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[George Friedman-Jimenez]

The Crest Pro Lite 2.0 and 3.0, both with and without DSP, appear to be available, and claim to be "Made in the USA, by an American". Has anyone used one yet? Any comparisons on build quality compared with the Peavey IPRs?

[Pat Latimer]

The Crest Pro Lite 2.0 and 3.0, both with and without DSP, appear to be available, and claim to be "Made in the USA, by an American". Has anyone used one yet? Any comparisons on build quality compared with the Peavey IPRs?

George, I'm sure they meant "assembled by an American". I think the guts are outsourced. i.e., China and possibly others.

Pat

[John Roberts {JR}]

George, I'm sure they meant "assembled by an American". I think the guts are outsourced. i.e., China and possibly others.

Pat

Not to quibble and I don't know for a fact, while many electronic parts are sourced from China these days, if the subject power amps are using novel technology at least some of those parts may be from different corners of the world.

The recent flooding in Thailand, is apparently interfering with some IC fabrication, IIRC some assembly of bare dies into IC packages is done there and in Malaysia.

I don't much care what country the assembly machinery is plugged into, as long as it is working properly.  I do care about the design, but we don't have a corner on that either.

JR

[Yosi Melamed]

I think you mean Damping Factor and unless it is very low it is not usually a factor in real applications where you have to account for the actual load impedance and the cable impedance in addition to the amplifier output impedance.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/what_is_loudspeaker_damping_damping_factor_df/

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/understanding_the_relationship_between_amplifier_damping_factor_impedance_c/

The IPR in question is the 6000, it has a DF of 150, if you bridge it then the impedance doubles giving half the DF.

So a DF of 75 into 8 ohms, calculating the impedance of the amp is Zamp=8/75=0.10666.

The minimum acceptable electrical DF for the whole system is 20, so...
20=ZLoad/(Zamp + Rw)
20*(Zamp + Rw)=ZLoad
20*Zamp +20*Rw=ZLoad
20*Rw=ZLoad - 20*Zamp
Rw=(ZLoad -20*Zamp)/20
Rw=(8-20*0.10666)/20=0.29333 ohm
So a speaker cable with 0.293 ohm resistance is not hard to find, bottom line, on 8 ohm load, depending on your application needs, DF is not a big problem...

The impedance of the SRX728s is 4 ohm so to calculate again for 4 ohms:
Rw=(4-20*0.10666)/20=0.09333 ohm
So even if the amp was stable at 4 ohm bridged, on this application (IPR 6000 on SRX728) the DF is a limitation you need to address with very short and thick cables.

If you haven't bought the SRX yet then stick with an 8 ohm sub and you'll do fine. Better yet, if you didn't get the IPR yet and you still want the 728's (good choice) may be get an amp that can hold 4 ohm bridged loads.

[Yosi Melamed]

"I bought these really cheap amps and guess what? They look and feel cheap..." (go figure). If they are low cost and don't suck, they sound like your classic Peavey products.

I've probably said this before. but if the manufacturer doesn't support using them bridged, there may be a good reason. The manufacturer should know the product limitations better than you or I. Operating an amplifier in bridged mode involves more than just differential output signals, the protection between both channels must be coordinated, etc.

In my experience Peavey is not a very sophisticated merchandiser, and  intentionally disabling a feature in the Peavey model to move customers to the Crest model would only "maybe" work if both were sold and available in the exact same distribution channels. The more likely result of such gamesmanship would be to make the Peavey model less competitive against other similar brands. Of course this is speculation on my part, but informed by a little past experience. 

JR

The quote I gave from TalkBass was supposedly made by a Peavey employee so he should know (or should he have known better?), no way to verify the identity of the poster but people reported it is working.

As for Peavey's marketing, both low end amps and middle class amps have a place in the market, creating this feature difference would make sense if they would want to make a clearer distinction which amp belongs to which class, it wouldn't move people to the higher end brand since lower class amps are for the budget minded users who wouldn't pay more for features they don't absolutely need. Anyway, I only read what's going on in forums, sometimes it's spot on and sometimes it's just eGossip, I tend to believe your experience much more then I do forum speculations.

[Philipp Hausmann]

Thank you for all the info.
I really wanted to use the SRX and use a light amp, I have a pretty limited budget so I have to cut the cost of the amp to do so, I thought I could get away with using the ipr6000 but I also need the rig to be stable and from what I read it isn't @ 4 ohm bridge or any bridge for that matter. I'm a sound oriented DJ and my speaker cables are all under 30 ft, even shorter than that if I put the subs closer to me but my rig has to be solid.

I wanted to get new gear, the five year warrenty is a huge plus, means peavey trusts their product, but I may have to buy used

[John Roberts {JR}]

If Marty McCann blesses operating them that way then it should be Ok.

JR

[Grant Conklin]

Don't for get about the Crest version of the IPR, I think it's to called "Pro Lite". Said to be a heavier duty version of the IPR. Don't know if there actually on the street yet though.

About a year ago, I was told by a Peavey insider that "The Crest version has larger storage capacitors...  It also has a steel chassis."  Given it's better output connectivity, It will be worth the wait, assuming it ships sometime soon.  But wow - this has been some wait. 

[Bob Leonard]

Hey JR. I can't tell where most of these folks live because they haven't bothered to make the change in their profiles. That being said I wonder if your location might give the clueless a clue.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Well I'm not a Peavey insider,, but I was... not only inside but I was the product manager for all power amps at one time so I know a little about it... just not exact details about these recent amps.

Regarding bigger caps that is a pretty good way to make the Crest amps slightly different in a merchantable "slightly better" way... Adding a steel chassis to a "lightweight" power amp seems a little odd. I'd be inclined to lose the Tijuana taxi cab blue LEDs that you can't ever turn off. That would really keep me up at night in more ways than the obvious.

I don't care where other people live, but many people when they hear I'm living in MS think I'm some kind of dumb ass. I recall one funny exchange after Peavey bought Crest and I was up there on some business..  The lady office manager, a definite NJ classic, was afraid I might get lost, returning the rental car. I got a kick out of cluing her in that I grew up a few towns over.. :-)

I've seen Hartley work that angle when people underestimate him. It's almost unfair, to the other people. :-)

JR

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