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[Bob Gill]

Good afternoon folks - this is my first post, so be gentle haha. I don't know a ton about audio in general, but I am opening up a social club in Akron, Ohio with a focus on bass heavy EDM. Based on my limited knowledge and research we purchased 4 JBL PRX418S 18" subs, and two JBL PRX 415M 15" mains. We paired the 4 18s with a QSC RMX5050A 5,000 watt amp, and the two 15s with a QSC GX5, and we have a power conditioner in the rack as well. We were planning to run the 18s in parallel @ 4ohms, which if I am understanding correctly, is what the four 8ohm JBL PRX418S' will be showing as to the amp. Any suggestions or input would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Hi, Bob...

The first thing to do is to take that *(*&^&$ "power conditioner" out of your amp rack.  It does no good and can actually limit your system performance and will likely fail when used with power amplifiers. 

[Corey Scogin]

Just to be clear, two 8 Ohm speakers in parallel will equal 4 Ohms.  If each amp channel has 2 subs connected to it then each amp channel will "see" 4 Ohms.  This is correct and likely a good way to connect the system.  Amps are rated for a minimum impedance per channel and the RMX 5050A can handle down to 2 Ohms per channel so all should be well in that regard.

[Bob Gill]

I was wondering that myself - I have read bad and positive things about power conditioners. My personal experience is when I added one to a system at a previous venue, we cleared up our incessant low hum and popping from strobes.

[Bob Gill]

Corey that was one of my biggest questions - should we run it bridged @ 2ohms 5,000 watts with all 4 subs in parallel or in non-bridged at 4ohms with two per channel parallel?

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I was wondering that myself - I have read bad and positive things about power conditioners. My personal experience is when I added one to a system at a previous venue, we cleared up our incessant low hum and popping from strobes.

It was likely something else that got changed in the process.  What unit did you install that gave you this result?

Info is gold around here, so when posting on stuff it's best to include brands/models every time.

[Len Zenith Jr]

I don't think anyway you hook those PRX418S' up will give satisfactory results for "bass heavy EDM". Those subs have a f3 of 52hz. Possibly fine for live music however for EDM they just can't play 2/3rds of the notes.

[John L Nobile]

Corey that was one of my biggest questions - should we run it bridged @ 2ohms 5,000 watts with all 4 subs in parallel or in non-bridged at 4ohms with two per channel parallel?

I wouldn't run anything bridged at 2 ohms. I'd run them 2 per side at 4 ohms. If you can, keep all your subs together. That'll give you more output. You'll probably need that.

[Corey Scogin]

Corey that was one of my biggest questions - should we run it bridged @ 2ohms 5,000 watts with all 4 subs in parallel or in non-bridged at 4ohms with two per channel parallel?

The QSC RMX5050A, nor any other amp I can think of, is rated for 2 Ohm when bridged so that configuration is not an option.  Your best bet with that hardware is to hook it up with 2 subs per channel in stereo mode as you first outlined.

On a separate topic, what do you plan to use as a crossover?

[Bob Gill]

It was a Furman P-8 Pro power conditioner. It seemed to be a noticeable difference in hum/pop, but you may be right, we may have tightened connections or something in the process that affected it as well.

Len - Is there another speaker you would suggest for these purposes in this price range? I havent picked the subs up, so I can change the order @ this point. Great bass is definitely our priority!