Power amps

anchorhold · Post by **anchorhold** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 1:43 am

I need to get a power amp for my Mesa Boogie Studio-Pre. At practice it’d be driving a 300W cab, but on the road it’d be driving whatever cab the club/other bands were using.

After a little web browsing and window-shopping it looks like the QSC RMX 850 has an excellent range of features and is right in my price range. I wanted to know if anyone had positive or negative experiences with this line of amps or this manufacturer. Do you have any other amp recommendations? Perhaps something that would compliment the sound of a 620 being run through a studio pre?

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 7:48 am

I have a QSC RMX 850 which I use for two purposes: to drive my small home PA system and to power my bass rig. It sounds great with the PA, plenty of power for it's intended use. It sounds good with the bass rig also, which consists of an Ampeg SVP-Pro tube bass pre and a BBE sonic maximizer into an Avatar 4x10. The first application is stereo, the second bridged mono. The only comment I have is that it can distort if pushed hard in bridged mode. Also, outputs are Speakon and post type only, so be sure that you have the proper cables. I like it a lot, but in retrospect I wish I would have bought the next one up.

Actually, when I bought it from AMS I asked them for a recommendation, the 850 was what they suggested. I think it was a good value. Not exactly guitar, but I hope it helps.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:34 pm

Adam,
My band uses all QSC power amps, (I have 3 of them) and one I have had for 6-7 years now with absolutely no problems. We mainly use them for PA and monitor applications, but they run hard for long periods of time and still sound great.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:54 pm

crown

byu · Post by **byu** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:25 pm

Since it's for guitar, check out:
http://www.randallamplifiers.com/mts/rt250.asp

anchorhold · Post by **anchorhold** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:28 am

Thanks folks. I did a little more checking around in the $300-$400 price range and while crown, peavey, etc all have some decent power amps available for that sticker price, none seem to have the features and versatility of the QSC amps. (Granted, I don’t need it to be all that versatile because it’ll just be used for powering my studio pre, but I like options).

Beyond versatility was mainly concerned about durability and the possibility of the amp “coloring” the sound to any degree. Thanks for letting me know about the distortion when in bridged mono mode Lindsay, I’ll avoid that.

Also, that Randall amp looks **** but $1300 is a wee bit out of my price range. If I had that much money to blow I'd buy another RIC.

beatlefan · Post by **beatlefan** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:46 am

" If I had that much money to blow I'd buy another RIC."

Well said Adam....

qmoder · Post by **qmoder** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:45 pm

I have lots of old Kustom amps. Sorta of a nice combination for Rics al,la CCR. I use a Centron power amp for my bass.
I use a Kustom 3x15 cab and another 2x15 cab with it. I run into the Kustom heads and out of their speaker output jacks into the poweramp's input. I don't recommend this for tube amps though.
The big 3x15 cab has that third speaker up near my ears so that I can hear it remarkably well on stage for fifteen inch speakers.