Looking for a decent Pro Audio Amplifer for a home subwoofer project.

[BigPervy]

I know about the Crown series and would love to get them, but I think they're a bit too powerful for what I need. I'm currently working on a T-Line for an eD 13kv.4 sub that's going in my living room in a 7.1 setup. I don't need a ton of power to run this single sub, but I do want the ability to expand on my home setup if I desire to do so in the future. That reason alone is why I wanted to go rack amp was because if I decide I want to do a multi sub setup its easier with a rack amp then instead of buying multiple plate amplifiers. And with the plate amp I would have had to redesign my T-Line to fit it properly. I'm looking at a few brands over on partsexpress.com (http://www.parts-express.com) and so far its between the following:

QSC GX3 (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=245-650)
Behringer EP2000 (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=248-746)
Peavey IPR 1600 (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=248-7980)
Crown XLS 1000 DriveCore (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=245-500)

Has anyone here had experience with the other brands besides Crown? If so how as the overall performance? What about some of the lower line stuff like Plye and Pyramid brands? The signal that will feed into this amp will come from a Denon AVR 1611 receiver. My budget is maxed at $325.

[biglaz]

Positive experience with the Behringer. Also check out Samson SX 1200. Reasonable price, well built and, powerful. The fan is a little noisy but, can not be heard over the music.

Robert

[AMC]

why is it you want a pro-sound amp for your home project?

[ewetho]

I got an old refurbished Ashly FET-500 for my Tuba36.

Something about
..... 250 Watts X2 at 8 Ohms
..... 400 Watts X2 at 4 Ohms
or
..... 800 Watts in Bridged Mono at 8 Ohms

Yup juicy in Bridged Mode. Also stable to like 1 Ohm and lab tested to 1/2 Ohms. Uses some juice but tasty it is.

[Brian Steele]

I'm currently working on a T-Line for an eD 13kv.4 sub.

I suggest you measure the t/s params of that driver before committing to a particular design.

[jakeb]

I have a studio master 1600D....800w x2 at 4 ohms...will smoke my ep2500 behringer.

pm me if interested....well below ur budget.

Jake

[lucasa.miller]

I'm going to purchase the Crown Drivecore XLS 2000 for my project. Reasons are;

#1 - RCA inputs
#2 - Adjustable crossover
#3 - Awesome warranty (3 years, transferable, no fault).

The XLS 2000 has the lowest $ per watt ratio of all the Crown Drivecore series amps.

XLS 1000 is 27.2 cents per watt
XLS 1500 = 25.8
XLS 2000 = 23.8
XLS 2500 = 25

[contoursvt]

I've also heard a lot of positive things about the Behringer EP series. I think the QSC would be good as well.

Those amps are all fan cooled though so I dont know if noise will be an issue or not. I'm guessing that all the fans will be drowned out by the bass.

One of my friend purchased a couple of these Yamaha pro amps for his home theater and he's very happy so far. They are fan cooled but very quiet he said.

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/power_amps/p7000s/index.html

[fusseli]

I've heard on other forums a lot of people use Behringer EP amps a lot for subs, along with the Behringer feedback destroyer for lots of parametric EQ for response flattening.

I've had personal experience with a couple Peavey amps, including the newer entry-level PV 900 and the old powerhouse CS 800. The peaveys are rock solid and will drive about any load, the newer amp has convenient built in features like an LPF and multiple termination options. Only issue with either for HT/home use is that the fans are kinda loud.

I *think* Crown is owned by HK, whome also owns JBL, infinity, etc. That can't be a bad thing for Crown, as those are all some pretty quailty brands under the HK umbrella.

I don't even find myself curious about those cheap brands like Pyle... I'd avoid them like the plague.

[Mighty Saturn V]

