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£500 bass amp..?
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 21 April 2025 at 7:43pm
Hi folks,

I've got a budget of £500 max for a secondhand amp to see me through a couple of events. It'll be used to power 4 Fane XB's (new 1000w model), in 2 cabs which are similar to F1 218's, running at 4ohms per cab. 

I've used a C-audio XR3801 with the cabs, but it starts clipping before the cabs go anywhere near what they're capable of, so the 1200w per cab appears not to do the job. Maybe it could've gone further into clipping, and I'm being cautious, who knows.. 

Options I've found - 

- Camco Vortex 6 (£500, highest rated output, maybe not great on subs) 
- 2 x QSC RMX 1850HD (£500, 2nd highest rated output) 
- QSC Powerlight 4.0 (cheapest option, joint 3rd rated output) 
- EV P3000 (almost cheapest, lowest rated output, I really like them, but will it go louder than the C-audio?). 
- T. Amp Proline 3000 (3rd cheapest, joint 3rd rated output) 

Other possibility is selling the XR3801, and a spare RA3001, and getting one of the 4 channel Soundgear Jupiter 10 amps new, which would power subs and mids.. Would defo make a lighter amp rack, but not sure I like the thought of the effect it'll have on the mids sound quality wise (4 x B&C 12NDL88's in front loaded cabs). Are they any good? 

Any thoughts/opinions on best option..? 

Cheers 😊
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njw View Drop Down
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Points: 2700 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote njw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 April 2025 at 8:27pm
 A proline 3000 may be the third most powerful but it'll give four xb's all the power they'll need despite the on paper specs. Also, is the xr3801 definitely in good health as I used to have several of them on bass and not once did I find them lacking, again, despite being 'only' 2x1200w.

 
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KDW32 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Larry23 Larry23 wrote:

Hi folks,

I've got a budget of £500 max for a secondhand amp to see me through a couple of events. It'll be used to power 4 Fane XB's (new 1000w model), in 2 cabs which are similar to F1 218's, running at 4ohms per cab. 

I've used a C-audio XR3801 with the cabs, but it starts clipping before the cabs go anywhere near what they're capable of, so the 1200w per cab appears not to do the job. Maybe it could've gone further into clipping, and I'm being cautious, who knows.. 

Options I've found - 

- Camco Vortex 6 (£500, highest rated output, maybe not great on subs) 
- 2 x QSC RMX 1850HD (£500, 2nd highest rated output) 
- QSC Powerlight 4.0 (cheapest option, joint 3rd rated output) 
- EV P3000 (almost cheapest, lowest rated output, I really like them, but will it go louder than the C-audio?). 
- T. Amp Proline 3000 (3rd cheapest, joint 3rd rated output) 

Other possibility is selling the XR3801, and a spare RA3001, and getting one of the 4 channel Soundgear Jupiter 10 amps new, which would power subs and mids.. Would defo make a lighter amp rack, but not sure I like the thought of the effect it'll have on the mids sound quality wise (4 x B&C 12NDL88's in front loaded cabs). Are they any good? 

Any thoughts/opinions on best option..? 

Cheers 😊



Camco is ok on stable power power otherwise no

Qsc are solid as is ev
Proline if they start clipping you go toast
Sound gear stuff Chinese rebadge is good budget reliable  option for mid top


Second hand chevin if  your lucky be good. 

Amp with good amount of headroom above the drivers you will be good. 


Edited by KDW32 - 21 April 2025 at 9:44pm
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Contour View Drop Down
Young Croc
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Have had good results in the past using F218 on QSC PL4.0
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by njw njw wrote:

 A proline 3000 may be the third most powerful but it'll give four xb's all the power they'll need despite the on paper specs. Also, is the xr3801 definitely in good health as I used to have several of them on bass and not once did I find them lacking, again, despite being 'only' 2x1200w.

 

Appreciate your reply, thank you 😊
 

I'm pretty sure the 3801 is in good shape. Was thoroughly serviced by a trusted engineer very recently. I'm used to hearing the boxes with more power/headroom (used to run them with PL 6.0's), so getting ~600 per driver was always going to be a bit of a come down..

I've never used the Proline 3000, and there's one available locally, so might see if I can give it an audition. 
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by KDW32 KDW32 wrote:

Originally posted by Larry23 Larry23 wrote:

Hi folks,

I've got a budget of £500 max for a secondhand amp to see me through a couple of events. It'll be used to power 4 Fane XB's (new 1000w model), in 2 cabs which are similar to F1 218's, running at 4ohms per cab. 

