Buying Power Amp Help
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  1. #1
    Tech Convert
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    Default Buying Power Amp Help

    I have no clue what to get and how to match a power amp with the passive speakers I'm getting.
    I'm getting Behringer Eurolive VP2520 speakers soon and haven't found the power amp to match them.
    The speaker info is in the link: http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/VP2520.aspx
    My questions:
    Does anybody know anything about the speakers?
    What power amp should I buy with the two speakers?
    Please send me a link if you could.

  2. #2
    Tech Guru sobi's Avatar
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    Go here...
    http://www.djforums.com/forums/forum...-Amps-Speakers

    There is a lot of extremely knowledgeable people on this forum, but pro audio is not the specialty around this place. Over there, you have people like Bill Fitzmaurice (renowned for world class sounding cabs that are DIY) posting a regular basis. They will give you the absolute best advice you can get.

    PS - not saying there isn't some people here who can help, but there is a greater well of knowledge over there... just like how I would probably suggest people looking for controller related advice come to this forum.

  3. #3
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    Also here - http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/live-...ying-guide.php

    It's high-level and simplistic but a good start in learning about why you want to follow rules when selecting an amp.

    Check out the Behringer EUROPOWER EPQ1200 or EP2000. With these you have a little more headroom above your RMS wattage but not so much that you'll worry about distortion or blowing your speakers. If you think you want to really crank them up toward peak wattage, check out the EUROPOWER EP4000.

    I chose Behringer since that's what brand of speaker you bought, but Crown, QSC, & Samson also make great amps.

  4. #4
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    Check out the Behringer EUROPOWER EPQ1200 or EP2000. With these you have a little more headroom above your RMS wattage but not so much that you'll worry about distortion or blowing your speakers. If you think you want to really crank them up toward peak wattage, check out the EUROPOWER EP4000.
    Yes, thank you. I was thinking about the inuke NU3000 because of the price, but I saw it had bad reviews. I haven't made up my mine but this looks like an option.

  5. #5
    Tech Guru sobi's Avatar
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    Most of the Behringer gear gets bad reviews because they have earned a rep over the last 15 years for making gear that is notorious for failing way earlier than other manufacturers products. VERY recently, they have been getting a slightly better reviews, but for the most part, I still haven't heard any pro's really say they trust them yet.
    If you want quality, QSC and Crown are good starting points. There is a saying i've come across lately with the higher quality gear... buy once cry once. It's more money up front, but less hassle not having to deal with repairs, problems, upset clients due to those problems, and in the long run, less money anyhow since you probably won't need to buy new gear nearly as quickly, or want to upgrade out of frustration.
    I don't know if their amps carry the same warranty, but the QSC active series speakers carry an amazing 6 year warranty. That speaks volumes that a company is willing to back up their product for that long.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by sobi View Post
    Most of the Behringer gear gets bad reviews because they have earned a rep over the last 15 years for making gear that is notorious for failing way earlier than other manufacturers products. VERY recently, they have been getting a slightly better reviews, but for the most part, I still haven't heard any pro's really say they trust them yet.
    If you want quality, QSC and Crown are good starting points. There is a saying i've come across lately with the higher quality gear... buy once cry once. It's more money up front, but less hassle not having to deal with repairs, problems, upset clients due to those problems, and in the long run, less money anyhow since you probably won't need to buy new gear nearly as quickly, or want to upgrade out of frustration.
    I don't know if their amps carry the same warranty, but the QSC active series speakers carry an amazing 6 year warranty. That speaks volumes that a company is willing to back up their product for that long.
    QSC's amps do indeed carry the 6 year warranty. I have a GX5 that is going on it's 5th and it's still singing away happily. The EP4000 would be good, and the GX5 would be good as well. My buddy has an EP2500, and he pushes his system WAY harder than I do and his has been going a good 4 years. I chose the QSC just because of the warranty and they were priced relatively close to each other. The GX5 will also enable you to run subwoofers and speakers on the same amp if you choose to expand later on, as it has a built in crossover.

    When choosing any amp however, the rule of thumb when matching speakers to amps is that you want the amp to have double the rated RMS rating of the speakers at the given impedance. Again, that's RMS rating, NOT PEAK POWER. So in the case of your speakers with a 500W Continuous (RMS) rating, you would want an amp that puts 1000W into them.
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  7. #7

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    I don't know if you are from USA or Europe but here in USA you could get really well-tuned and powerful similar PA systems from Carvin, very affordable, too.

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