap rather than the others overpriced.
Agreed, I'm sure they are using the best of the best.
Do I need the best of the best?
Prob not, I kinda agree with behringers whole thing of reverse engineering designs and using more cost effective parts but thats a unpopular opinion we can argue about some other time.
The point I will argue tho if I can buy 2-3 amps from behringer at the same cost as 1 qsc or crown amp to give the same power, does it matter if its higher quality parts or not? I mean even if I blow one after a few years, I'm still "ahead" technically since I still have another 1-2 for the same price.
I mean I've got a ep2500 I've had for ten years and a ep4000 I've had for prob 6-7 years, zero issues with them so you'll be hard pressed to convince me they are **** when I run them for 36+ hours fully loaded multiple times a year, 8+ hours straight at least once a month, for years, without issues.
From what I can tell, they are a RMX 2450 with more cost effective parts. I bought a RMX 2450 back in the day and it died on me, so I bought the ep2500 as quick replacement and bought a ep4000 cuz it was a good amp. I opened up the RMX 2450 and the ep2500/4000 to clean them and you can tell they are nearly the same thing.
Do I need the best of the best?
Prob not, I kinda agree with behringers whole thing of reverse engineering designs and using more cost effective parts but thats a unpopular opinion we can argue about some other time.
The point I will argue tho if I can buy 2-3 amps from behringer at the same cost as 1 qsc or crown amp to give the same power, does it matter if its higher quality parts or not? I mean even if I blow one after a few years, I'm still "ahead" technically since I still have another 1-2 for the same price.
I mean I've got a ep2500 I've had for ten years and a ep4000 I've had for prob 6-7 years, zero issues with them so you'll be hard pressed to convince me they are **** when I run them for 36+ hours fully loaded multiple times a year, 8+ hours straight at least once a month, for years, without issues.
From what I can tell, they are a RMX 2450 with more cost effective parts. I bought a RMX 2450 back in the day and it died on me, so I bought the ep2500 as quick replacement and bought a ep4000 cuz it was a good amp. I opened up the RMX 2450 and the ep2500/4000 to clean them and you can tell they are nearly the same thing.
I've owned a RMX 2450 and it died on me lol. I bought a ep2500 to replace it used for cheap and then a ep4000 cuz I liked the 2500, from what I can tell they are nearly exactly the same power wise, maybe 50w more max.
I mean I know RMX 2450 was prob built better, with higher grade parts.. but the ep2500 is the same design with more cost effective parts so I have a extremely hard time paying twice the price for the same thing when I know they are tour ready.
One thing you did mention tho that I thought was interesting was the limits of class D.. I was thinking about buying a inuke nu4-6000 so if you got some reading material so I could know more what your talking about, that would be pretty cool. Admittedly the class D is new tech to me and I know someone who already fried their inuke 6000 due to water damage condensation.
From what I can tell the inuke 6000 is basicly two inuke 3000s in one case. Also from what I can tell the ep4000's have a faster recharge rate of the caps, alowing for higher watts in real use situations. Where as from what I'm reading the inuke 6000 may have issues with its recharge rate of the caps, so when they get depleted from a kick for example it takes longer to recharge back to full and they don't fully charge before the next kick. This translates into giving you less real world watts when you drive it continuously and from the sounds of things, will have a larger volume spike after a brake in the music or silence for more then a sec since the difference between full caps and what they can recharge continuously is bigger then the older amps like the ep4000/2500. I play low end growly music with continuous bass notes that may not end for a 32 like dnb/dubstep, not repeating single notes like house or techno where the amps have more time to recharge the caps inbetween, so faster recharge rate is actually pretty important. I'm sure there is a more technical word for this but I'm tired and its slipping my mind.
So I mean I'm kinda on the fence about the inuke nu4-6000. I can find them around used for around half the price of a new one so if I bought one I could use it for my full range mains where the wattage matters less and then use the ep4000 for the new subs, but when I see the 315rms 8ohm and 1040rms 2ohm I can't help but wonder if I would be better off going for another ep4000 since it will have better rms and continuous recharge rates.
