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Amplifier Recommendations Orbit 4 + Cubo 15s |
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jack.bergquist23 
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Joined: 09 March 2021 Status: Offline Points: 34 |
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 Topic: Amplifier Recommendations Orbit 4 + Cubo 15sPosted: 09 March 2021 at 4:46am |
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Hi all,
Have been wandering through here for some time reading stuff until I've put myself in circles at some point - a lot of information available! So I've been looking at putting a small but (hopefully) somewhat scaleable system together for a while and am finally at a point where I can making some headway on it. Am currently looking at buying a set of Orbit 4's and pairing them (initially) with perhaps 2 x Cubo 15's running KAPPA PRO-15LF-2s. Do appreciate this might leave me a bit empty between 100-200hz, but that will probably be the next stage of the build and without building something more complex on the bottom end I couldn't see a better solution (open for suggestions here if there's an obvious better solution). My key question at the moment is for some advice on amps. I'm based in New Zealand (wish I was still in the UK for this) so local options are almost non-existent and even Australia options are slim. So I get the fun of contending with all the import duties, shipping costs to the end of the earth etc. Does anyone have any advice on the most efficient way to amplify this system? The Orbit's are bi-amped and 600w AES a side for the 12" neo mid option, and 100w for the mid/high section. Also thinking of either getting a Behringer UltraDrive DCX2496LE or a Driverack PA2 as seems to be the most efficient way to manage everything and gives me some more features to play with as I learn a little more about it. As you can probably tell not on an endless budget here, but also want to try and make reasonable investments where I can. Thanks in advance for the help here :-) Jack |
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Conanski
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Joined: 26 January 2006 Location: Ottawa, Canada Status: Offline Points: 2543 |
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Posted: 09 March 2021 at 11:35pm |
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You might just buy some Behringer amps to power it for starters, a couple 4ch models would give you room to grow and if you can get them with DSP built-in even better.
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jack.bergquist23
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Posted: 10 March 2021 at 4:33am |
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Thanks for the suggestion, have been having a look at the Behringer options, but doesn't look like there's anything that really meets the needs of the low mid's. I've been advised I should target around 980w per channel at 8 ohms output :-S
Looks like I should be able to get in on a low power option for the mid highs and probably bridge one of the 4 channel ones for the subs though. Just one left to find now! Also, if I was to prioritise a higher spend on one unit, would I be better off funneling the extra cash into the mid-high amp? Assume I'll get better sound quality that way? Cheers Jack
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Conanski
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Joined: 26 January 2006 Location: Ottawa, Canada Status: Offline Points: 2543 |
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Posted: 10 March 2021 at 6:10am |
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I like the sound of class AB on mids and highs, on lows and subs just about anything with sufficient grunt will get the job done. Of course the more you pay the less difference there is in SQ between different amp types so this applies more at the lowend of the market.
Flexablity can play a role in what amps you choose too, when I first bought amps for my system I bought smaller versions for the mids and highs, but then I ran into a situation where I needed to split up the amp rack and ended up powering the tops on one side with one of the big amps. And guess what, it worked just fine, limiting was still in place so nothing was in danger of blowing up any more than it was before. So if you were to buy two 4ch amps sized to power the mids, bridge 2 channels for the subs the other two channels power mids and highs, now you have more setup options and using the amp this way is easier on the power supply and often produces better output. I took a quick look at the Orbit4 specs and saw it was rated 600w on the 12, anything in that ballpark will power it and the difference between 600w or 900w will be barely noticable.. that's 1.5dB and worse still it's up at the power compression end of the drivers range where that extra power often just goes into generating heat.
Edited by Conanski - 10 March 2021 at 6:13am |
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bob4
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Joined: 29 February 2004 Location: Finland/Germany Status: Offline Points: 1843 |
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Posted: 10 March 2021 at 8:47am |
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Yeah don't worry about amp power too much. Doubling amplifier power increases acoustic output only by 3 dB. So for example going from 250 to 500 W gives you only an increase of 3 dB in the output. Anything beyond the 600 W nominal program rating is nice to have for headroom, but at diminishing returns. As mentioned, once you put too much power into the druver, the voice coil heats up, and the speaker becomes quiter/less sensitive. Aim for an amp capable of 400- 700 w per channel.
The orbit is horn loaded, high sensitivity, for small gigs you won't put more than 20- 50 W average power into them. With 32 W input you will be doing 120 dB comfortably. A friend of mine has a pair of Community RS220, which are somewhat comparable to the orbit in terms of sensitivity. We got him an old jbl 6230 100w per channel amp. We couldn't get the amp to clip...... it was too loud
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Noyzmunky
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Joined: 10 June 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1260 |
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Posted: 10 March 2021 at 12:31pm |
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4 channel berry will be a good start. they dont come with dsp though so you will need a cheap xover to go with.
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my name is Inigo Montoya...you killed my father, prepare to die!.
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jack.bergquist23
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Posted: 10 March 2021 at 9:45pm |
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Thanks so much for all the advice here! Really appreciated :-)
Certainly allays some concerns that I had after reading a number of heated debates here and on other forums about matching / exceeding speakers power ratings (not wanting to kick that off again here). Initial usage will be small gigs maybe a couple of side stages for an outdoor event next summer until I can rebuild the saving a bit to invest in growing things a bit more + get some more experience so I can do it the right way. Cheers Jack
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Conanski
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Joined: 26 January 2006 Location: Ottawa, Canada Status: Offline Points: 2543 |
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Posted: 11 March 2021 at 5:47am |
Amplifier headroom is a good thing but as long as you have some DSP limiting in play almost any reasonably appropriate sized amp can be used. Of course people want to get the most out of a speaker investment so it makes sense to size amplifiers to be able to do that. I think what gets lost in the "discussions" you see is that the gains in SPL get smaller and smaller the closer you get to a speakers rated long term power handling capacity, and that number can vary a LOT depending on the music genre so there is no one size fits all. This seemingly simple question is a lot more complicated to answer once you dig into all the variables that affect it.
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jack.bergquist23 wrote: