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Genz Benz Neo Pak 3.5

#61
I've been using the neopak for my practices for about 6 months and I use a Eden WT550 for my gigs. I mainly use the WT550 because it can run down to 2ohms (I use a two 4ohm cabs). I can tell you that the neopak because of the tube preamp is definitely warmer sounding than my GK MB150E and my EA500 but less then the Eden. I've been impressed by the neopak but I need to get it to play lower than 4ohms.

Eublet, hasbeen, agedhorse: How does one upgrade the neopak so it runs at 2ohms. I really would like to use it on a full gig. THANKS.
 
#62
(fine print disclaimer... there are some very high voltages present in an SMPS, much higher than a conventional power supply. Don't touch it with ANY body part)
 
#63
that is funny.. reminds me of my little nephew.. he was about 3 -4 years old and picked up a 9volt battery after watching me touch it to my tongue to test for voltage... it was a 9 volt battery.. I am used to it.. but it caught him off guard.. the look on his little face was really funny... it was eyes wide open..
he laughed but i laughed even harder when seeing his eyes launch wide open..
 
#64
agedhorse said:
Glad this worked out Jason. We all know personally what it's like to buy a new item and think there may be something possibly wrong with it. We try hard to treat the customer just like we would like to be treated ourselves. It's really a pretty simple concept (I think it is anyway).

There are so few failures on the SMPS section that anything that even seems to be a bit odd interests us, and we want to get as much field information on this topology as we can, failure or not. Scott and I put a lot of personal effort into making our first SMPS product as robust as possible. I blew the tips off a few screwdrivers during the torture-testing. Definately a lot of energy stored. I'll let you know what we find out.
Click to expand...
Thanks! In normal gig, standing out in front of the head, I doubt I would have ever noticed it. But, I was using it a church, and it was sitting up on a raised portion of the stage, and I sat down right next to it after we finished playing. It was literally right next to my ear. It was very quiet in the room, and I could just hear this audible electronic noise coming and going. It sounded rather strange. But it didn't seem to affect anything at all. about 5 minutes later, I stood up and played through it for another 15 minutes or so, and it worked just fine.

Still, I'm VERY glad to know you guys want to take a look. It was such a small issue I was willing to let it go for a few more gigs just to see what would happen.

Again, you guys are just fantastic! That's funny about the burned screwdriver tips. I've done that a few times myself! Not so sure about the tonge frying bit, though. Let's see, mussels or muscles?
 
#65
Are you sure you are not hearing the fan? It's a variable speed fan and maybe you are hearing some noise from it? Scott will check that out as well.
 
#66
No. Pretty sure it wasn't the fan. It sounded alot like a flourescent light with a bad bulb, except it would slowly fade out, stay off for 3 or 4 seconds, and then "click" back on full volume, and fade out again. It did this 2 or 3 times before we started playing again. Maybe it was the fan controller? I haven't been able to make it do this again since, but I haven't played it long and hard enough for it to get good and warm again either.
 
#68
And the cutting on and off part was really strange. I'm not a tech person by any means, but I was still sitting their trying to figure out what could be cutting on and off like that inside the head. I muted the input, unplugged my bass, and it didn't change the noise. Turned the master off, no change. Unplugged the speakon from behind the head, no change. It kept right on doing it. I even picked up the front corner of the head and let it "plop" back down a little bit to see if it did anything. It didn't even change the noise at all or make it "stutter". Kept on buzzing until it faded out, and started back again a few seconds later.

Still, it was so faint that most people couldn't tell it. One of the guitarists (God help me, there are 3 in this group, all under the age of 23) was sitting right beside me, and he kept asking me what I was doing. He couldn't hear it over the other noise in the room until I pointed it out.

Anyway, I'm sure you guys will figure it out. I've got it all boxed up and ready to go out tomorrow. I've hardly touched my 1200 since the Neo-Pak came in. It's such a great portable head. But, WOW, the 1200 is awesome! So much raw power and tone options. These two guys are going to be great together. When the Neo-Pak comes back running down to 2 ohms, it will be the perfect backup head. Light so that you don't mind taking it along knowing you won't need it, but powerful enough to get you through any gig should that change.
 
#69
3 guitar players..:rollno: :help: you poor guy :bawl: .. thats torture

Eublet said:
And the cutting on and off part was really strange. I'm not a tech person by any means, but I was still sitting their trying to figure out what could be cutting on and off like that inside the head. I muted the input, unplugged my bass, and it didn't change the noise. Turned the master off, no change. Unplugged the speakon from behind the head, no change. It kept right on doing it. I even picked up the front corner of the head and let it "plop" back down a little bit to see if it did anything. It didn't even change the noise at all or make it "stutter". Kept on buzzing until it faded out, and started back again a few seconds later.

Still, it was so faint that most people couldn't tell it. One of the guitarists (God help me, there are 3 in this group, all under the age of 23) was sitting right beside me, and he kept asking me what I was doing. He couldn't hear it over the other noise in the room until I pointed it out.

