Matt Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 does anyone know of anywhere who sells god quality second hand amps and speakers for a decent price. our school is currently looking for a new system, but they want to buy a rubbish 300wpa, which will nto do the job, they said if we can get one for the same price (£600) we can have that one. we need at least 600wpc@8ohm, speakers and amps. could anyone forward me in the right direction, or provide me with some links to get me started. I know you lot can help me, you know your stuff. (how else can I big up this forum?) Matt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 Marquee Audio have a second hand/ex demo list on their web site as do most suppliers. Also, it might be worth calling a few hire companies as they normally have old stock for sale at half decent prices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 we need at least 600wpc@8ohm, speakers and ampsNot getting at you Matt but why do you need 600W and not 300W? It'll only be 3dB louder which is only just discernable. Also, it's quite possible to get those extra 3dB by choosing a more efficient speaker and/or one without so much power compression. I think that simply saying we need xxx watts because xxx is a big number is the wrong way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted September 27, 2003 Author Share Posted September 27, 2003 well, our 300watt speakers get lost in our hall, we hired in a 1.2k system and it sounded about 300 times better once, and the other technician gave me that rating, he is a sound engineer so I am just listening to him, anyway thanks for the link, I'll check it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 Matt, what gear do you have at the moment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted September 27, 2003 Author Share Posted September 27, 2003 couldnt edit last post, forgot about the 5 min rule. pooh. anyway, our speakers are 300watt, what I meant to say was the amp is 150watt, but bridged into 300watt. but the amp is a pile of, well needless to say, you wouldn't use it as a monitor amp, I'll leave it at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 anyway, our speakers are 300watt, what I meant to say was the amp is 150watt, but bridged into 300watt. but the amp is a pile of, well needless to say, you wouldn't use it as a monitor amp, I'll leave it at that.So didn't it occur to you that you don't actually need a *bigger* system, you just need a *better* system? What's the dimensions and capacity of the venue in which you use the equipment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 Matt, The normal rule of thumb is to give each speaker twice it's RMS rating from the amp. Therefore if you are only giving your speakers 150W when you should be giving them 600W then that is probably your problem. (assuming that the amp is 150w into 8Ohm and the speakers want 300W at 8 Ohm) - what models are they? This could also be dangerous as you could easily damage your speakers if you push them with an underpowered amp. With £600 you can get a good second hand amp - but don't do this on spec - you should be able to hire a decent 600W p/c amp for about £20 per day - do this for your next gig and hear the difference. Anyway - for future reference the max power handling figure for a speaker isn't as useful as some hifi shops would have you belive - you need to know the sensitivity of the speakers (normaly given as (xxx)dBA @ 1W 1M This tells you how efficient they are and how much sound you can get for how much power you put in. Enjoy... It never makes sence to replace more than you have to.... I hate to go on about this but the yamaha sound re-enforcement handbook (see books thread in training forum) is great for this type of information... :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted September 27, 2003 Author Share Posted September 27, 2003 ok, thanks for all the advice, you are all very helpful, I'll try and get you a picture of the hall we want them in. the current speakers we have are some carlsbro's, which my colleague says are crap, and they are, but they are mounted so high that they dont do anything in the volume area, let alone bass. as I said, we had hired in a very nice system, I think the rating was 1.2k into 8ohms, and we had it srtup either side of the stage, and it sounded much beter. even if we dropped our current speakers to that level, they are a little louder, but they sound really tinny. all I need is sites that have god quality second hand/third hand ex demo/theatre stuff etc... that can be sold to a school, anything in the world is better than our current system, trust me, oh and we just blew the left channel on our amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 some carlsbro'sah, nuff said. They have a nasty habit of the drive units going 'soggy'. You could do worse than replacing the drive units at around £75 each side, leaving you plenty for a good amp. Then when you get more funds, buy a new pair of main speakers and keep the old ones for fills. try www.bonza.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted September 27, 2003 Author Share Posted September 27, 2003 we are working on squeezing slightly more out of the school now, up to £1300 hopefully if everything goes smoothly... plus who would want to replace the drivers in the carlsbro's anyway, we wan a decent system that has decent sized speakers that we can custom mount into the sides of the stage. better not be that bona-budy thing, I have had that before you cant get rid of it!!!! argh!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted September 30, 2003 Author Share Posted September 30, 2003 ok I have found a crown CE1000 amp. rated 2x450w into 8 ohms for £332 ex vat. can anyone give me their wisdom on this please, seeing as you all live in the sky and know an incredible amount :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 Can you "try it out" in your setup before you buy it just a little - see what a difference it makes to your speakers.. You could do a lot worse. If you like the improvement buy it - if not - don't Make sure you get your speakers up to a decent height (but safely) and see how it does. As for the amp - it isn't bad I've hired them before an didn't have any real problems... you will need to check how much it's been used/ abused and see how it sound for you. Good Luck and enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshwah Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 Those amps are pretty good keep in mind thats into 4 ohms not 8 all I could say is have a look around as you can find better amps at similar price second hand. The best thing to do is try more than one amp out and if your getting new speakers obviously try them out together with the amp. On thing with the ce1000 is I've seen the pots go a bit funny and the resistance on each channel not being the same so we have had to run them at 0db on the pot. A good place to try is LMC Audio they always have a good stock of gear in also give them a ring and chat they've always been good to me. The numbers 0121 359 4535. Other thing to do is to get a company to come in and demo systems for you this may be a wise idea as the sound of the system is down to so many factors which the company can advise you on such as placement, throw etc hope thats of some help. Feel free to PM me. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 1, 2003 Share Posted October 1, 2003 A good place to try is LMC Audio they always have a good stock of gear in also give them a ring and chat they've always been good to me. The numbers 0121 359 4535 I've had good experiances with them in the past as well. Another place to try is Bonza Sound in guildford Unfortunatly I can't find what I'm looking for from either of these places at the moment :D Does anyone know of a reasonably prices source of second hand subs? Either 2 218's or 4 118's or similar - the type of job I've been doing means that I've grown out of my 2 EV SB121's - At the moment I typicaly use 2 SX300's per side and idealy need something to go with..... Help ???? James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.