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my poweramp rmx 1450

J

jedi

Apr 11, 2003
156
0
north texas
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#1
this is a bit weird or nothing to worry about, but my setup is this:

yamaha pb-1
rmx 1450
avatar 212 8ohm

it doesn't seem like i can get loud enough to play shows without the poweramp clipping like crazy or the cab sounding scary. but the cab is rated at 1000watts, and i don't believe the rmx goes above that at 8ohms. put i can't seem to get it loud.

my friend ran it through his swr 810 workingman's cab that is 800watts, and he says he can barely getting any sound out of it. i wasn't there, but that is what he says.
coudl my poweramp be defective (i bought it second hand off ebay)?
i had spoken to another friend about this before, and he said that adding another cab bridged would increase speaker surface area, thus allowing more sound to be produced. or something. it's late and i'm totally frustrated with a million things so it probably didn't all come out right.
but i just thought of the idea of running my friends mesa m-pulse with the cab tommorrow and seeing which one pushes it more. but any info or insight would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
kyle
 
#6
Make sure the Speakon plug on your cable is wired to 1+ and 2+, as it shows in the manual (at the amp end, anyway). Also make sure that on channel 2, its gain control is turned all the way down (on the front) and its LF filter is turned off (switch #8, on the back). Make sure switches 6 and 7 are set to bridged and 4 and 5 are set to stereo.

See if it works any better.
 
#7
Okay...I'm sure somone who knows much better will come along soon and tell you what you need to know....But I will give it a shot....

There are several different types of Speakon connectors...If yours is blue and black with a gray collar, you will have to buy a new cable (or just a new connector....I'll get to that in a minute) What you need is the 4 conductor connector. It is blue and black with a silver of gray tab on it. They sell these anywhere that sells pro-audio gear, even at Guitar Center, behind the pro-audio counter.

Okay....buy the connector that you need... now, unscrew the blue collar on the old speakon jack, and slide it out of the way. Pull out the three-pronged plastic thing...It takes a firm tug, but it just pulls out. Look at the gray collar now. On the back of it is a spot that says "push" with a down arrow. There is a tab in the black connector body BEHIND the collar that you need to push down with a screwdriver to remove the collar. It took me a bit of trying, but I got it eventually. Now, you have access to where the wires connect to the connector...unscrew the little set screws holding the wires in, and pull them out of the base of the connector.

So now (hopefully) you have two bare wires, and a new four connector speakon....If you look at the part of the new speakon where the wires attach, there are FOUR spots. You will only be using TWO of them. Look underneath the connectors, there will be tiny print saying 1+, 2+, 2-, and 1-. You need to connect the red wire to the 1+ connector, and the black wire to the 2+ connector. Remember to slide the new blue collar and plastic three prong thingy onto the cable first. Screw the collars in tightly. Solder them in if you want. Just make sure they arent lose. Then put the connector together. You now have a cable capable of using your amps full power. I reckon you wont be worrying about power any more.

If this is too confusing, or you just dont want to deal with it, check out www.procablesnsound.com, or PM talkbass user PBD. They can make a whole ready to go cable for you. There is a place to send an e-mail for a quote...just email them and tell them what you are using, that you want a bridge-mono cable for it, and how long you want it to be. They'll be able to hook you up.

They were extremely helpful with all my dumb questions, and told me everything I needed to know. I needed a cable in a day or two, so I didnt order from them, but I will whole heartedly reccommend them to anyone who asks.
 
#8
Thanks for the help. I have the wrong cable, but the nearest palce to get the adaptor is an hour drive and i won't be able to go for a week or so. but i've been tossing around the idea recently of getting rid of my power/pre and just getting a head so i don't have to worry about seperate components. so i'm not sure if i'm going to get teh cable and try it out or not.
i've got a yamaha pb-1 with an rmx-1450, and am thinking of getting rid of them and maybe getting the kustom 1200 groove thing. but i dunno. i think that would be enough power to loudly push to avatar 212s at 4ohms overall...something like 837watts. i dunno.
thanks for all the help
and anyone is welcome to give me their opinoin on the second half of this post.
-kyle
 
#9
Dude, 7$ and a few minutes of work will give you more power then you can imagine. You owe it to yourself to at least try.

Oh, and make sure you always keep the correct end in the amplifier. The end you rewire HAS to go in the poweramp, or it wont work right.

At that point, if its still not for you, THEN start looking for something else.
 
#12
Bob Lee (QSC) said:
Until you get the right Speakon, you can still connect the wires directly to the binding posts like it shows in the manual.
Click to expand...

right on. i'll have to go get the manual from the site as mine didn't come with one.

as for dan's second to last message, i had actually already been thinking about this before i was getting frustrated with the volume. but i will definately try that out tommorrow.
thanks again
you guys are rad
-kyle
 
#14
Hang on a sec.. I have a speakon with the blue and grey colar thing. It's got NL2FC written on it, and under that it's got 1+.

In my Warwick manual, in the speaker out part, it's got written:
The signal from the Lockable Coaxial Speaker Connection outputs is lead by 1+ and 1-.

I lack headroom majorly (Especially for 300 watt).. Have i got the wrong speakon cable, or is it wired wrong? or IS my amp just quite?
 
#16
popinfresh said:
Hang on a sec.. I have a speakon with the blue and grey colar thing. It's got NL2FC written on it, and under that it's got 1+.

In my Warwick manual, in the speaker out part, it's got written:
The signal from the Lockable Coaxial Speaker Connection outputs is lead by 1+ and 1-.

I lack headroom majorly (Especially for 300 watt).. Have i got the wrong speakon cable, or is it wired wrong? or IS my amp just quite?
Click to expand...
I believe it is wired just fine. With every +1 on a speakon, there is also a -1. With +2, theres -2. Unless your amp bridges I think its OK.
 
#17
jedi said:
Thanks for the help. I have the wrong cable, but the nearest palce to get the adaptor is an hour drive and i won't be able to go for a week or so. but i've been tossing around the idea recently of getting rid of my power/pre and just getting a head so i don't have to worry about seperate components. so i'm not sure if i'm going to get teh cable and try it out or not.
i've got a yamaha pb-1 with an rmx-1450, and am thinking of getting rid of them and maybe getting the kustom 1200 groove thing. but i dunno. i think that would be enough power to loudly push to avatar 212s at 4ohms overall...something like 837watts. i dunno.
thanks for all the help
and anyone is welcome to give me their opinoin on the second half of this post.
-kyle
Click to expand...
I tried out the Kustom, and contrary to opinions on this board I didn't like it a ton. Doesn't mean its a bad amp or anything, just try before you buy. It also takes 10X as many watts for 2X the volume. I say stay with the QSC.
 
#18
thanks for the opinion. i found out that shop where i live is a kustom dealer, which is surprising. so i'm going to go try to check it out in the next week or so. plus i took apart the speakon cable and directly attached the two wires to the amp, and changed one switch on the back that was wrong, number 8. but i didn't get teh chance to try it, because i just did it adn it's late.
-kyle
 

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