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I am currently considering going to pre/power amp setups and am looking at buying maybe an Ampeg pre. Now I know very little about these things and need to read up, but can someone make me a recommendation as regards a power amp? I don't want to spend too much so I am looking for something reliable that isn't going to break the bank, also anything I need to watch out for when using pre/power setups :)

Ta x

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[quote name='presoulnation' post='122907' date='Jan 18 2008, 03:17 PM']I am currently considering going to pre/power amp setups and am looking at buying maybe an Ampeg pre. Now I know very little about these things and need to read up, but can someone make me a recommendation as regards a power amp? I don't want to spend too much so I am looking for something reliable that isn't going to break the bank, also anything I need to watch out for when using pre/power setups :)

Ta x[/quote]
My band have three up for sale at the moment if you are interested. Prices quoted may be a little high as I didn't spec them up. Open to offers on them.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=11388"]See post here[/url]

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[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='122937' date='Jan 18 2008, 04:19 PM']Good move IMHO - just done it myself and I'm finally happy with my sound. I put a similar post up recently and the general concensus was you can't go wrong with a Yamaha or there's a Crown one for about £400 which is excellent for the money.[/quote]


Just seen this one on soundcontrols website

[url="http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1/pages/mod_1.12/pages/mod_1.12.1/pages/mod_1.12.1.1/pages/index.php?sku=1.1.6.2-114-1"]Crown power amp[/url]

looks pretty good for the ££, I might be getting one soon ish as I've just went down the pre/power route again

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had a crown xs500 recently and returned it!

the fault was me though!! it is a lot of power amp for the money...the problem I had was my svt 3pro pre stage, it did not like the crown at all the signal from it was far too low! judging by ampegs cicuit diagram the pre amp stage appears to bypass the tubes in the pre/drive section causing the signal to drop??

anyways be careful with the ampeg pre amps! some folk on here have been a little disappointed by the svt svp-bsp!

rumour6 has a crown xs500 and a focusrite desk style vocal/instrument preamp and is delighted with the sound - true hifi he says....all problems solved for £300 - not bad!

Edited by andy67
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Crown XTi, they're fantastic things.

They're digital (I think !), like on the Epifani heads, this means that the fans only come in when needed, so they stay nice and quiet for home practicing, they're also extremely light, something you need to bare in mind when you start a rack set up, they can very quickly become very heavy. .

I've tried the cheaper Crown and QSC models, and found the fans to be very annoying, they tend to cut costs by using cheaper components, they also weigh a lot.

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[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='122937' date='Jan 18 2008, 04:19 PM']Good move IMHO - just done it myself and I'm finally happy with my sound. I put a similar post up recently and the general concensus was you can't go wrong with a Yamaha or there's a Crown one for about £400 which is excellent for the money.[/quote]

so what have you ended up with? I still want to replace my max700 as I'm sure it limits - seems to compress when things get loud.

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Two important questions are what is your budget and is weight important?

I looked at the Crown XTi 1000 but in the end went for a Yamaha P5000.

This site has some interesting reading, from a different perspective:

[url="http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?act=idx"]http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?act=idx[/url]

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[quote name='synaesthesia' post='126208' date='Jan 23 2008, 03:45 PM']Ambiguity nit pick:
You would have to feed a balanced signal to the power amp's balanced input connection to have this gain benefit. Feeding an unbalanced signal to a power amp's balanced input connection point (XLR or 1/4" or whatever) is not going to give you this 6dB gain.[/quote]

Good point!

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='126208' date='Jan 23 2008, 03:45 PM']Most commonly available bass guitar preamp line outs to power amps are unbalanced signals.[/quote]

Really? How very poxy! My old SWR Grand Prix had balanced and non-balanced line outs as well as a balanced DI out. My Avalon U5 has two balanced line outs and two unbalanced line outs. I haven't looked at many other preamps but that might explain why some valve preamps have trouble driving QSC PLXs and the like.

Alex

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[url="http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1/pages/mod_1.12/pages/mod_1.12.1/pages/mod_1.12.1.1/pages/index.php?sku=1.1.6.2-114-1"]http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1/pages/...u=1.1.6.2-114-1[/url]

is this a good deal thinking of selling my warwick protube and getting that and a ampeg pre?

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[quote name='6stringbassist' post='126375' date='Jan 23 2008, 07:15 PM']They're digital (I think !), like on the Epifani heads, this means that the fans only come in when needed, so they stay nice and quiet for home practicing, they're also extremely light, something you need to bare in mind when you start a rack set up, they can very quickly become very heavy. .[/quote]

Some clarification over 'D Class' - [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switching_amplifier"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switching_amplifier[/url] Worth mentioning that the vast majority of D Class amplifiers that we use as bass players are D Class, but not digital. Beware of marketing BS ;o)

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