[lennyr]

I need to buy a new amp, and have narrowed my choices down to either a QSC GX3/GX5 or an RMX 850/1450, and would appreciate some help determining what I really need.


They will be powering a pair of ancient (but recently rebuilt) Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers and a DQ-1W subwoofer (sharing the speakers' amp via passive matrixing crossover).


Is there a meaningful sonic difference between the GX and RMX amps? My speakers are power and current hungry, but my listening space is pretty small. They used to run off a Hafler DH-200 just fine.


Thanks in advance!

 

[Spindizzy]

The GX is more their entry level line and is not able to run bridged in 4Ohms or handle 2Ohm speakers whereas the RMX can. On the plus side the GX have a RCA input but you can easily get an adapter for XLR connection.

Both fans are pretty noticable - the GX runs a little louder but I would recommend swapping out the fans for quieter ones anyway if the equipment is in the same room as you. So my vote would be for the RMX line...

 

[Vic C]

If I may make a suggestion.


I ve been a qsc guy and have been for years. I used several modles over the years but I no longer own any in my persoanal system. Used to own all the USA sereis at one time. The original PLX were monsters.


I now own all Yamaha P series amps. If you are concidering external amps I would highly recomend these. They are built better and in a sence are smarter then your choice QSC's. They use less AC and the sound surpasses the QSC's by far.


The only amps I like from QSC now really are the new powerlite series but the price is, well Im sure you know.


The RMX ams are not even half as good as the old USA series wich was based on their series on power amps except with more power and more features. The USA's were replaced with the RMX and in one partucular install the RMX850 was horrible where an older USA 850 was purchased by our clint and he hasnt had a single complaint. The RMX series doesnt seem to have the headroom like the USA's did. If you ever looked inside and understand build youll see the RMX is not soemthing you would expect from QSC....


The GX is extreamly entery level and built like the RMX so either way your getting almost the same amplifier.

I used to have a DH500PRO and the sound quality from those old Haflers was awesome....The RMX / GX wont nearly be the same.


Please check out the Yamaha P series, youll be happy you did. The differance in my system is phonemal. They range in power from 250 watts per channel to 700 watts per channel. They are dead silent as well as the fan(s) DO NOT run until the temp increases as the power demand increases. So unless your like me and put on a Depeche Mode Concert DVD/Bluray and turn the volume to 0db the fans will seem to never run. Even when they do they are very quiet ball bearing models.


The Yamaha's are one of the best real amps left in pro audio!

 

[M Code]

Check out the Crown XLS amps..

Very compact, affordable, reliable.

The DQ10s are very inefficient, I would suggest at least 200W per channel..

In our Pro Sound install biz, we use Crown amplifiers exclusively..


Just my $0.02...

 

[WCunha]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Vic C /forum/post/0


If I may make a suggestion.


I ve been a qsc guy and have been for years. I used several modles over the years but I no longer own any in my persoanal system. Used to own all the USA sereis at one time. The original PLX were monsters.


I now own all Yamaha P series amps. If you are concidering external amps I would highly recomend these. They are built better and in a sence are smarter then your choice QSC's. They use less AC and the sound surpasses the QSC's by far.


The only amps I like from QSC now really are the new powerlite series but the price is, well Im sure you know.


The RMX ams are not even half as good as the old USA series wich was based on their series on power amps except with more power and more features. The USA's were replaced with the RMX and in one partucular install the RMX850 was horrible where an older USA 850 was purchased by our clint and he hasnt had a single complaint. The RMX series doesnt seem to have the headroom like the USA's did. If you ever looked inside and understand build youll see the RMX is not soemthing you would expect from QSC....


The GX is extreamly entery level and built like the RMX so either way your getting almost the same amplifier.

I used to have a DH500PRO and the sound quality from those old Haflers was awesome....The RMX / GX wont nearly be the same.


Please check out the Yamaha P series, youll be happy you did. The differance in my system is phonemal. They range in power from 250 watts per channel to 700 watts per channel. They are dead silent as well as the fan(s) DO NOT run until the temp increases as the power demand increases. So unless your like me and put on a Depeche Mode Concert DVD/Bluray and turn the volume to 0db the fans will seem to never run. Even when they do they are very quiet ball bearing models.


The Yamaha's are one of the best real amps left in pro audio!

Hey Vic is that a BBE DS24 in your rack?

 

[Vic C]



Quote:
Originally Posted by WCunha /forum/post/20772609


Hey Vic is that a BBE DS24 in your rack?

NO


its the DS48

I love this thing.....I know what your going to ask? why?


Not that I dont trust the Marantz crossover, I do and I dont lol, I use it more so for the limiter and parametric Eq...I also have a BEARINGER EX3300 enhanser thats barly doing anything any more. Ive had it for a really long time and originally was used to tweek my front tower speakers that I custom built. It gave them that little extra "sweetness" that I just couldnt get. Between the DS48 and that they are very life like sounding for a dual 6 1/2" and horn combo. When I paly something like from Seal you can almost sware hes right in the room instead of two big speakers.


As you can see I have a ton of power in that rack and I do like to use it. This Marantz has volume limiting but I had the DS 48 way before the Marantz moved into that rack.


Also I can computer program the crossover and see EXACTLY where the fronts center and sub points are, I can set differnt filters such as Butterworth, LinkWitz Rylie and a bunch of others...Im using a Link/Ry slope and the system sounds awesome with the precision crossover set. Im using the DS48 to run L/C/R/SUBS My rears are unprocessed from the Marantz to the amp.


Being a Pro Audio guy as well, I bring alot of that to home theater. Its where I started in audio actually.

 

[WCunha]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Vic C /forum/post/20773162


Being a Pro Audio guy as well, I bring alot of that to home theater. Its where I started in audio actually.

