Any demand for a good high output solid state head ?

[greenboy]

Must be a bunch of people around hear with no low detail hearing left. I hear very minimal amounts of distortion with good speakers.

Even really good live-performance speakers make so much more distortion than any decent pro power amp of any class.

 

[gerryjazzman]

Well, my take on what would be useful IMHO would be to scale back just a bit on goals shooting for something that would do say:

- single power amp, 400w/8 ohms, 700w/4 ohms, 1000 watts/2 ohms), BUT could run at 2 ohms all day without complaint AND sound good at that impedance. Why the emphasis on 2 ohms? Scalability / flexibility with speakers without the complexity of two power amps, bridging, etc.

- keeping the weight down to around 20 lbs and keep it relatively compact (like an Eden Wt300/400/550). Compact seems to be selling these days.

- go to town on the preamp design

- got to have competitive pricing (say $600 - $700)

A lot of folks have been asking for an ultra-lightweight that would do 2 ohms but it doesn't seem to exist. This wouldn't fall into that category (not without class D) but to me it's reasonably close not and might fill a market niche (unless I missed one).

I was seriously looking to sell my Eden WT-300 and pick up a used WT-550 which is close to this, but even though it's spec'ed to run 750w at 2 ohms, Eden says (according to the owner's manual) that it sounds better at 4 or 8. I believe some folks have also said that it runs hot when pushing it at 2 ohms with the fan screaming which makes me nervous. For now I got an external power amp (DCM1500) that's supposed to run at 2 ohms without a sweat but it would really be nice to be in an all-in-one compact head.

 

[KJung]

Well, my take on what would be useful IMHO would be to scale back just a bit on goals shooting for something that would do say:

- single power amp, 400w/8 ohms, 700w/4 ohms, 1000 watts/2 ohms), BUT could run at 2 ohms all day without complaint AND sound good at that impedance. Why the emphasis on 2 ohms? Scalability / flexibility with speakers without the complexity of two power amps, bridging, etc.

- keeping the weight down to around 20 lbs and keep it relatively compact (like an Eden Wt300/400/550). Compact seems to be selling these days.

- go to town on the preamp design

- got to have competitive pricing (say $600 - $700)

A lot of folks have been asking for an ultra-lightweight that would do 2 ohms but it doesn't seem to exist. This wouldn't fall into that category (not without class D) but to me it's reasonably close not and might fill a market niche (unless I missed one).

I was seriously looking to sell my Eden WT-300 and pick up a used WT-550 which is close to this, but even though it's spec'ed to run 750w at 2 ohms, Eden says (according to the owner's manual) that it sounds better at 4 or 8. I believe some folks have also said that it runs hot when pushing it at 2 ohms with the fan screaming which makes me nervous. For now I got an external power amp (DCM1500) that's supposed to run at 2 ohms without a sweat but it would really be nice to be in an all-in-one compact head.

You should check out the soon to be released Genz Shuttle 12. It does 600 watts per side at 4ohms each. So, you get the the ability to run two 4ohm cabs without the 2ohm issues. I find you can dial an Edenish tone out of some of the Genz heads, and this one looks pretty darn cool. It's a lightweight also... SMPS power supply. If you have some cash, the TecAmp Puma1000 is a similar design, and is a true micro amp, 500 per side at 4ohms.

IMO!

Edit: I forgot... the OP will think both of those heads suck!

 

[O lively]

I'm guessing that if you owned a crate 115 combo, it instead would be the most awesome bass amp ever made.

 

[hbarcat]

Is there any demand for a good high output solid state head ? Built in biamping etc ? If so what types of Preamps,power ratings. sound coloring options are people interested in ? How many features ? How bare bones or jazzed up ?

Just doing some checking around. I am looking at reissuing and clonning my randall as well as sevral older obsolete amps that performed well but cost to much at the time they debuted. Maybe a new Mark IV style head.

Taking input and may make a sample to test with ?

While all the side channel comments that have occured in this thread so far are . . . interesting, I'm going to just limit myself to giving my opinion on the original question.

Because I care more than most about quality audio, I have a home studio. Proper sound treatment on the walls. Good speakers. Quality amps and hardware for the modest amount of money that I've spent. This is where I listen to my vinyl because I don't like the quality of CD's and I despise MP3s. It's also where I practice my bass playing. I have a high power, active crossover, triamp setup for my bass because I want to reeeeeeally experience the bass the way that I think it should be experienced -- flat and clean, yet loud, down to 20 Hz.

Can I gig with it? No. Even if all the components could be made as small and lightweight as possible with current technology it still isn't something that a geezer like me is going to be carrying around. It's not just that the amps and electronics are heavy but that the speaker cabinets necessary to take advantage of it are monstrous. What I gig with is a single 600 watt head and a small 1 x 15 cab. Even though I am a snobbish audiophile, I'm not willing to carry my enthusiasm for quality far enough to lug around anything heavy and that's that.

The important thing to remember about market demand (which is the question here) is who exactly is your market. People who care about biamping and active crossovers and the greatest possible waveform accuracy tend to skew in the direction of the 40+ age group. Just the type of person who isn't interested in carrying huge heavy things to gigs. The younger market segment who are in their 20's and 30's typically don't care about this Hi-fidelity mumbo jumbo and the Hartke 3500 on top of the 4x10 with the aluminum cones and the tweeter with just a passive crossover is just the sound that they're looking for. And the fact that it's cheap is icing on the cake.

But even if there's little demand for an amp like this to gig with, what about for studio use? I don't see that either. It's too easy to just put together whatever preamp and pair of power amps and electronic bells and whistles that you want and sticking it all in a rack. No need to have it all in one unit.

If the current commercially available high power bi-amp rigs are not really all that in demand (because the increase in sound quality doesn't justify the added weight, size and cost in the estimation of most consumers), I just can't imagine that offering one that would be bigger and heavier and more expensive would make much sense no matter how terrific it sounded.

Prototypes are always cool, though. If you build one I would love to see pictures of it.

 

[jellymax]

lets see. youve got this great idea.
an amp with a big heavy power transformer
its going to be biamped
its going to sound as good as a Randall
you want there to be a demand for your product from people
whom you think are idiots.

i would say that idea is not too happenin'