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-- Amp For 2 El-36 Earthquakes????????

Amp For 2 El-36 Earthquakes????????

I got 2 EL-36 for a killer price of $1100 out the door about 2 years ago and now need a amp. I don't know much about amplifiers or setting up sound so any help on a good amp aroun $1200 or under to push my 2 virgin earthquakes would be much appreciated.



If your in San Francisco go to World of Stereo.

oh god!

these beasts are the real deal. a little harsh sounding, but a pair of these babies will kill four double 18" bass bins! great choice

for the optimum i would reccommend an amp that deals out at least 1000watts rms @ the ohmage these babies are rated. i guess they are 8ohm? if so, an amp that gives 1000watts @ 8ohm is gonna cost a lot. so if money is tight you should look at something that can push an absolute minimum of 500watts rms per channel@ 8 ohm . buy second hand. and only look at 'crown', 'mc2 audio', 'carver', 'powersoft' or similar quality amps. when you go horn loaded bass like the cv 'earthquakes' it is a waste to go with a peavey or similar priced amp so go for a higher priced beast. the higher the price, the better control you will have on the big drivers in the bins.

good luck, and make sure you dont underpower these or you will not notice until its too late.

oh, and ps...

putting a tiny 20watts from a home hi-fi into these will create a huge kick! they are so efficient!

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 oh god! these beasts are the real deal. a little harsh sounding, but a pair of these babies will kill four double 18" bass bins! great choice for the optimum i would reccommend an amp that deals out at least 1000watts rms @ the ohmage these babies are rated. i guess they are 8ohm? if so, an amp that gives 1000watts @ 8ohm is gonna cost a lot. so if money is tight you should look at something that can push an absolute minimum of 500watts rms per channel@ 8 ohm . buy second hand. and only look at 'crown', 'mc2 audio', 'carver', 'powersoft' or similar quality amps. when you go horn loaded bass like the cv 'earthquakes' it is a waste to go with a peavey or similar priced amp so go for a higher priced beast. the higher the price, the better control you will have on the big drivers in the bins. good luck, and make sure you dont underpower these or you will not notice until its too late.

Thanks alot man!!!!!!! Can't waite to blow a speaker huggin candy ravers drum!!!!!!

Pics or stfu

quote:

Originally posted by Fl@k Monkey Pics or stfu

Drink a FOSTERS!!!!!!! I heard it takes takes the edge off!!!!!!!!!

Sif drink fosters, bloody yanks

Tooheys New is where its at

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 oh, and ps... putting a tiny 20watts from a home hi-fi into these will create a huge kick! they are so efficient!

Until they get blown from being under powered. Not having enough power is the root cause for 99% of speakers blowing.

At minimum, I would go with a QSC 2450, and that's if you are only driving 1 sub per amp. That will give you 500W Stereo at 8 Ohms. I would recommend going with a Crown XTI 4000 though, those are what I used when I had my club to drive the subs. The XTI series is a kick ass amp, especially if you are going to be mobile. They are light as hell, only weigh 21 lbs vs. 40+ for most others that are the same size.

quote:

Originally posted by Progress Ent. Until they get blown from being under powered. Not having enough power is the root cause for 99% of speakers blowing. At minimum, I would go with a QSC 2450, and that's if you are only driving 1 sub per amp. That will give you 500W Stereo at 8 Ohms. I would recommend going with a Crown XTI 4000 though, those are what I used when I had my club to drive the subs. The XTI series is a kick ass amp, especially if you are going to be mobile. They are light as hell, only weigh 21 lbs vs. 40+ for most others that are the same size.

yes. 20watts is not something to drive an 18" bass driver. i was just trying to give an impression of how efficient these beasts are..

something to add to your advise: it is worth going for an amp with a high damping factor. something like 500 or more. this determines the control the amp has over the cone, and ultimately the price you will have to pay for the amp. amps that are good for bass reinforcement have high damping factors.

Crown K2. It's one of the few amps that will drive a 4ohm bridged load without excess distortion - this means you can parallel both EL36's and drive them off a single amp in bridged mono mode.