Honestly think I won't know for sure about it till I just buy a inuke but I honestly want to see what else is out there in the under $500-750 price range, or does behringer honestly have monopoly on the high power low price amp market?
Let me get this straight: your derailing my subject to talk about my speakers when I'm clearly talking about budget amps?
Sure, I'll bite. If I don't need this much wattage, what else is out there that you think is worth looking at that can power 4x 4ohm speakers per amp? I'm not into buying a dozen amps here is the main reason why I want 2ohm, its very versatile, I can power two double 15s with horn off one channel, or two 600w 4ohm subs off each channel, 4 per amp.
Otherwise I'd be buying what? amps that only go down to 4ohm and end up costing me twice as much and will brake my back due to double'n my heavy amp count? I don't see the up side to using 4ohm amps since it makes it so I need to buy twice as many to power the same amount of speakers, it seems foolish to me, maybe not you. 😕
I mean only thing I could see being legit is a HUGE amp bridged in mono and me using something like a series+parallel configuration to wire 4x 4ohm cabs into 4ohm, but thats sketchy wiring I'd rather not have to deal with. I've done series+parallel before with a cord hooking up a 2x 8ohm 18 combined into 4ohm cab into a 2nd one, so two 4ohm cabs made of two 8ohm speakers, so that I'm given a 8ohm on the cord end. The cord looks like a loop, the positive going into one cab, the negative going into the other cab and then a 3d cord connecting the negative and the positive in both the speakon ends that go into the speakers so they are connected to the amp by one opposite line and then connected to each other by the opposite other. This is all fine and dandy when you want 8ohm with 4ohm cabs, but when you want 4ohm with four 4ohm cabs, the link cord for it all would be different, linking all 4 cabs together... I mean in theory it would work but I don't want to deal with "one cord for 4 cabs" since it would limit my placement and ability to do other configurations.
If you have a legitimate suggestion tho and are not just trolling me I'd love to hear what other amps you think could be useful to me, keeping in mind I don't want to buy 2 amps for every 1 ep4000.
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Thoglette takes a deep breath
And to produce sound for some purpose, in some context or environment.
E.g are you trying to:
1. set up a PA for a football stadium or state fair
2. build a better welder
3. fit out a nightclub
4. test the effects of sonic booms on structures (google Tom Danley)
6. help the bassist be heard over the drummer
7. win a ******* contest on who's got the most watts?
8. build a portable PA for a travelling band
9. drive some really difficult hifi speakers.
OK, so #2 is a red herring. All the rest have been discussed here or similar or on various mailing lists (etc) in the thirty odd years I've been playing this game. And they all have different answer sets.
Happy to help, but you need to help us help you.
I've started with the assumption that you want to produce sound, which means using speakers to convert your watts into sound.
And to produce sound for some purpose, in some context or environment.
Until you share what it is you are trying to achieve it's very difficult to make useful suggestions.
E.g are you trying to:
1. set up a PA for a football stadium or state fair
2. build a better welder
3. fit out a nightclub
4. test the effects of sonic booms on structures (google Tom Danley)
6. help the bassist be heard over the drummer
7. win a ******* contest on who's got the most watts?
8. build a portable PA for a travelling band
9. drive some really difficult hifi speakers.
OK, so #2 is a red herring. All the rest have been discussed here or similar or on various mailing lists (etc) in the thirty odd years I've been playing this game. And they all have different answer sets.
Happy to help, but you need to help us help you.
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$350/(4*1040W) is $0.08/Watt.
Blowing my mind. 😱 😱 😱
Many of us remember when an amplifier at $1/Watt was highly attractive. And that was when a buck would buy three gallons of gasoline.
Attachments
Yeah I know things used to be more expensive, but they haven't been for a long time, the ep2500s have been out forever to the point they got replaced with a ep4000 that is the same thing just rebranded so they could sell it as new.
So I mean this isn't "new news" this is actually the oldest of news, so its kinda disheartening to see that the only people making anything in this price range in the last couple decades has been only this one company. I mean to think about it, it seems crazy to me that behringer has a monopoly on high power low priced amps.
