upgrading power stages in amps

[ben_eat_pie]

hi there guys

just wondering if anybody has tried fiddling with there internals to get more power out of their head - i like the sound of my amp, and i don't wanna buy a new one - but i need more power, and with a lower minimum impedance.

any info muchly appreciated!

cheers,

ben

[Dood]

[quote name='ben_eat_pie' post='269687' date='Aug 25 2008, 07:12 PM']hi there guys

just wondering if anybody has tried fiddling with there internals to get more power out of their head - i like the sound of my amp, and i don't wanna buy a new one - but i need more power, and with a lower minimum impedance.

any info muchly appreciated!

cheers,

ben[/quote]


Due to the nature of each amplifier manufacturers designs differing so much from others, you would be very unlikely to be able to 'upgrade' the internals of an amplifier head. (Or get more power from an existing one). These days, everything is crammed on to printed circuit boards in order to keep the costs down and are pretty unserviceable for the novice/average Joe on the street.
Your best bet is to get a seperate power amp and slave that from the line out of your existing head to give you extra power. Better still, does your amp come in a 'preamplifier only' version? (Not sure what you are using) - As I would suggest getting a preamp and seperate power amplifier, giving you the ability to upgrade depending on your needs.

[ben_eat_pie]

i thought that might be the case. I run an ashdown mag 300 head - but it's in the 1/15 combo at the mo.
cheers

[thinman]

[quote name='ben_eat_pie' post='269781' date='Aug 25 2008, 09:28 PM']i thought that might be the case. I run an ashdown mag 300 head - but it's in the 1/15 combo at the mo.
cheers[/quote]

Run it into a more efficient 4 ohm cab. I'd suggest a BFM Omni 10! You get a good few more dBs per Watt out of one than the Ashdown.

[warwickhunt]

I agree with Dood. If you like the tone of your present amp then purchase a power amp and run it into another (4 ohm) cab for max potential. Just out of interest does your amp deliver its full power into the internal speaker or is that an 8ohm 15" speaker and you have an extension speaker socket (pdf manual doesn't give much away) for connecting another speaker?

[Bigwan]

I always bought into the whole "an extra 200 watts won't make any real difference" theory... until I modded my Ashdown ABM combo (from 300 watts to 500 watts). I don't give a monkeys what anybody says - it made a difference!

[Alien]

[quote name='Bigwan' post='269984' date='Aug 26 2008, 08:40 AM']I always bought into the whole "an extra 200 watts won't make any real difference" theory... until I modded my Ashdown ABM combo (from 300 watts to 500 watts). I don't give a monkeys what anybody says - it made a difference![/quote]

I assume you did this upgrade by changing the speaker for a 4 Ohm one? If the new speaker had more sensitivity (even a couple of dB) then it will sound louder. Also, you get more dB's if the speaker is running in an undersize box - at the expense of lows.

Andy

[Bigwan]

[quote name='Alien' post='270165' date='Aug 26 2008, 12:41 PM']I assume you did this upgrade by changing the speaker for a 4 Ohm one? If the new speaker had more sensitivity (even a couple of dB) then it will sound louder. Also, you get more dB's if the speaker is running in an undersize box - at the expense of lows.

Andy[/quote]

Nope... electrickery all the way!

[Merton]

[quote name='Bigwan' post='270281' date='Aug 26 2008, 02:13 PM']Nope... electrickery all the way![/quote]
Go on then, tell us...

[Bigwan]

Old ashdown ABMs (pre-EVO) used the same power amp board for the 300 and 500 watt versions. The 300 watt just had 4 components (2 power msfets and 2 large PSU caps) left off... I added them... never looked back!

[Merton]

Huzzah, nice and easy. I suspect not many other boards will be quite so easy to do tho! Maybe the older (80s) Trace stuff?