The K2 puts out 2500 watts in 4 ohm bridge mode. plenty of power.

Not only is it one of the few amps to drive a 4 ohm bridged load without distortion, it's one of the few that has a dampening factor of 3000 dampening factor, as rich mentions, is very important when it comes to high powered woofers.

http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/legacy/136713.pdf

They are discontinued now but their popularity makes them easy to find on the used market.

I think if you do some research you'll find this is one of the few ways to get this much power into 8 ohm speakers while maintaining low distortion, light weight and high dampening factor. You'll find many amps that can drive a 4ohm bridged load, but 90% of them do so at an increased distortion factor, often 1% THD. You won't find many amps with a 3000 dampening factor, either.

quote:

Originally posted by MERiDiAN5i2 Crown K2. It's one of the few amps that will drive a 4ohm bridged load without excess distortion - this means you can parallel both EL36's and drive them off a single amp in bridged mono mode. The K2 puts out 2500 watts in 4 ohm bridge mode. plenty of power. Not only is it one of the few amps to drive a 4 ohm bridged load without distortion, it's one of the few that has a dampening factor of 3000 dampening factor, as rich mentions, is very important when it comes to high powered woofers. http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/legacy/136713.pdf They are discontinued now but their popularity makes them easy to find on the used market. I think if you do some research you'll find this is one of the few ways to get this much power into 8 ohm speakers while maintaining low distortion, light weight and high dampening factor. You'll find many amps that can drive a 4ohm bridged load, but 90% of them do so at an increased distortion factor, often 1% THD. You won't find many amps with a 3000 dampening factor, either.

3000! thats the highest i have heared of!

To echo what a lot of other people have mentioned, you should definitely go with Crown amps. Speakers like that need an equally superb amp.

Thanks for all the feedback

Now i have to save$$$$$$$$$$$ to buy a amp

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 3000! thats the highest i have heared of!

Exactly. This is because the K2 (and Crown's CTs2000 and CTs3000) use a BCA (balanced current amplifier) output stage rather than the typical class AB output stage... It's a very different sort of design that has significant benefits when it comes to driving low-impedance loads. As dampening factor is directly related to output impedance (internal impedance of the output stage, not the speaker), the low output impedance of the BCA stage significantly increases dampening factor.

The other benefit of BCA is lower power dissipation, so higher efficiency, less power drawn from the outlet, and lower heat output.

That said, I forgot the CTs2000 is also a BCA amp, and it will deliver 1000w/channel @ 8 ohms, so it's another good option for the EL36's, although quite a bit more pricey than a used K2... but is still in production.

http://www.crownaudio.com/amp_htm/cts.htm

Excuse me for asking, but why does the speaker gets blown from being underpowered?

I too have two Earthquakes, and when I first got them I bought a QSC PLX3402 Amp and a Samson Crossover. Man, that crossover made a huge difference as it only delivers the low frequencies to the amp. QSC No longer makes the PLX3402, instead it got replaced by the PLX3602 which delivers more clean power. Oh, and did I mention the amp is only like 20lbs and 2U Racks? Oh yeah!!! THAT's VERY LIGHT & SMALL for an amp that powerful.

BTW... I've NEVER been able to clip this amp!!! It's rock solid! The most solid AMP I've ever owned.

A crossover is mandatory to get decent sound out of subs

One thing to look for in a crossover is a subsonic filter, sometimes called a low cut filter, or high pass filter, which prevents the very low frequencies from reaching the amp.. 40hz is usually a good spot for this. If you have a 40hz low cut filter, crossover point around 120-130hz, you'll end up sending only 40-120hz to the sub. This is ideal.

Frequencies under 40hz don't have much response from the sub and can really bog down both the amp and the speaker itself.

I like the DBX 223 myself; it's a solid unit with a built in low cut filter at 40hz, XLR connections and it sounds good. It's also fairly affordable.

http://www.dbxpro.com/223/223.php

antronx... it's not that too little power itself blows speakers.. it's that when one runs a weak amp on a big speaker, they end up cranking up the amp to it's limits, and often end up running the amp into clipping. Clipping will take out a speaker quite quickly.

