posty07 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Hi, I've had some peavey bass bins and tops for a few years now and when using them together, I don't seem to get that much more bass than without the subs. However I'm wondering if when I plug the tops into the "Hi-Top" output, is there a built in crossover taking out the bass and just sending the higher sound to the tops? I mean, the tops give very good bass when I'm not using the subs but I'm not sure if the subs are adding much when used together, should I use an external adapter connect straight to each of the speakers or will it make no difference? Cheers, Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.spoons Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 You are probably correct that the 'Hi-Top' output is high pass filtered as this is usually the case with both passive and powered/active cabs. Are the speaker passive or active/powered? Are they from the same range and a recommended pairing? What size are the bass drivers in the tops and subs? If passive running the subs off a separate amp using an active crossover should improve matter (as long as the subs have sufficient power capacity). Give a bit more detail and maybe we'll be able to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
posty07 Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 You are probably correct that the 'Hi-Top' output is high pass filtered as this is usually the case with both passive and powered/active cabs. Are the speaker passive or active/powered? Are they from the same range and a recommended pairing? What size are the bass drivers in the tops and subs? If passive running the subs off a separate amp using an active crossover should improve matter (as long as the subs have sufficient power capacity). Give a bit more detail and maybe we'll be able to help. Sorry should have given more detail. The tops are 350w 4ohm 15" passive and the subs are 150w 8ohm 15". They're not recommended pairs as the subs are very old and the tops are the hi-sys range. I'm only using an 800w amplifier at the moment as when originally started I didn't have enough funds to buy a better one but can do now if you recommend it. Is it ok to use just one more powerful amp if it's enough to power them all? Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure the ohms shouldn't be mixed but I haven't got round to buying new subs yet and I was thinking of getting the hi-sys subs, would you recommend me using these? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 The original Hisys2 4R tops were designed to be used with the corresponding Hisys 4R bass bins that used a passive crossover wired (1+ 1- FR in/out) and (2+ 2- HP out) to keep the impedance at the amp constant at 4R when using the correctly wired peavey link leads. Do your current bass cabs have that facility? I doubt it if they are rated 8R; they've probably just got LP crossovers and chances are you might be running everything in parallel and overloading your amp; which sounds way too underpowered in any case. Will your amp drive below 4 ohms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.spoons Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 And even if you're not overdriving the amp, the 4 ohm tops will be soaking up the lion's share of the power leaving the 8ohm subs lacking. The 150 watt subs are also somewhat underpowered as a match for the tops so will not contribute so much to the overall sound anyway. If your amp will drive a 2 ohm load try borrowing a crossover and run tops off one channel and subs off the other to give you independent control (BTW, if the amp has DSP it'll probably have a built in crossover). You'll still be short of power but it'll let you experiment with driving the subs harder to match the tops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkfs9 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 You basically have a mismatch of sub's and tops. Don't think you will gain anything when using the sub's as the tops are the better cab, and that's why you don't see any or little difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwright2104 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Best practice is to have a separate amp for subs, and amp for tops. Give you much better control. If you can afford a Speaker Processor or Crossover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I've never been that impressed what comes out of Peavey subs. They always seem to just be a bass box, that takes over the bass role from the tops that connect to them. What I mean is that you might find a Peavey full range cabinet with an HF driver and maybe a 15" bass driver, in a fairly simple box. On it's own, it goes down quite low. When you add the sub, it's another 15" driver in a box, and the crossover removes the bottom end from what it passes to the tops, and the quite capable bass component of the tops goes somewhere else. With other designs, the sub adds an additional chunk of efficiency to the very bottom, leaving the tops with some proper bass content - expanding the available frequency range. I've never been convinced Peavey's really do this. I had been using a Peavy system for a while, and to solve a one-off problem, I had to bring in a new amp rack with electronic crossover. I was short of cables, so decided to sacrifice the subs, and discovered the full range tops sounded just as good without the subs - nothing much different at the bass end at all. Since then, I've not used a Peavey system - has anything changed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkfs9 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Peavey make low end and high end gear let's not generalise and think its all low end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
posty07 Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Thanks for your help everyone. I think I'll be getting some of the Eurosys subs and may try and use another amp or crossover. I'm a bit short of space on the road and don't want to make the setup too large with two amps so will probably get a much larger amp, do you have any recommendations for an amp if I'm using Peavey Eurosys 800s with the Eurosys 115 bass bins? Also, is it possible to bypass the bass speaker output by using a speakon double adapter..? Sorry, I've just realised I said the complete wrong speaker in the first place... I meant to say I have the Eurosys 800s at the moment. Thanks again, Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkfs9 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 You need two amps one for tops one for sub's. Or use one side of a big enough amp for each. This would be mono of course then.plus the crossover aswell set at about 90/100 htz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.spoons Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 You really do need to run a separate amp for subs, though if you run in mono you can get away with a single two channel amp if it has sufficient power. Alternatively consider an active sub or two if funds allow, I used a single EV SbA750 with a pair of passive 115H tops (4 ohms and driven by a Crown xTi 2000) for several years and it was never underpowered. Tell us what your budget is and maybe someone can suggest something suitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkfs9 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I used a peavey gps 3400 amp in mono for sub's and tops great for medium/smaller gigs each can got around 650 watts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.spoons Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 That should drive the system well enough. If you run in mono with one channel driving the tops and the other the subs you'll need an active crossover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
posty07 Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 Well I do have another 800w amp that I could use..? Would two 800w ones do it? Then would I still need a crossover or would I be ok? I might not need to buy new subs then I guess if I get a better output with two amps Thanks again for your help, I've been using the same system for years and I've always wondered if I was just imagining it not being a better output with the subs as well :') Cheers,Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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