Anyway, I'm sure you guys will figure it out. I've got it all boxed up and ready to go out tomorrow. I've hardly touched my 1200 since the Neo-Pak came in. It's such a great portable head. But, WOW, the 1200 is awesome! So much raw power and tone options. These two guys are going to be great together. When the Neo-Pak comes back running down to 2 ohms, it will be the perfect backup head. Light so that you don't mind taking it along knowing you won't need it, but powerful enough to get you through any gig should that change.
Click to expand...
 
#70
svtb15 said:
3 guitar players..:rollno: :help: you poor guy :bawl: .. thats torture
Click to expand...
LOL! Thanks. I really need the sympathy some days. But, this particular gig is at church, and I usually feel guilty for even calling it a gig. It's more of a service I perform, a ministry if you will, so I try to keep it all in perspective. The three guys are all young musicians wanting to develop their talent. Still, it can be difficult finding a place to inject something musical when you have two electric players and one acoustic player all competing for space. What's really hard to handle is when all three of them strum the exact same chord, exact same inversion, exact same position, in exactly the same way. Of course, they're never really in tune, so it's like a forced chorus effect ringing in my ears. I used to look over at them to see if they could hear it, but they're too busy rocking out! LOL!


Andy -

I think what you mentioned in your PM about over-voltage causing the SMPS to begin going into a protection mode is probably true. I think I'm going to put a Furman on that outlet and watch the voltage on it to see if I can see it climbing too high. My head has been plugged into an outlet that's about 3 feet from the stage mixing board, which is huge, complete with 4 Crown power amps, an array of effects, compressors, wireless devices, and the Furman in-ear master unit thingy. No telling what circuits all these things are on, and which devices I'm sharing circuits with.

Still, I'm glad you guys are looking it over. I'd have let you do it without promising to switch out the PS for one of the newer ones. In fact, if you test it and find that it's within spec, I'll be happy for you to just send it right back to me without swapping anything. By the way, it is shipping tomorrow, so you should have it by mid-week. Have fun! I hope you don't burn any more screwdrivers up testing it!
 
#71
I've been following this thread with interest. I'm looking for a light weight amp to go with my downsized rig. I've got a pair of Bag End S-15D's and a G-B NeoX 212T and I'm looking for an amp to drive them. I was very close to pulling the trigger on a Mini Class D amp but held off. This Neo Pak 3.5 is of real interes as I'm an old school guy and love tubes. I'm not sure what I'll end up with, but most probably it will have a tube in the preamp, at least.
 
#72
Eublet,

One thing to consider is that you may possibly be experiencing the effect of voltage rise, common on a three phase power system which is not well balanced with respect to loads on the three phase legs. When one leg is lightly loaded, due to the voltage drop and phase difference on the neutral return the lightly loaded leg will show a voltage rise of between 0 and 8 volts give or take. So, if the club has a nominal 125 volt distribution system (pretty common for commercial power distro) a 5 volt rise would give 130 volts to the amp whicg is not a problem but will cause the PWM duty cycle to cut back from 50% in order to keep the power supply voltages from increasing beyond what's safe for the amp's circuitry. It's one of the many protection schemes we designed into the amp that reflects our understanding of the real world problems you will (maybe unknowingly) encounter on a gig.

All well built amplifier products are designed to handle a +10% voltage rise above nominal 115 volts (230 volts for much of the rest of the world), we use ~130 volts (260 volts for Europe) as our limit. Our Australia and NZ products use 275 volts due to some issues unique to their distribution grid.
 
#73
Mikefish07 said:
I've been using the neopak for my practices for about 6 months and I use a Eden WT550 for my gigs. I mainly use the WT550 because it can run down to 2ohms (I use a two 4ohm cabs). I can tell you that the neopak because of the tube preamp is definitely warmer sounding than my GK MB150E and my EA500 but less then the Eden. I've been impressed by the neopak but I need to get it to play lower than 4ohms.

Eublet, hasbeen, agedhorse: How does one upgrade the neopak so it runs at 2ohms. I really would like to use it on a full gig. THANKS.
Click to expand...

My understanding was that it works at 2ohms by default.
 
#78
Smallequestrian said:
Ah, I didn't realize there was more than one generation.
Click to expand...

Yes, the current units have extended 2 ohm operation ratings that were not available due initially to a new part not yet being manufactured and into the supply stream. The 8 and 4 ohm ratings are essentially unchanged.

Intersting name by the way...
 
#79
main_sale said:
I've been following this thread with interest. I'm looking for a light weight amp to go with my downsized rig. I've got a pair of Bag End S-15D's. This Neo Pak 3.5 is of real interest as I'm an old school guy and love tubes.
Click to expand...
I have a Neo-Pak 3.5 currently en route from the seller to Genz for the 2 ohm upgrade. Should receive it in a couple of weeks max. I will be using it with my Bag End S15X-D and S15-D, or with a pair of EA Wizzy M-Line 12"s. I can't wait, and promise to post pics and a review when the head comes in.
 
#80
I'd be interested in how it sounds with the M-line Wizzy. I have a regular Wizzy and have thought about adding another one in the M-line flavor. Once my neo pak gets delivered it will also be sent out to GB for the upgrade.
 

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