I guess the way I look at it is, its 2018, why would anyone be making stuff that is extremely expensive when they could instead buy a ep4000 or a inuke for the same power? I'd think other manufacturers would be able to see what else is out there in the market and price accordingly but it seems the whole "best of the best" in construction keeps things like qsc and crown at double to tripple the price for the same thing.. just doesn't seem logical to me, I was kinda hope'n there would be some new companies to come out in the last two decades.... but I guess nobody can step to behringer's cost effectiveness.
🙄 I honestly don't feel as if your trying to help me by derailing my subject and talking about everything BUT the subject I brought up: amps.
I already told you I'm running various 4ohm speakers and I don't feel like listing off everything I own purely to please you (since there is no other reason I can see aside of that) If your unwilling to listen and read, why would I continue to humor you when you reply without taking into account the information I've given you, such as the speakers I'm powering that require 2ohm despite you thinking I don't need it, I do, unless I want to buy twice as many amps and carry twice as many amps to power the same amount of speakers.
I'd say everything you said was a red herring. Why? I'm unsure. Maybe you just like trolling? Cuz you are for sure not staying on subject OR being helpful.
I'm confused why you think its hard to make a amp suggestion without knowing what I'm doing with it, wouldn't ALL of those options you listed off need to properly power the speakers at the correct ohms and watts? I can't just plug two 4ohm speakers into a amp that only accepts 4ohm, the 2ohm would fry it, or do you not know about what happens when you drive your ohms too low?
I feel as if your wasting my time, for fun, since your not bring'n anything constructive to the table and are instead trying to nit pick at my equipment as if me telling you about 4ohm cabs just somehow isn't good enough for you and you can't follow the logic that 2ohm lets me power 4 cabs per amp instead of 2 cabs per amp with 4ohm amps.
You say I don't need 2ohm, I disagree, again, I don't want to carry around twice as many power amps by using ones that can only do 4ohm, since again they would only power half as many speakers, forcing me to buy twice as many amps. This is NOT cost effective and it creates more heavy gear to carry, this is a illogical choice that makes sense to nobody but you.
You have brought nothing constructive to the table, so at this point I think we have nothing else to talk about since your not here to be constructive or help, but rather only here to derail and troll. Its obvious your here to troll cuz you listed off a bunch of crap that would all equal the same result of needing 2ohm and needing to properly power the drivers at 2ohm. You might think less then rms is fine but I'd rather have at least rms or as close to it as I can.
I think we're done here so I'll bid you a good day.
Sound is db's, not watts. Some speakers consume impressive numbers of watts without blowing but not much sound comes out. If you have efficient speakers you don't need so **** many watts. You've had some experts here, ignore them at your own cost. Wiring 4 ohm speakers in parallel means using 8 or 6 ga speaker wire at higher wattages, which since the connectors don't work for those fat wires, means you're not really delivering what wattage you think. Spade lugs under binder terminals is the one connector option for 8 ga I know of.
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I came across this:
GTD-Audio T-8500
It had this review with it:
"I own 5 of these now, Have owed 4 of the GTD-6500 amps and 3 of the first series (silver faced) GTD-8500 amps. All great amps. A true 750 a side rms at 4-ohms with over 1000 per side at 2-ohms. I also own the QSC 2450 and you cant hear the difference in a side by side listening. Great sub amp. I even run them in the rain for concerts. No issues. The best $190.oo secret out there.Dumped all my Peavey IPR amps after getting GTD."
And from what I can tell, its 1250w rms per side at 2ohm, not the 8500w its suggested to be.
It has the power I'm looking for and is decently priced at only $199 for one.
Has anyone tried one?
GTD-Audio T-8500
It had this review with it:
"I own 5 of these now, Have owed 4 of the GTD-6500 amps and 3 of the first series (silver faced) GTD-8500 amps. All great amps. A true 750 a side rms at 4-ohms with over 1000 per side at 2-ohms. I also own the QSC 2450 and you cant hear the difference in a side by side listening. Great sub amp. I even run them in the rain for concerts. No issues. The best $190.oo secret out there.Dumped all my Peavey IPR amps after getting GTD."
