General Music Chat

I just recently picked up 2 Crown DC-300 amps, a Mackie mixer, a reverb unit and an equalizer. All used. I have 2 giant Peavey SP-1 mains and 2 floor monitors. Will the stuff I just bought power all of that sufficiently? Is it normal to use older Crown amps for such a purpose?
Some people have told me I should go after one of those powered mixers....I know...they're easy and light to use. BUT...I really want to keep the old analog sound. Then I've also heard that the powered mixers won't be able to push all of the passive speakers I have. At this point I'm just confused. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

email: ampex351@gmail.com

Yes, the Crown amps will power your setup. Use one for the mains, the other for the monitors.

The good news: You got quality vintage gear that will sound great when you learn to use it effectively.

The bad news: It's heavy as hell.

I used to gig with a system like this and it will cover a lot of ground. You can download most of the manuals and spec sheets online. Spend some time and really learn your gear. If you goof and roast an amplifier it will be very expensive to repair.

If you are only running vocals thru the pa it will probably work. I disagree with Mike on this one. The best way to power speakers is to look at peak power and run power amps that will provide 2 times that amount. For example if your speakers say the peak power is 600 watts power them at 1200 watts. The biggest mistake I see bands do with sound is underpower their speakers and crank them up. They just distort sound thin and like crap!

On the other hand.....I also recently picked up a mint Yamaha EM 300
mixer/amp. 12 channels plus equalizer built in. Is something like that powerful enough to handle passive mains AND monitors? We will be doing med to large gigs.

Thanks for your help.

What are you going to run through the pa? Vocals only? Vocals and keyboard? The entire band? If the latter it absolutely won't work. I have 2 SP2G's and 2 Mpro 418 subs and I use 7000 watts total. It sounds very clean and punchy. I run my system stereo with tops and subs. That is the minimum system needed for medium to large venues in my opinion.

Bring all your amps and use em if you got em. The Crown DC 300 was a mainstay of Showco who ran the sound for Caljam and the US Festival. With a conservative rating of 150/300/600 (RMS/Program/Peak) they regularly covered crowds of 500,000 people when properly applied to speaker loads on the main stage as well as the delay towers:

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/print/us_festival

As Jeff said it matters what sound you want to reinforce, how loud you need to get, and how many ears you have to cover.

On the other hand.....I also recently picked up a mint Yamaha EM 300
mixer/amp. 12 channels plus equalizer built in. Is something like that powerful enough to handle passive mains AND monitors? We will be doing med to large gigs.

Thanks for your help.

Ooh you just stepped in it with that EMX 300.

That my fave powered mixer..

The deal is that they push enough to cover a passive monitor setup of about 200W and a pair of mains about 200W..but that's deceiving.

They are talking 200W continuous as opposed to the rating that normal mains and monitors use these days.



Set up your mixer in the off position, run your power amps through that mixer.

Connect the monitors to the powered mixer. test.
Shut down.
Connect the mains to the mixer with the power amp connected, test.
Then shut it down.

Then start it up with everything connected, start low volume and slowly tweak it for quality of sound.

If you do it right, you can get the monitors to basically run off of the powered mixing board, while the power amp will be responsible for pushing the mains exclusively, depending.

Since you have 2 power amps, I don't see you having much of a problem as long as your mains aren't too powerful.

Isn't that emx 300 warm sounding? I hate the VU meters from 1872, but the sound is to die for...

Practice setting up and taking down.. mark all levels so you can duplicate the good results anywhere.

You are either going to love or hate that powered mixer.. It completely hit or miss.

Hope that helps..

Starfish, I LOVE this old Yamaha EM300. This particular one I found is absolutely mint and came in a road case. I could not say no.
Anyway...I love the sound it makes. I'm wondering if I should simply use it for the mains (Peavey SP-1's) 150 watts and then use one of my Crown DC-300 amps for the monitors. Would the Yamaha have enough power to run 2 big mains (vocals only)? This thing is bulky but I love it!!
Any more ideas?

The Yamaha powered mixer does nto have the power to do those Peaveys. I didnt' realize these were the old big suckers - really made for outside sound rather than club work as they are long-throwing.
Set it up like Scott suggested - using each Crown to power one SP1 (can you bridge the Crowns to double the single-channel output?)

Ooops, I mis read part of it so I had to go back and reread..

Yes, Mike is correct.

Each SP-1 is 300 watts. Your initial post says so.

You need 1 of your power amps PER CHANNEL + the mixer.

If you cover the mains, which both of those crowns will do, you just gotta cover the monitors via the powered mixer.


What monitors and how much W?



http://www.ebay.com/itm/300845134354?ss ... 1423.l2649

Ebay has a pair of A411H, but the guy is insane.

The pair of A411H is the matching monitor(s) for that Yamaha mixer.

The original main is supposed to be S4115H..2 of them.

page 5.

http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/ ... 4115HE.pdf