Hmmm...did you ever clip your CA9?

BiigM · #1 09-03-2010, 05:40 PM

Hi.

I was playing tonight with my Demeter VTBP-201S/crest CA9 amp that I just put together. I just bought the CA9 used and this was first gig.

I was running it into my Berg NV412.

One of the best tones I've ever had but...

I was clipping the CA9. Not continous but it was blinking at the attack of the notes, offcourse most in the low register. I was loud but not louder than I would have been with my DB750.

I have it in bridged mode. It's the speakon model so impossible to connect it wrong.

After all I heard about the CA9 I didn't think I would have any chance to clip it. Would the Berg even be able to take that much power?

Please help :-)

Thanks

babebambi · #2 09-03-2010, 05:57 PM

You are right, I don't think you can clip the C9 and still have the Berg in good health.
Bridged at 4 ohm, that's 2kw; which would have blown those 12"s out of the cab.

Did you have both dial on the C9 at 0dB?
How did you have the switches on the back set?

Try to use only one side of the C9 and see how the volume changes, maybe one side of the amp isn't working.

BiigM · #3 09-03-2010, 06:06 PM

The switch on the back is set to Biamp.

I tried with the attenuators both low and high, and adjusted the Demeter gain to fit. Same thing either way. When it got to a certain volume it clipped.

If it wasn't for the lights i would have thought that only one channel was playing, but the light for both channels was doing the same.

msquared · #4 09-03-2010, 10:36 PM

Dial back the knobs on the front. If you're clipping, it means the input gain is set too sensitive for your preamp's output. Those aren't volume knobs, they're for gain staging.

INTP · #5 09-04-2010, 01:58 AM

Double check your speakon cable. According to the manual, the amp uses different pins in bridge mode [1+ and 2+] vs. stereo (or parallel) [1+ and 1-]. So it actually is possible to connect it wrong, based on this.

See page 13:
http://www.crestaudio.com/assets/lit...A9-AB_7719.pdf

If you ran one side of this amp into that cabinet (not bridged), you should still have more power than that cabinet can handle. And if that cabinet is really 103 dB 1w/1m, that would be crazy loud. If this matches the cable you have (see above), then run it this way until you get a cable that is wired for bridge mode.

BiigM · #6 09-04-2010, 03:38 AM

Aaahh. That's probably it. Thanks.
(Note to self: READ the manual, don't just skim it!)