And from what I can tell, its 1250w rms per side at 2ohm, not the 8500w its suggested to be.
It has the power I'm looking for and is decently priced at only $199 for one.
Has anyone tried one?
Who said anything about db?
I didn't.
I'm not asking you guys how to get more db, so why bring it up?
I'm not asking you guys what the most db I can get is, so why do you think this is a question worth asking?
"Some speakers consume impressive numbers of watts without blowing but not much sound comes out."
Thats all fine and dandy but what does that have to do with 2ohm and giving speakers RMS? I mean yeah I know I can give them prob 50% more power, but that doesn't help your case of "If you have efficient speakers you don't need so **** many watts."
Why are your trying to make this more complex then it needs to be? I have a ep4000 that powers the speakers properly already, I'm looking to either buy another one or something that could do the same job of 1k+ watt at 2ohm to be split to two 4ohm cabs. Not sure why your confused here but to be clear: if a ep4000 is running them properly then call me crazy, but I think another amp with the same wattage and ohm would also power it much the same.
I gota admit its pretty disheartening to have people derail my thread with off-subject questions while claiming I'm being the one hard to deal with while your bring'n nothing constructive to the table to help this thread and are instead talking to me as if I'm doing something wrong by not humoring you and going off subject... as if you have some information you could share, but you don't, or else you would've already suggested a amp instead of playing this run around game trying to tell me I don't need the power I am ALREADY CURRENTLY USING.
Like ****, if I am already using it and it works perfectly, how can you tell me its wrong to buy another one that does the same thing if my goal is to power it the same?
How am I supposed to reply to direct lies like this? My ep4000 produces two channels of 2ohm 1200w yet can be powered just fine off a regular 20A braker, making this entire statement from him a LIE.
You guys may think 2ohm is crazy but it isn't, its standard now adays.
You might think 2x 1200w is 40-50A but its not, amps are not 1:1 watts pull to produce, again you can easily run one of these off a 20A braker, fully loaded without blowing it, I do ALL THE TIME. To tell me otherwise, when I have already proven what your saying is a lie, just proves that you guys are not being helpful at all but are rather trolling me.
I mean the only subject you did bring up is 8g being able to hold the power from the entire line, but I'm not sending it all down one line, its not one speaker with two 2ohm coils 🙄 I have repeatedly said they are 4ohm speakers, so 1200w would go towards two speakers, meaning only 600w is traveling down each line. I use 10g wire and 10g is fine for 600w. Each wire goes directly from the amp, to the speaker, your again making assumptions and claiming I'm in the wrong by your wrong assumptions, I am not chaining the full 1200w from one speaker, then into the next speaker.
I mean do you guys even read before you start typing? I feel like you don't when your trying to tell me I need 8g wire to transfer 600w for some reason, or you seem to think I'm pulling all 2400w in one line for some reason? Or you guys can't figure out what speakers I have after I have repeatedly said they are various 4ohm cabs, making my 2ohm requirement, a real requirement.
I wish you guys would read before replying to me, demanding things out of me. 🙄
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So you've got a bunch of 4ohm cabinets, and you want to put 1KW+ into each one.
I recommend against 2ohm use for 99.999% of amplifiers. Here's why:
- It runs the amplifiers very hard - it's like constantly running your car all the way up to the top of the revs before changing up a gear. Sure, it can take it for a while, but for how long? Component life will be shorter, and the sound quality is worse. - You've got nowhere to go if an amp goes down. 2ohm loading is hard on an amplifier, and 1ohm loading is suicidal. - Your cable losses go through the roof - Damping factor goes through the floor
It is not standard in the professional sound industry - I know, because I work in it.
If you want lots of power into lots of 4ohm cabinets on the cheap, I'd get a pile of Behringer NU6000s and call it good. One cabinet per channel. You'll get around 2KW into 4ohm, which is a good increase on what you've got at the moment.
