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[Dennis Wiggins]

We were doing what we could at the Pour House in 1983.   

The inside stack was my DJ rig, powered by a pair of CS400s. The outer stack was for the band "Scrap Metal".  This was the  warmup band, the FuddTones (the guitar player's name was Fudd).  That was me playing bass.

-Dennis

[John Roberts {JR}]

I recall putting the CS400 out of it's misery around the timeframe of the S generation CS800. The manufacturing cost difference between the CS400 and CS800 was so small that the dealer and retail price just didn't make sense in the context of a rationally priced line of amplifiers, from the consumer's perspective. RIP.

JR

[Douglas R. Allen]

I recall putting the CS400 out of it's misery around the timeframe of the S generation CS800. The manufacturing cost difference between the CS400 and CS800 was so small that the dealer and retail price just didn't make sense in the context of a rationally priced line of amplifiers, from the consumer's perspective. RIP.

JR

Wasn't there something like a CS500A or AB in that line? Same size as the cs800s rack wise but 250 watts at 2 0hms?

Douglas R. Allen

[John Roberts {JR}]

Wasn't there something like a CS500A or AB in that line? Same size as the cs800s rack wise but 250 watts at 2 0hms?

Douglas R. Allen

Interesting... According to the Peavey website there is a CS500A which is the exact amp (CS400 replacement) that I thought we killed...  In fact i was lobbying to release it and let the marketplace decide because as i recall, we had orders on the books, it was finished and just waiting to be released to production. My recollection was that it was nixed by upper management in an attempt to reduce the number of low volume, low profit SKUs. Perhaps they built out the orders on the books. I doubt peavey made much money from it. 

It looks like at least some of these were built and escaped out into the world. I also wanted to expand the 2U switching supply technology CS line up in power to a few KW but that program lost momentum. A later CS line revision after my time was done reverting back to more conventional technology IIRC. 

JR

[Dennis Wiggins]

I recall putting the CS400 out of it's misery around the timeframe of the S generation CS800. The manufacturing cost difference between the CS400 and CS800 was so small that the dealer and retail price just didn't make sense in the context of a rationally priced line of amplifiers, from the consumer's perspective. RIP.

JR

I ran those two CS400s into the "turn of the century", when I traded them in for a single PV2600.  I still keep the 2600 for  backup/utility.

-DW

[kristianjohnsen]

I also wanted to expand the 2U switching supply technology CS line up in power to a few KW but that program lost momentum. A later CS line revision after my time was done reverting back to more conventional technology IIRC. 

JR

I remember buying two CS 800 S and loving them when they first came out (and paying through the nose for them, too).

A little later, Peavey released the CS 1800G and CS 3000G which were very capable at the time, but what a dissappointment in terms of both wheight, refinement and visual design.
That, and the CS 3000 G was almost insanely expensive.

I got four of the CS 1800G and had them in service for close to 10 years before selling them on.

I always thought the CS-G series was a big step backwards from the CS-S.  The one CS 800 S I have left is still used for the odd little job like showing a film clip in a restaurant, etc, and the super-quiet fan is much appreciated.  (The other one was stolen at a venue during a break-in, I had chained the rack to a bunch of subs and some furniture, but the bastards unbolted the amp from the rack and disconnected it and fled.)

[John Roberts {JR}]

I remember buying two CS 800 S and loving them when they first came out (and paying through the nose for them, too).

A little later, Peavey released the CS 1800G and CS 3000G which were very capable at the time, but what a dissappointment in terms of both wheight, refinement and visual design.
That, and the CS 3000 G was almost insanely expensive.

I got four of the CS 1800G and had them in service for close to 10 years before selling them on.

I always thought the CS-G series was a big step backwards from the CS-S.  The one CS 800 S I have left is still used for the odd little job like showing a film clip in a restaurant, etc, and the super-quiet fan is much appreciated.  (The other one was stolen at a venue during a break-in, I had chained the rack to a bunch of subs and some furniture, but the bastards unbolted the amp from the rack and disconnected it and fled.)

My recollection is the -G series predated the -S series, at least they did as far as technology and coming from the drawing board. IIRC the 1800G export was delayed for a while over fitting the larger 50Hz transformer in the 2U chassis. The digital group volunteered to design a switching supply that would fit in that space for the same cost, initially just for the export market. If you think the the ones you bought were expensive, the cost work-ups I saw for the the digital group's version of a switching supply was so expensive I killed that approach. I think we finally ended up using a more expensive steel in the transformer to get 50 Hz performance in 60 Hz size. The 3000-G was delayed for a while for a different reason. There were issues related to US agency approval (as i recall the east coast and west coast office of UL had different opinions about what was the legal current draw from a standard line cord, but that's another story).

The CS800S was supposed to anchor a whole series of power points ranging up to 3.5kW or so, but they never were finished for whatever reasons and a later version of CS amps came out using conventional technology. This was disappointing to me since I developed some nice plug-in modules for the -S chassis that were intended to support an entire family of amps, but it's not my job to worry about that stuff any more.

I don't know enough about product availability and pricing in your country to comment intelligently. All of those amps are old soldiers that were good in their day.

JR

PS: As I recall the engineer started working on the switching power supply for the CS800S after the export CS1800G switcher was cancelled, so the timing should have been -G well before -S, even in export markets.
 

[kristianjohnsen]

My recollection is the -G series predated the -S series, at least they did as far as technology and coming from the drawing board. IIRC the 1800G export was delayed for a while over fitting the larger 50Hz transformer in the 2U chassis. The digital group volunteered to design a switching supply that would fit in that space for the same cost, initially just for the export market. If you think the the ones you bought were expensive, the cost work-ups I saw for the the digital group's version of a switching supply was so expensive I killed that approach. I think we finally ended up using a more expensive steel in the transformer to get 50 Hz performance in 60 Hz size. The 3000-G was delayed for a while for a different reason. There were issues related to US agency approval (as i recall the east coast and west coast office of UL had different opinions about what was the legal current draw from a standard line cord, but that's another story).

