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NO Substitute for Headroom!!

joegeezer

joegeezer

Mar 9, 2005
1,946
11
Northern Wisconsin
Disclosures
Avatar Club#12 Eden Club Lucky# 13--USA Peavey Club#37 Carvin Club#5
#1
I made the mistake of trying to get by with a lighter rack set-up, going with 1 space power amp. As it worked OK, it just didn't have the good old thump, I was used to. I just got done putting in a Carvin DCM2500 in the rack. Yum! I we always said with racing Harley's, there's no substitute for cubic inches, man I gotta tell ya, there's no substitute for wattage when it comes to a great low end, creamy clean sound. My Eden WT-405 as a preamp to this Carvin DCM2500, gives 850 watts at 4 ohms to each of my Avatar 410 Neo cabs, and they love it! Big low end again, and clean as can be. I will continue to use my good old two wheeled cart to haul my rack, and not complain anymore. Anybody thinking about buying a power amp, buy one twice as big as you think you want. You won't regret it later. Yum!!
 
#2
Agree 100%. Many amps these days have internal limiting so they will not clip. All well and good but if it's a small amp there goes the dynamic range you want. Great post, many people don't consider that.
 
#3
Another 100% agreement post

There are so many threads on here dealing with "just how much power do you need"?

I put it this way....................

Sure a Geo metro with 3 cylinders can drive on the same highway doing the same speed as a big old 8 cylinder. The difference comes two ways - 1) Who's engine is working faster and harder to maintain that speed - and 2) which engine still has plenty to give if you need to romp on it ?

It's better to have gobs of power and headroom and maybe never need it, then to not have anymore power and headroom when you do need it.
 
#7
I have spent a lot of time and money searching for an above average sounding small, light and loud rig. Some people are happy with a "mini-rig" but I just couldn't make it work all the time. If I could afford 2 rigs, then yeah, but I need 1 rig to cover all my gigs. That means that for smaller gigs, yeah, I'll have way more amp than I need. The thing is you can turn down for small gigs, but you can only turn up so far and still sound good for bigger gigs.

Ther is no substitute for headroom and cab volume (I mean space, not decibels) and sometimes you just have to haul a little more gear than you may want. Part of playing bass I guess. For me it's a GBE600 and a GB212Neox cab. They are relatively easy to move. I was looking at a nice hand truck at Office Max. $70, folds up flat, hold 250 pounds. Sounds like one trip load in/out to me.

Maybe someday I will be able to afford a "big" rig and a "coffee house" rig. Until then, I'll either have to bring a big rig to the coffee house, or not play the coffee house.
 
#10
Just goes to show how relative it all is. With my DPC-1400X bridged (1400 watts) or bi-amped (525 watts x 2, divided at 200 Hz) into my Ampeg 1832 Extreme I never need to get near clipping before I have something that's almost painful to be standing in front of if I really pummel a double or triple stop, the floor just getting concussive and the upper mids and treble like lances through the ears ; }

Only for outdoor gigs with no PA support have I really needed to open it up to hitting the full output of the amp consistently. I suspect I wouldn't need to do that with two 410 cabs, but then again I really want a different tonal footprint than two 410 cabs would give, and I suspect my ears would be reamed out by all that peaked upper mid response.

EDIT: then again, another kind of headroom is in evidence with my 1832: it actually has the sound aimed up at my HEAD as well as at the back of my knees.
 
#16
I went with 3 rigs to give me flexibility. Mostly because I went with the heavy stuff 1st and then met a guy who went light weight and am amazed how a 2-10 system works well in many situations (clubs) where you would typically play.
Light Weight Great for most situations
MarkBass Little Mark II 500 watt
Mark Bass 102 (2-10" & Horn)
38lbs total both

GK BAckline 600 (300watt)
Ampeg 115

Ampeg STV5 Pro 1350 watt
Ampeg 810e
About 230lbs total
Awesome but so heavy I rarely consider it. I can use the 115 with the MarkBass Setup for most situations.
 
#18
GreyBeard said:
Class A/B SS power amps like Carvins, QSC RMX's, Crown Macro tech. that use traditional type power transformers and bigger and heavier than the lighter weight class H amps like the PV DPC1400X, Stewart 1.2, etc.
Click to expand...

"Lead sled" refers to the conventional power supply. Output topology or class of operation is something a little different. For example, a Crest Audio CA-9 is probably one of the most popular "lead sled" amps around weighing in at just under 50 lbs. but it is a 2 tier class H amp. The Peavey DPC is a class D amp not class H and while the class D increases efficiency and reduces a little weight by way of less cooling requirements, the majority of the weight savings is from the switch mode power supply.
 
#19
Agreed - bigger IS better.

And there's also the other factor - HEAT.
I live in Perth - which in summer has been known to hit 45 degrees celsius and above - so having an amp being pushed to it's limit won't last long until the transformer packs it in, or some electric safety device stooges you out during rehearsals.

I have 1600w myself...........:)
 

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