One of the best amp companies from a few years ago was Crest, thier 10001 is still considered the most clean, powerful and ballsy classic (transformer type) amp made, even heir smaller 1200 watt per channel 8001 is highly regarded and sells upwards of $1000 for used ones in good shape.
On ebay you can find excellent deals on Crests FA series which seem like they may fit your needs a little better then the afore mentioned larger amps. The FA family has 4 members starting with the FA-601, this amp can do 125 honest watts (20-20khz with less then .1% thd) into an 8 ohm load & 200 into 4, the FA-901 will do around 200 per channel into 8 ohms, 300 into 4 and 400 into 2, the FA-1201 will do 290 into 8, 450 watts into 4 and over 500 into 2 while the very heavy double transformerd FA-2401 does 330 watts into 8 ohms, 580 watts into 4 and well into 600 at 2 ohms (the FA-2401 is not only the largest but actually 2 mono amps in one chassis), if the same power specs used on most other amps was applied to these amps their power ratings would be considerably higher however Crest was well known for going for honest power with honest specs, of course the company didn't manage their financial affairs as well as it built amps and was bought out by Peavey in the late 90's, since then the older pro series and long since stopped FA series have been proven to stand the test of time-on ebay I've seen FA-901's going for $240 with the 2 larger ones slightly more -basically the Pro and FA series are amps that can be bought used without fear of a short life. Over the years our band has used many different power amps and have found good and bad in all of them however with regards to price versus true audio quality I'd say you can't beat the FA series
-we use (2) bridged FA-2401's (one bought used off ebay 10 years ago) for each pair of our 8 ohm folded horns, this 4 ohm load total is the same as running an amp in 2 ohms stereo, this can really strain an amp if its working near its limits however these FA-2401's stay cool and have incredible tightness and control even when slamming the subs all night, I also picked up a used FA-1201 to drive (in mono) my 4 ohm 2x18" bass guitar sub, considering how often this rig is used at full power I'm amazed that it sounds like a new amp (picked it up on ebay 5 years ago for $270)

[ontariomaximus]

I'm going to purchase the Crown Drivecore XLS 2000 for my project. Reasons are;

#1 - RCA inputs
#2 - Adjustable crossover
#3 - Awesome warranty (3 years, transferable, no fault).

The XLS 2000 has the lowest $ per watt ratio of all the Crown Drivecore series amps.

XLS 1000 is 27.2 cents per watt
XLS 1500 = 25.8
XLS 2000 = 23.8
XLS 2500 = 25

I have an XLS2000 and it's excellent

[bambino]

I've also heard a lot of positive things about the Behringer EP series. I think the QSC would be good as well.

Those amps are all fan cooled though so I dont know if noise will be an issue or not. I'm guessing that all the fans will be drowned out by the bass.

One of my friend purchased a couple of these Yamaha pro amps for his home theater and he's very happy so far. They are fan cooled but very quiet he said.

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/power_amps/p7000s/index.html

I have also heard alot of good things about the Behringers, lot's of folks use them for there DIY sub projects. If fan noise becomes an issue there is a mod that can be done that is quite simple from what i hear.
I personally have 4 Crown XLS802's (bought cheap when they were being discontinued).

[its_bacon12]

Have a Behringer EP2500 and it works great. Powering a single XLS 12" in a ported box.

[dougc]

I am using the Peavey IPR 1600 to power a dual sub set up in my 5.2 surround system. I bought the IPR 1600 about a year ago to replace my Carver TFM 55x amp (didn't like 4 ohm load).WOW!! What a difference. I thought my subs sounded awsome with the Carver, until I got the Peavey. Like I said what a difference!! My subs came to life, I actually had to turn my prosessor down.Any way I could ramble forever,I'll save the book and just say it was the best 299.00 I ever spent. dougc

[estreet]

i'm using a crest audio cpx-900 bridged mono feeding an aci sv12 in 6.5 cubes tuned to 17hz, not pushing it till my art 351 eq gets here. the art has 6 bands of eq i can use(60hz and lower) plus adjustable hi-pass(10-250hz). still looking for a second aci sv12, though

[jinjuku]

why is it you want a pro-sound amp for your home project?

Why wouldn't someone want a pro-amp for a home audio project? Do a simple fan mod or swap and in most cases you are good to go.

There is a thread over at AVS forum with people replacing their $4k Brystons with a $300 Crown XLS402d with fan mod.

Lots of clean power, lots of headroom, built like a tank, and usually good for lower impedance loads. A lot going for pro-amps IMO.

[Paul O]

And... if you step up out of the price basement there are lots of really good pro amplifiers that either don't have fans or have thermostatically controlled fans the only operate when the amp is loaded down and pushed hard... ie: Yamaha P series.

[AMC]

And ... have thermostatically controlled fans the only operate when the amp is loaded down and pushed hard... ie: Yamaha P series.

Why more amps don't do this is beyond me, my inexpensive Pioneer HT receiver has this feature, so it can't be that costly to add.

[wg_ski]

Why more amps don't do this is beyond me.

A good class D or TD (like the Yammies) won't generate heat till you tax it. You can't say the same for more conventional amps, especially these modern exercises in cost cutting. Have you ever seen the little bitty heat sinks in the GX5? It's class AB up to around 200W, with heat sinks about the size of the ones in a 50 watt reciever. It simply can't run fanless in even moderate usage. No airflow and about 5 watts output would melt it down.