Thomann Amps

[TomHoward]

Afternoon all

 

I have an amp rack which is a mess of brands and powers - QSC RMX, McGregor, Peavy and others. The mix of connectors, powers, and the weight of some of these (the QSCs and the McGregors are both over 20kg an amp) is not ideal, and they don't look neat either.

 

If I were to sell all the mismatched power amps, and sort myself out with 6x Thomann E800s (or similar, which I reckon I could do for about the same price), would I be about to do something stupid, swapping known brands for Thomann, or are these amps alright in most people's experience?

 

I have 2x 6u racks, three amps in each, they are used for various FOH boxes and 6x EV SX100+s for monitors.

[Brian]

TBH, the only one in that lot which is as good as the Thomanns is the QSC. The rest are all so-so. Don't forget the 3-year warranty on Thomann stuff.

[Cerbertech]

I have had some for over three years they are the TA1050, one went back under the three year warranty (3 weeks before it's end) as It had gone in to protect and stayed there - fixed and back to me in 10 days with no question.

 

Only just brought another one (can't remember model number), It is 4 channels to drive my monitors.

 

I use them for a mixture of pubs, halls etc plus some small outside stuff up to 250 people driving various custom built cabs from an old Eminence design book.

 

They are not QSC quality but I prefer them to the Peaveys, Studiospares, Samson etc (I even swap out my rack with an install of Peaveys in one venue to drive the house cabs as I get a better sound (and the rack goes to drive monitors anyway).

[dirkenstein]

I have a little D4-500 that comes out to play whenever I need more monitors than usual, or don't want to drag our superannuated 18Kg rack of 2 channel monitor amps around and deal with its mess of adapter cables (mix of binding post and jack outs.... yuk) and the tendency of the 600W amp (brand unknown. possibly unknowable) to occasionally need 'percussive maintenance'.

 

It's tiny (1U) light (5Kg) and cheap (£250). Hisses just a little bit, but that's to be expected with a cheapo class D design. Otherwise it sounds perfectly OK.

I got a B-stock one initially (to save around £30) and one of the channels had let go with a shockingly loud hum as soon as I got it.

It was refunded with no quibbles (free return shipping. to Germany) - they would have given me another b-stock one had they had one at the time. The other option was to pay the difference and get a brand new one.

So I waited a couple of weeks and got one when there was another B-stock one available.

 

That one doesn't get heavy use but hasn't gone wrong either.

 

You do get occasional duds with Thomann amps, but he 3-year warranty and low-hassle returns generally make their purchase a no-brainer at the price. In my opinion there's nothing else out there at the price point worth buying. You really need to go to at least QSC or Crown (and then not necessarily the budget ranges) before you get consistently better kit.

[arobinsonaudio]

I have 2 of the t.amp TSA 4-700's one was sent out faulty but that was resolved quickly and they sent out a new one. Other than that I have never had an issue with them.

[dbuckley]

I have a little D4-500 ... and one of the channels had let go ...

 

I share that experience. Replaced without quibble.

[Dave SA]

Steer clear of the 1u amps they have a bad reputation regarding reliability.

 

The heavyweight ta series are great.

 

The tsa 4-700 is reliable but the sound quality is not the best, although it is still very useable. The TSA 4000 they have just added to their line in my opinion will simply be a permanently bridged 4-700.

 

Never used the e800, there is such a small price difference between that and the TA's that I wouldn't consider it TBH.

 

They also have the proline 3000, which is an extremely well respected bass/sub capable amplifier to it's rated outputs. It's clipping behaviour is not great however, so needs processing to protect your drivers. It's also extremely heavy and probably not what you are looking for.

 

Their warranty is great and they are very good about what they will take back as a warranty repair. I have sent back amps installed in budget jobs that have had channels shorted by clients etc repaired under warranty.

 

Hope that helps you a little?

[Russ83]

Our music department have one of the TA series for the PA system in the classroom and it also gets taken on all the tours and concerts.

 

Only two things I'd say against ours are the noise of the cooling fans (I certainly wouldn't take it anywhere near a recording) and the weight, although the E800 is 5kg lighter that the TA1050.

[TomHoward]

Thanks guys

 

Most of what we are doing is small scale stuff, often with plenty of monitor channels, it's a college enviroment so not usually serious power but plenty of channels. The current QSC RMX1850 rarely get turned up beyond halfway - often only around 1/4.

 

We've put the E800 into a couple of installs around the site, and I've been impressed by the performance, but they're not seriously pushed. I do like the low weight of the E400/800 though.

 

I could put in each rack

 

2x TA600s for mons

1x TA1050 for FOH

 

Total weight 44kg

Total cost £570

 

or

 

2x E400 for mons

1x E800 for FOH

 

Total weight 29kg

Total cost £363

 

How much worse do you think E series will be? Is it sound quality or reliability that suffers?

[Matt Riley]

Thanks guys

 

Most of what we are doing is small scale stuff, often with plenty of monitor channels, it's a college enviroment so not usually serious power but plenty of channels. The current QSC RMX1850 rarely get turned up beyond halfway - often only around 1/4.

 

We've put the E800 into a couple of installs around the site, and I've been impressed by the performance, but they're not seriously pushed. I do like the low weight of the E400/800 though.

 

I could put in each rack

<snip>

 

How much worse do you think E series will be? Is it sound quality or reliability that suffers?

 

Hi Tom,

 

I reckon a bit of both!

 

I would keep the QSCs for FOH as they are more reliable and also better sounding, then replace the mons amps with either the 4 channel TSA 4-700 or a couple of the E800 amps.

 

M

[i_hate_fisicks]

I bought one of the D4-500s. It went back immediately. I've never heard an amp sound so bad. Don't know if I had a duff one or what, but it certainly wasn't a useable sound to my ears. Even my girlfriend noticed, and that was compared to an iNuke, not a Lab Gruppen or anything!

 

The heavier ones have got good reputations though.

 

I've also had good results so far with my iNuke 6000s. Ever so cheap, ever so light, ever so powerful, and with built in DSP. It's a winner. Can't comment on reliability yet as mine only get very occasional use.

[TomHoward]

 

I would keep the QSCs for FOH as they are more reliable and also better sounding, then replace the mons amps with either the 4 channel TSA 4-700 or a couple of the E800 amps.

 

That's an interesting idea. The only thing it doesn't do is free up the value in the QSCs.. and they are still pretty heavy.

 

Our amps are only really used at events - so don't see much usage. I'd buy more QSCs and keep the racks matching if it weren't for the weight - a 6u rack would end up over 60kgs.

[cedd]

Somebody above mentioned an iNuke. Whilst we've ascertained that their power ratings aren't always quite to be believed, their RMS figures (once you can find them) still stack up pretty well. As the X32 seems to have gone down reasonably well all told, surely amps from the "new Behringer" might be worth looking at too? They're very lightweight (sometimes suspiciously so). Just thinking, in terms of global market Behringer must have the market share compared to what's basically a retailer's own brand. How do people find them? There's a lengthy thread over on speakerplans about them, and it doesn't slate them by any means.

[TomHoward]

Christ, they are light, Behringer iNuke NU1000 at 2.8kg? Is that even right?

 

What's people's experiences of the iNukes and EPQ450 / 900s?

I don't really need the 1U premium of those though - weight is a consideration, but to be honest I'm not bothered about space.

[timd]

I've got an iNuke 3000 which I'm extremely happy with. I've not tried it through any particularly nice speakers, but it knocks the spots off a Peavey PV2000 and other generic amps.