That makes sense now.


I have always contemplated using pro audio amps in a home theater. I play bass and was actually thinking of using a DS24 in my bass rig to tri-amp my custom built bass cabs that I built. Anyway sorry for the thread derail I just found it interesting to see pro audio gear.


By the way Vic that looks like a very loud set up

 

[Vic C]



Quote:
Originally Posted by WCunha /forum/post/20773459


That makes sense now.


I have always contemplated using pro audio amps in a home theater. I play bass and was actually thinking of using a DS24 in my bass rig to tri-amp my custom built bass cabs that I built. Anyway sorry for the thread derail I just found it interesting to see pro audio gear.


By the way Vic that looks like a very loud set up

Yea it gets up there. The theater is on the 2nd floor of the house and my 2 10" Passive subs fed from the P7000s can shake the garage door ( 1st floor)


My 10" custom built subs use Peerless woofers w/ 4" voice coils. I salvaged the woofers from older Velodyn subs that had bad amps. I build my own boxes and they pound! The system is about 5000 watts


I can play at reference level 0 db and the system is clean and clear.


Audiophiles will argue but if you pulled apart an audiophile amp its exactly whats inside a pro amp minus fans basicly. Some Audiophile designes go beyond that but spec wise these yamaha and my old QSC's speced out very much like other more expensive audiophile amps that looked like a inio fridge covered in heat sink. Ill take to small rack mountable package thats fan cooled any day!


Alot of thing that happen in the audiophile world are directly related whats been going on in pro audio for many many years. An example of that is Bi Amping speakers wich has turned to and created to bi wiring.



PS the Ashly amp is for my ZONE2 ( rock speakrs right now )

 

[WCunha]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Vic C /forum/post/20775500


Yea it gets up there. The theater is on the 2nd floor of the house and my 2 10" Passive subs fed from the P7000s can shake the garage door ( 1st floor)


My 10" custom built subs use Peerless woofers w/ 4" voice coils. I salvaged the woofers from older Velodyn subs that had bad amps. I build my own boxes and they pound! The system is about 5000 watts


I can play at reference level 0 db and the system is clean and clear.


Audiophiles will argue but if you pulled apart an audiophile amp its exactly whats inside a pro amp minus fans basicly. Some Audiophile designes go beyond that but spec wise these yamaha and my old QSC's speced out very much like other more expensive audiophile amps that looked like a inio fridge covered in heat sink. Ill take to small rack mountable package thats fan cooled any day!


Alot of thing that happen in the audiophile world are directly related whats been going on in pro audio for many many years. An example of that is Bi Amping speakers wich has turned to and created to bi wiring.



PS the Ashly amp is for my ZONE2 ( rock speakrs right now )

That's Awesome!

 

[lennyr]

Thanks to all who replied. I had narrowed it down to the QSCs mainly because they seem to get more love around here than the Crowns, and because of the lower fan noise. I'll probably end up doing a fan mod anyway, so I'll have another look at the Crown XLS amps. I hadn't previously considered the Yamaha P series mainly because nobody here talks about them much, and also because Yamaha markets them as PA speakers, but on Vic's suggestion, I will give them a hard look.

 

[Vic C]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lennyr Thanks to all who replied. I had narrowed it down to the QSCs mainly because they seem to get more love around here than the Crowns, and because of the lower fan noise. I'll probably end up doing a fan mod anyway, so I'll have another look at the Crown XLS amps. I hadn't previously considered the Yamaha P series mainly because nobody here talks about them much, and also because Yamaha markets them as PA speakers, but on Vic's suggestion, I will give them a hard look.

LENNY

They market them for the Club Series speakers because they have YS PROCESSING wich is basicly an EQ circut that matches the the amp to the club series speakers responce. The P series is the cheepest in thier line as well as the club sereies speakers. Yamaha' amp line is NOT an endless list of models either like QSC and CROWN. They make a selection of great amps for a certain use/ install. You can turn off the YS processing to have a flat 20Hz~20Khz amp. It bumbs the bass up I beleive and cuts the highs a tad to match the responce of the speakers.


Heres a pic of the inside of the P5000 and P 7000. They dont have a huge transformer, the 2500 and 3500 have a Toroidal on the right side and only one fan and main amp board.


The P sereis is the same amp as the more expensive XP model wich looks exactly the sam eexcept in black, they have the same models 1000 through the 7000, same power only thing added is remote monitoring via LAN. You dont need that in home theater.


You dont hear much about any of these amps becuase QSC and Crown have been really popular for years. Trust me the Yamaha's are no joke and after owning them Ive been making Yamaha products my go to choise for commercial installs. The also make an 8 channel 200 watt per channel amp , it would be killer for a surround system! Its all class D like the Crown XLS

 

[MichaelJHuman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Code Check out the Crown XLS amps.. Very compact, affordable, reliable. The DQ10s are very inefficient, I would suggest at least 200W per channel.. In our Pro Sound install biz, we use Crown amplifiers exclusively.. Just my $0.02...

I would avoid the 1000 model, unless you can live with hiss from your speakers (In my case, I can hear it from 12" away, not a huge problem, but it's a bit annoying.)

 

[MichaelJHuman]

It did not sound like he only had a sub to power?

 

[Vic C]

OK CRAP SORRY SORRY Posted my responce in the wrong thread LOL.....DAMN


Im deleting that post so ignore these last two responce they wont make sence!

 

[kgveteran]

I've been using QSC 1450's to drive my quad 15" Tumult subs for years, they run in 4 ohm bridged each (4).


Talk about deep bass, on top of that my variable L/T gets the Tummies into single digits without a single red light on the amps.


KG.....the price is right too