The CS800S was supposed to anchor a whole series of power points ranging up to 3.5kW or so, but they never were finished for whatever reasons and a later version of CS amps came out using conventional technology. This was disappointing to me since I developed some nice plug-in modules for the -S chassis that were intended to support an entire family of amps, but it's not my job to worry about that stuff any more.

I don't know enough about product availability and pricing in your country to comment intelligently. All of those amps are old soldiers that were good in their day.

JR

PS: As I recall the engineer started working on the switching power supply for the CS800S after the export CS1800G switcher was cancelled, so the timing should have been -G well before -S, even in export markets.

Hello JR.

I was hoping you'd comment.

I don't know if my timeline is screwed or whether the realease dates were really different over here. 

At any rate, I remember the plug-in modules for both output and input on the CS 800 S.  IIRC the amp shipped with no modules and you ordered whatever you wanted along with the amp. 

I bought Speakon outputs and XLR/TRS combo plug inputs with TRS loop through.  The combo connector was used on these cards well before general market recognition and I had a surprsising amount of troubleshooting calls due to people not "getting" that the XLR also accepted TRS and trying to plug a jack cable into the "loop out" which was buffered.  How typically tidy of you, JR  !

I also remember the X-over cards.  Again, IIRC correctly, the main reason I skipped was the fairly high cost as well as the X-over only feeding "into the amp" with no provisions for connecting outside equipment (or not enough, or something).  I actually ended up bying a couple of Behringer Super-X crossovers which I though were super-clever with their output delay of up to 2 og 3 ms on the HPF 

I also remember the CS amps which came out after the CS 800 S (and possibly after the G-series, here).  They kinda went back to the original design with the "cattlebrand"...eeer I mean "lightning" style Peavey-logo on the front of the amp.  After a while a 4 channel version of the CS 800 also came out, which I thought was clever, but by then I had "moved on". 

Also, some of the newer models had "funny" names (too me, at least) compared to simple names like 200, 400, 800, 1200, 1800 (which yielded the same output as 1200 BTW) and 3000.  I think there was a CS 4070, or something like that, at one point.

I also remember the PV-series very well.  They were a lot more affordable and still decent contenders.  I owned at least one of those.  They had kinda clever names that I liked better, for instrance 8,5C and 1,3K.  I guessed it meant "centa" and "kilo" and figured I was a lot smarter than the local sales-guy who didn't "get it".

Always fun to chat Peavey with you, JR.  Makes me feel like an "insider" 

[Will Rigby]

Are those FH-1s in your DJ rig? I had to mix on a rig with those this summer (underneath Yamaha club series)...

[John Roberts {JR}]

Hello JR.

I was hoping you'd comment.

I don't know if my timeline is screwed or whether the realease dates were really different over here. 

At any rate, I remember the plug-in modules for both output and input on the CS 800 S.  IIRC the amp shipped with no modules and you ordered whatever you wanted along with the amp. 

Likely done by your distributor.

I bought Speakon outputs and XLR/TRS combo plug inputs with TRS loop through.  The combo connector was used on these cards well before general market recognition and I had a surprsising amount of troubleshooting calls due to people not "getting" that the XLR also accepted TRS and trying to plug a jack cable into the "loop out" which was buffered.  How typically tidy of you, JR  !

Yes, we had that issue domestically too, but the CS800S was first PV amp to use active balanced/differential input, so hardwire thru jacks would imbalance the input for XLRs. I think we ended up relabeling it to reduce service calls for low gain.

I also remember the X-over cards.  Again, IIRC correctly, the main reason I skipped was the fairly high cost as well as the X-over only feeding "into the amp" with no provisions for connecting outside equipment (or not enough, or something).  I actually ended up bying a couple of Behringer Super-X crossovers which I though were super-clever with their output delay of up to 2 og 3 ms on the HPF 

Ouch... I really liked the generic fixed crossover. The adjustable was just to satisfy customers who are always right. I suspect later modules could include DSP et al. I envisioned a fully fleshed out solution like the old PL cans, but never got there.

I also remember the CS amps which came out after the CS 800 S (and possibly after the G-series, here).  They kinda went back to the original design with the "cattlebrand"...eeer I mean "lightning" style Peavey-logo on the front of the amp.  After a while a 4 channel version of the CS 800 also came out, which I thought was clever, but by then I had "moved on". 

Also, some of the newer models had "funny" names (too me, at least) compared to simple names like 200, 400, 800, 1200, 1800 (which yielded the same output as 1200 BTW) and 3000.  I think there was a CS 4070, or something like that, at one point.

I also remember the PV-series very well.  They were a lot more affordable and still decent contenders.  I owned at least one of those.  They had kinda clever names that I liked better, for instrance 8,5C and 1,3K.  I guessed it meant "centa" and "kilo" and figured I was a lot smarter than the local sales-guy who didn't "get it".

Always fun to chat Peavey with you, JR.  Makes me feel like an "insider" 

Yup, the PV 8.5c and 1.3k were named for 4 ohm power which they delivered just barely.. When I inherited those amps, I added output devices to make them more robust into 2 ohms and changed the names to reflect their 4 ohm bridged power (1200W and 2000W). I didn't care for the early PV amps but the later ones were robust workhorses, while back breakers.

=====
Don't get me started on the lightning bolt logo.. I removed it from several products, but it had an advocate in the highest place who brought it back. 

JR

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