If you're going to insist on going against my advice on 2ohm loading, then the NU12000 is worth a look.
Some things to remember: - A 3dB change in level requires 2x the input power. - At high power levels, 2x the power input will give less than 3dB increases as power compression kicks in. You might only get 1dB. If you try to push the fader further to get the levels you want, drivers will burn. Power compression is a driver telling you that it's right at the ragged edge of what it can do.
You're also contradicting yourself, in a way. You say you don't care about decibels (which is how loud the system is), but you're looking for more power.
The more information you give us, the more we can help. I'm sure you've got your reasons for being secretive, but I assure you that nobody was trying to derail your thread.
Chris
I recommend against 2ohm use for 99.999% of amplifiers. Here's why:
- It runs the amplifiers very hard - it's like constantly running your car all the way up to the top of the revs before changing up a gear. Sure, it can take it for a while, but for how long? Component life will be shorter, and the sound quality is worse. - You've got nowhere to go if an amp goes down. 2ohm loading is hard on an amplifier, and 1ohm loading is suicidal. - Your cable losses go through the roof - Damping factor goes through the floor
It is not standard in the professional sound industry - I know, because I work in it.
If you want lots of power into lots of 4ohm cabinets on the cheap, I'd get a pile of Behringer NU6000s and call it good. One cabinet per channel. You'll get around 2KW into 4ohm, which is a good increase on what you've got at the moment.
If you're going to insist on going against my advice on 2ohm loading, then the NU12000 is worth a look.
Some things to remember: - A 3dB change in level requires 2x the input power. - At high power levels, 2x the power input will give less than 3dB increases as power compression kicks in. You might only get 1dB. If you try to push the fader further to get the levels you want, drivers will burn. Power compression is a driver telling you that it's right at the ragged edge of what it can do.
You're also contradicting yourself, in a way. You say you don't care about decibels (which is how loud the system is), but you're looking for more power.
The more information you give us, the more we can help. I'm sure you've got your reasons for being secretive, but I assure you that nobody was trying to derail your thread.
Chris
1500 W @ 2 ohms is 27.3 amps. Amps into the amplifier from power plug is lower than amps on the speaker. The lower the speaker impedance, the higher the amps. as Chris said "- Your cable losses go through the roof - Damping factor goes through the floor" Bad damping factor means the tight bass drum hits on ZZtop Afterburner turn into blug blug. You put enough 6 ga cable on stage to solve those problems, a caterer or security guard will steal the cable to sell while the band is in the break room. Wraps nicely around the waist under the pants. You're likely not blowing up amplifiers because 16 or 14 ga cable is limiting the amps to the speaker. Which means you don't get the decibels you paid for with the high wattage amp.
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It is a very common misconception that when you see clip light start to flicker, you amp is putting out full power. It is not. Well it is, for very brief periods of time, with most of the waveform being significantly below that. The amp CAN put out about 2kw, bridged at 4 ohm for a minute or so before shutting itself off. It WILL draw 37 amps out of the wall doing so. If it were connected to speakers, you would be calling the fire department, and buying new speakers. If you were trying to play music at an average power level of 2kw, the distortion would be unbearable - you literally would not be able to tell what song is playing. If the distortion is tolerable, the average level is about 10%, or 200 total watts. If you are DJing with it cranked well into distortion, the average power could be double or triple that, distortion would be very obvious, and it may very well thermal limit after an hour or so.
Amplifier line current ratings are spec'ed for 1/8 power with pink noise at 4 ohms per channel. This waveform WILL light up the clip lights! The random nature of the signal ensures that you will hit full power some of the time. This also gives the VA rating of the transformer and is the most you can reliably pull continuously. Intermittantly, you can go higher as long as you don't let too much heat build up. Switching amps like the iNuke will just go into limit after about 20 milliseconds at full output, which is why the iron horse amps sound better when driven into distortion. When amps used to come with even bigger transformers than they do today, they were even better when driven hard.
2,000 watts into 2 Ω is 63 amps. Jesus, that's a lot of current!!!! You gonna need a BIG copper bar between the amp & speaker. Eh?
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