Moving from head to Preamp/Power amp

[Progtastic]

So I've decided with money from my summer job, I'm going to update my rig.
I'm getting rid of my current head, since it doesn't go to 2 ohms. I plan on keeping my SWR Triad for gigs since I love the way it sounds.

What I plan on getting:
Sansamp Bass Driver DI

So my question is:

I want to get a smaller extension cab for rehearsal and stuff, and a power amp that would run either the extension, or both the extension and the triad.
My budget is about 400$ (does not include price of the Sansamp)

What do you guys recommend for this? I've heard a lot about Crown and QSC being pretty good power amps, but I'm not all that sure. Thanks!

[bongomania]

All of the big-brand power amps are pretty close in quality and sound, so what you have to do is find one that's:
--in your budget
--an acceptable weight and size
--rated for the right amount of wattage per channel for the Triad (on one chan) and the extension cab (on the other), at the ohm ratings for each

And one last requirement, a hidden "zinger": since you'll be using the BDDI, you'll need to get a power amp with an input sensitivity rating of about 0.75 V. Many power amps are rated higher, like 1.0 V or 1.4 V, and the BDDI won't have enough oomph to drive those well.

[Progtastic]

Thanks a lot! Do you have any suggestion as far as what speaker type extension to go with the Triad?

[Progtastic]

Also, I found the QSC RMX 850 has all the specs I need, but the input sensitivity at 8 ohms is 1.15. The sensitivity for 4 ohms (what my cabs are) is not listed. I'm not familiar with that, but is that too high for the BDDI?

[bongomania]

The amp will have about the same sensitivity at all speaker loads. That is a bit too high for the BDDI (it would work, just not "ideally"). I'm pretty sure some QSC models can be switched between 0.775 and 1.4 V sensitivity, so look for that feature if you don't see the right sensitivity immediately.

IMO the best extension cab to go with the Triad would be a 4 ohm 1x15 with an SPL sensitivity somewhere close to the 98 dB of the Triad. An SWR would have that matched look, but there are several other great 1x15's out there.

[mrpackerguy]

When I ran a similar set up, amps I thought sounded good were:

Crest CA-9 (out of your proce range, but close if you could find a used one here)
QSC RMX series
Yamaha

[Progtastic]

Good to know about the RMX, since it seems to be the best in my price range.

As far as extension cabs go, would the Avatar 112 work? I can't find the exact specs on their website, but the only 12" on Eminence's site has a 96 rating.