You can run a clean 20 watt signal into a big speaker all day... no problem. The problem comes when the waveform going into the speaker is clipped and distorted. I run a little 75w/channel amp into speakers rated 500w program power all day here at home, but I never crank it.. probably push 40 watts to them at the very most, which ends up quite loud in this little room. works out great... of course, it's alot more fun when I take these speakers out and hook them up to my big amp

quote:

Originally posted by MERiDiAN5i2 antronx... it's not that too little power itself blows speakers.. it's that when one runs a weak amp on a big speaker, they end up cranking up the amp to it's limits, and often end up running the amp into clipping. Clipping will take out a speaker quite quickly. You can run a clean 20 watt signal into a big speaker all day... no problem. The problem comes when the waveform going into the speaker is clipped and distorted. I run a little 75w/channel amp into speakers rated 500w program power all day here at home, but I never crank it.. probably push 40 watts to them at the very most, which ends up quite loud in this little room. works out great... of course, it's alot more fun when I take these speakers out and hook them up to my big amp

While that is true, there also is an issue with running too little power to drive the subs. I can't really explain it, I'll see if I can find the curves the guy from EAW used to explain it to me when I was setting up my club. There is some sort of reverse action caused by the size of the driver magnet vs. the power coming in from the amp that will cause the speaker to blow if it is underpowered.

Interesting, have yet to read/hear of such a thing, but ya learn something new everyday!

quote:

Originally posted by antronx Excuse me for asking, but why does the speaker gets blown from being underpowered?

using an underpowered amplifier usually means you will end up pushing the amp too far and end up distorting what is going into the loudspeaker. this is called clipping. it is where the amp's output is not a smooth sine wave, but a square/sine (the peaks and troughs of the sinewave get cut short as the amp reaches its peak operating range. the clipping point you can cause mechanical damage to the loudspeaker workings as well as causing voice coil deformation/burnout..

the scratching sound you get after over doing it on a loudspeaker is the sound of the voicecoil no longer running smoothly within the motor structure, but instead rubbing against stuff like the top plate/magnet structure..

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 using an underpowered amplifier usually means you will end up pushing the amp too far and end up distorting what is going into the loudspeaker. this is called clipping. it is where the amp's output is not a smooth sine wave, but a square/sine (the peaks and troughs of the sinewave get cut short as the amp reaches its peak operating range. the clipping point you can cause mechanical damage to the loudspeaker workings as well as causing voice coil deformation/burnout.. the scratching sound you get after over doing it on a loudspeaker is the sound of the voicecoil no longer running smoothly within the motor structure, but instead rubbing against stuff like the top plate/magnet structure..

Interesting Now i want to do my homework on speakers and sound

Don't get hung up on the dampening factor. The number is largly used for marketing and has little effect on the amplifiers control of the speaker. Read the attached article if you are interested in learing about dampening factor.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/studyhal...jump.php?pdf=df

quote:

Originally posted by SCUM Interesting Now i want to do my homework on speakers and sound

A good place to learn about audio basics. Its a lot to read but you can learn alot.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/studyhall/ab_index.php

quote:

Originally posted by Allen Mueller A good place to learn about audio basics. Its a lot to read but you can learn alot. http://www.prosoundweb.com/studyhall/ab_index.php

Thanks
very helpful

quote:

Originally posted by Progress Ent. While that is true, there also is an issue with running too little power to drive the subs. I can't really explain it, I'll see if I can find the curves the guy from EAW used to explain it to me when I was setting up my club. There is some sort of reverse action caused by the size of the driver magnet vs. the power coming in from the amp that will cause the speaker to blow if it is underpowered.

they could have meant an amp lacking enough power to move the motor efficiently and smoothly enough meaning the mechanics get over stressed an cause damage to the inner suspension workings and cone.

i suppose an 18" driver can have moving parts that weigh up to quarter of a kilo at a guess.. so subjecting it to a unsmooth square/sinewave will certainly be magnified on the stresspoints such as where the cone is bonded to the voice coil.

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