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who makes amps for RCF boxes - is it Powersoft ?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Line Array Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: who makes amps for RCF boxes - is it Powersoft ?
    Posted: 13 April 2022 at 12:12pm
looking at some amp modules in RCF boxes they look a lot like the amp modules from Ottocanali ...

but does Powersoft actually make them ?  or is it somebody else ?  

also why did powersoft develop iPal with B&C and not RCF if RCF buys their amps ?

frankly RCF sub drivers look kinda weak compared to B&C iPal ...


Edited by Line Array - 13 April 2022 at 10:53pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote smitske96 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 April 2022 at 12:57pm
Powersoft do not make the rcf and db tech modules. They are made by their own digipro part of the company.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Line Array Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 April 2022 at 11:03pm
kinda disappointing.

but maybe it's good that engineers in Italy have some options for where to work.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FOO Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 7:48am
Originally posted by Line Array Line Array wrote:

kinda disappointing.

but maybe it's good that engineers in Italy have some options for where to work.

And why is that disappointing? 
RCF make some good amps. Just look at the ART312A box. Its been around for ages, and there simply isnt another product that can perform and deliver the same kind of sound for that kind of money. 

RCF knows what they are doing. Sure they have made some lemons thrue the years, but who hasnt Smile

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MarjanM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 8:28am
Many of the digipro amp modules are non reparable when they blow up.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Earplug Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 9:07am
Originally posted by MarjanM MarjanM wrote:

Many of the digipro amp modules are non reparable when they blow up.


Have you tried repairing some of the new JBL EON or PRX modules? Or most of the Class D stuff out there? Generally not worth bothering with. Just throw away & replace...   Dead


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kedwardsleisure Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 9:23am
The old ART300/500 amps were analogue and thru-hole construction, generally reliable except for the usual problem with most active cabs involving stuff vibrating off the board. SAme with the early DB opera range. But like with anything, cost cutting comes along and the AEB digipro modules are not IMHO really in the same league.

Maybe I'm alone here but I think the 'designed by crown' EON and PRX amps are more friendly to work on. Certainly they have gone to the trouble of writing a service manual with reliability bulletins and diagams in there, which is more than you can say for AEB Industriale who (according to their service agent) want the whole module changing for new.

Edited by kedwardsleisure - 14 April 2022 at 9:25am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Earplug Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 9:38am
"Maybe I'm alone here but I think the 'designed by crown' EON and PRX amps are more friendly to work on."

Aye, marginal - but give me an old G2 module any day!  Smile



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote APW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 10:30am
Originally posted by kedwardsleisure kedwardsleisure wrote:

The old ART300/500 amps were analogue and thru-hole construction, generally reliable except for the usual problem with most active cabs involving stuff vibrating off the board..
......
......

An anecdote regarding the old RCF/Mackie Art 300/500 amplifiers, I used to do the electronics repairs for a couple of music shops, one shop had a service contract at a hotel that had 20 of the Art 300A speakers permanently installed (at height) in a largish ball room, these were powered 24/7 and the system worked well for several years, then one weekend 5 died, then a few days later another 3 failed.

The fault was simple in that the amplifier has two 100ohm 1.6watt resistors that drop the +/- 40v rails down to feed the +/-15v rail regulators, one of these resistors would fail and so one of the 15v rails would disappear. This caused both the LF and HF amplifiers to swing hard one way, blowing the output transistors and both the drivers.

I advised the shop to get the remaining 12 cabinets to me ASAP so I could change the 100r resistors so the remaining cabinets wouldn’t suffer the same fate. The hotel refused to let the shop remove the remaining cabinets as they were "setting up for a conference and needed them”!!

On the day of the conference the shop "got the call" as the rest of the PA had stopped working and could they do something to help!!

This all happened at the time when RCF and Mackie were going through their “divorce” and due to the way they had set up the service arrangements the 12” woofer (or re-cone kit) was unobtainable, and as it’s not a standard chassis size nothing else fits the plastic cab. It was decided to wright-off all 20 failed cabinets.

…. All because a slightly undersized pair of resistors (and a client that didn't take advice)!!



Edited by APW - 14 April 2022 at 10:59am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Line Array Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 11:00am
are you guys saying that surface mount devices are not repairable ?

wouldn't that apply to powersoft and other high-density amps as well then ?

or basically all modern class D amps ?

even my 20 year old QSC PLX ( class H ) is Surface Mount.

wouldn't you have to go all the way back to toroid amps under that definition of repairability ?

or are you talking about something else ?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote APW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 11:10am

SMD is repairable but can be a PITA compared to thru-hole.

Most industrial (and well designed) electronics tends to be a hybrid, with all the small signal components in SMD and the power stuff still thru-hole.



Edited by APW - 14 April 2022 at 11:19am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jbl_man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2022 at 11:33am
Originally posted by Line Array Line Array wrote:

are you guys saying that surface mount devices are not repairable ?

wouldn't that apply to powersoft and other high-density amps as well then ?

or basically all modern class D amps ?




Anything is repairable if money is no object, but finding someone willing to put the time into repairing, and obtaining certain hybrid parts at an economic rate versus replacement of a module is the question.
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