I've used a C-audio XR3801 with the cabs, but it starts clipping before the cabs go anywhere near what they're capable of, so the 1200w per cab appears not to do the job. Maybe it could've gone further into clipping, and I'm being cautious, who knows.. 

Options I've found - 

- Camco Vortex 6 (£500, highest rated output, maybe not great on subs) 
- 2 x QSC RMX 1850HD (£500, 2nd highest rated output) 
- QSC Powerlight 4.0 (cheapest option, joint 3rd rated output) 
- EV P3000 (almost cheapest, lowest rated output, I really like them, but will it go louder than the C-audio?). 
- T. Amp Proline 3000 (3rd cheapest, joint 3rd rated output) 

Other possibility is selling the XR3801, and a spare RA3001, and getting one of the 4 channel Soundgear Jupiter 10 amps new, which would power subs and mids.. Would defo make a lighter amp rack, but not sure I like the thought of the effect it'll have on the mids sound quality wise (4 x B&C 12NDL88's in front loaded cabs). Are they any good? 

Any thoughts/opinions on best option..? 

Cheers 😊



Camco is ok on stable power power otherwise no

Qsc are solid as is ev
Proline if they start clipping you go toast
Sound gear stuff Chinese rebadge is good budget reliable  option for mid top


Second hand chevin if  your lucky be good. 

Amp with good amount of headroom above the drivers you will be good. 

Thanks 🙏

Both events are using either decent quality gensets, or mains power, so the Camco will be fine on that count. 

When you say about the Proline 'if they start clipping you go toast' - do you mean if there's any clipping, they fry voice coils faster than usual..? 

I'd love to find a Chevin, but they're about double my budget for the power I need. I did find an A5003 that needed fixing a while back, for very good monies, but it's long gone sadly. 
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Thank you.

Any idea how those older Qsc amps are when it comes to servicing these days..? Are parts available etc? 
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njw View Drop Down
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Points: 2700 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote njw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 April 2025 at 10:55pm
Originally posted by Larry23 Larry23 wrote:


When you say about the Proline 'if they start clipping you go toast' - do you mean if there's any clipping, they fry voice coils faster than usual..? 





 Exactly that, the prolines are capable of supplying A LOT of continuous average power and will blow even the most manliest of drivers if you're not careful with them. That said, I had two of them in an install for a few years powering 8x18's and with a Cloud limiter on the system I never had an issue.
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by njw njw wrote:

Originally posted by Larry23 Larry23 wrote:


When you say about the Proline 'if they start clipping you go toast' - do you mean if there's any clipping, they fry voice coils faster than usual..? 





 Exactly that, the prolines are capable of supplying A LOT of continuous average power and will blow even the most manliest of drivers if you're not careful with them. That said, I had two of them in an install for a few years powering 8x18's and with a Cloud limiter on the system I never had an issue.

That's useful, thank you. I'll be using a DB-Mark XCA LMS, which I've not used as yet, but hoping the limiters are decent and it shouldn't be hard to stop issues with them being over powered.
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SamV View Drop Down
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There was a Matrix XT7000MF on ebay for £500 the other day.
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by SamV SamV wrote:

There was a Matrix XT7000MF on ebay for £500 the other day.

Darn. Have been checking for them.. Can't see it now, that would've been ideal. 


Edited by Larry23 - 22 April 2025 at 8:20am
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KDW32 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Larry23 Larry23 wrote:

Originally posted by njw njw wrote:

Originally posted by Larry23 Larry23 wrote:


When you say about the Proline 'if they start clipping you go toast' - do you mean if there's any clipping, they fry voice coils faster than usual..? 





 Exactly that, the prolines are capable of supplying A LOT of continuous average power and will blow even the most manliest of drivers if you're not careful with them. That said, I had two of them in an install for a few years powering 8x18's and with a Cloud limiter on the system I never had an issue.

That's useful, thank you. I'll be using a DB-Mark XCA LMS, which I've not used as yet, but hoping the limiters are decent and it shouldn't be hard to stop issues with them being over powered.

I've used the xca+ and limiters were fine on it.

The QSC RMX are definitely still serviceable but I have no idea about the Power light. Hopefully someone else here knows.

The Camco vortexs if your using them on modern generators with avr  should be fine. I've had problems in the past with them on old generators not wanting to turn on whilst other amps had no problem. 
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