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Power utilization

Discussion in 'Amps and Cabs [BG]' started by Sundogue, Sep 26, 2001.

  1. Sep 26, 2001 #1
    Sundogue

    Sundogue

    Apr 26, 2001
    Wausau, WI
    I'm going to be running a Carvin R600 head (bridged) into a Peavey 412TVX.

    The Carvin will put out 600 watts bridged into a 4 ohm cabinet and the 412TVX is rated at 450 RMS and 900 watts program (4 ohm cabinet).

    Is this sufficient power for the cabinet or is it underpowered, and do you think clipping might occur at higher volumes?
     
  2. Sep 26, 2001 #2
    JMX

    JMX Vorsprung durch Technik

    Sep 4, 2000
    Cologne, Germany
    It's not underpowered and should work fine IME.
     
  3. Sep 26, 2001 #3
    Geoff St. Germaine

    Geoff St. Germaine Commercial User

    Aug 31, 2001
    Halifax, Canada
    Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
    That's a good setup. The 412 is 450W rms, while the amp is 600W rms. This means you have some headroom, so you shouldn't have to worry about driving the amp into clipping and wrecking some speakers. With amps, it is better to have too much power than too little.

    DingZ2
     
  4. Sep 26, 2001 #4
    MikeyD

    MikeyD Guest

    Sep 9, 2000
    If you don't drive it into clipping, you should be fine. I would estimate the Carvin's bridged output to be around 450-500 *clean* watts into that load, anyway.
    - Mike
     
  5. Sep 26, 2001 #5
    Sundogue

    Sundogue

    Apr 26, 2001
    Wausau, WI
    What exactly do you mean by "clean" watts?

    From what I've been told by Carvin is that they actually underrate their amps (other people say differently) and it is so frustrating as to who to believe.

    Even if they do overrate them, I've never found mine to be lacking in power, not even with this 412 cabinet...but I wanted some outside opinions for reference.

    Thanks.
     
  6. Sep 26, 2001 #6
    MikeyD

    MikeyD Guest

    Sep 9, 2000
    By "clean", I mean with very low distortion (less than 0.1%) and over the whole spectral content of a typical bass guitar signal. The other thing is (and it has served me very well in my life, so it is highly recommended): never believe anyone (at the outset, anyway) who has a financial interest in having you believe what they say. Always get independent appraisals of performance, reliability, etc. I do not doubt Carvin's ratings; but you have to read the fine print and understand how they were developed and what they really mean in terms of real performance. They aren't misrepresenting their products, but I don't think of their figures as being very conservative. One has to be a smart buyer.

    I own both the R600 and R1000 heads, and highly recommend them - they do have lots of power. However, this does not mean that I think they couldn't rate their performance more conservatively. In other words, I like to think of the R600 as more of a 400-500-watt amp, and the R1000 as more of a 700-800-watt amp. I don't have a good lab to test my theory, so I'll leave it at that. But I have done A/B listening tests with other amps to arrive at my opinion.

    - Mike
     
  7. Sep 26, 2001 #7
    Sundogue

    Sundogue

    Apr 26, 2001
    Wausau, WI
    I see where you are coming from. Yes, their THD ratings are measured at "less that 1 percent" which would mean different things to different people, depending on what you mean by "low distortion".

    Carvin could not legally make a claim that was not true...but how the specs are determined by their "fine print" means alot.

    Is there not some kind of standard with which these specs are to be determined? I thought there was...but perhaps I am wrong.

    I would like to know where there is some kind of URL that shows independent testing results of bass gear that is not biased in any way towards or against Carvin....one that is not based on opinion.
     
  8. Sep 26, 2001 #8
    MikeyD

    MikeyD Guest

    Sep 9, 2000
    Other than FTC and EIA standards (and perhaps the AES has some as well), I don't think there is any law that applies. But Carvin is probably well within common industry practices for specs. It's just that they lean toward the liberal side of things, IMO. It takes some smarts to realize it (i.e., read and understand the fine print), though.

    Well! That makes a million of us!! :) I don't think such a thing exists for bass equipment. It's very expensive to conduct such thorough testing, and who would pay for it? In the hi-fi audio world, some magazines performed good testing on chosen products, but they probably had the budget and circulation to justify it. The popular bass or guitar magazines could do it, but it is mainly a business decision concerning cost-effectiveness.
    - Mike