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[Rodney Connelly]

I'd just like to share my experience with this amp to benefit others.  My system consisted of :
a pair of 18 inch - 800 watt subs driven by a bridged qsc plx 3402
a pair of 12 / horn combos driven by a qsc plx 2402 bridged
and a pair of dual 15's driven by the TCS 2240 power amp in stereo at 4 ohms per side.

I used a DSP the subs wer crossed from 30 to 90 hz
the dual 15's were running 90 to 500 hz and the 12 horns picked up from 500 hz - 20 k

Each power amp had it's own dedicated circuit and was used at high volumes for 3 hours, in school gymnasiums with crowds varying from 300 to 800 people.  They type of music was prerecorded mostly R&B.

The amps all had limiters on the output to stop clipping.

Now onto the review of the TCS amp.

This amp is a classic AB design.  It's heavy, and deep.  It reminds me of the old BGW power amps, but with less rack space needs.
In all 3 tests the TCS amp was powerful and rivaled the qsc's.  The sound out of this amp is good, and rich.  One thing that made me a little crazy about the amp was that it tended to run hot to the touch, and the LED indicators on teh fron responded very fast, so I was unable to get a realistic picture of how high the levels really were.  I thought the amp might be defective since my other amps don't run that hot, and because of the front LED indicators being so jumpy, so I called TCS and they shipped me out a new unit.  I installed the new unit, and it had the same symtoms.  It ran hot and the LED's were jumping aound very fast.  This new amp also seemed to have a very loud fan when it kicked up to high volume, and the amp did go thermal and shut down for a few brief periods.

Pro's :  Good sound quality, Good customer service, Powerful

Con's : Hard to read LED meters, Loud fan, Amp runs hot

So take it for what's in worth.  Personally I think I'll stick with Crown and QSC amps in the future.  

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

Where in your amp rack did you put the TCS amp?  Was it right above a QSC pulling the hot air from the QSC directly into the amp.  If I am not mistaken, the QSC amps blow rear to front.  With the TCS amps pushing front to rear you would be pumping hot air from the QSC into the TCS amp and that could potentially cause them to run hot and thermal shutdown.  

I have a couple of the TCS 2400 amps.  I run them bridged into the TCS 2800 subs.  I live and work in an area that gets to be about 40-100 degrees F hotter than the current weather anywhere in USA today.  It is brutal here on amps.  I have never had my TCS amps run hot and I push them hard.  

Rear to front air flow on the QSC is the one reason that I do not use QSC amps.  I had one and I gave it to my Father in Law.  I guess it was a very inguinious way of QSC to get more repeat sales because you really don't want to mix and match them with any other brand of amp in the same rack!  Who knows if they thought of this when designing them?

I will agree with you that the fans in the TCS amps are too noisy though.

[Evan Kirkendall]

Quote:

Rear to front air flow on the QSC is the one reason that I do not use QSC amps. I had one and I gave it to my Father in Law. I guess it was a very inguinious way of QSC to get more repeat sales because you really don't want to mix and match them with any other brand of amp in the same rack! Who knows if they thought of this when designing them? Shocked

Peavey/Crest amps also have rear to front airflow.

I like the rear to front airflow better. Its a better design IMO. You can walk up to the amp and feel how hot the air coming out of it is, and you wont heat up your racks with this design. Also, arent the fans still at the back of the crowns as well? If that's the case(I cant remember) then all your doing is pulling the hot air out of the amp... Not blowing cooler air into the amp like with the QSC's.


Just my .02. Dont be hatin


Evan

[Rodney Connelly]

The TCS amp was placed 6 rack spaces up from the QSC amps.  It was up there all alone.  The TCS amp has a fan in the back of the amp, so I assumed that it would be pushing air from the rear to the front, but perhaps I'm incorrect in that assumption.  Maybe the amp is pulling the heat from the amp and exiting it from the rear.  Come to think about it, this amp didn't thermal out when I had the back off the amp rack.  For some reason on the last night I tested the amp rack had its rear panel on, so the only ventalation would have been from the front, between each amp, however even when I had the back covers off the amp still became hot to the touch.

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

One other thing about the TCS TA2240 amp.  It is only rated for 4 ohm stereo/8ohm bridged use, not for 2 ohm stereo/4ohm bridged.  I assume that this meens there may not be as much thermal headroom on this model???.  All of the other TCS amps are rated for 2 ohms stereo/ 4ohms bridged mode.  So pullnig in any of that extra hot air could potentially be an issue.

[Tom Manchester]

Evan Kirkendall wrote on Sun, 26 February 2006 19:50

Also, arent the fans still at the back of the crowns as well? If that's the case(I cant remember) then all your doing is pulling the hot air out of the amp... Not blowing cooler air into the amp like with the QSC's. Evan

Yes, but where does the air come from that gets sucked out of the amp?...From the vents in the front.

If Crown's Fan setup didn't work then neither would your vaccuum cleaner or your car's radiator.

[Evan Kirkendall]

Tom Manchester wrote on Mon, 27 February 2006 13:18

Evan Kirkendall wrote on Sun, 26 February 2006 19:50  Also, arent the fans still at the back of the crowns as well? If that's the case(I cant remember) then all your doing is pulling the hot air out of the amp... Not blowing cooler air into the amp like with the QSC's. Evan Yes, but where does the air come from that gets sucked out of the amp?...From the vents in the front. If Crown's Fan setup didn't work then neither would your vaccuum cleaner or your car's radiator.

Still like QSC's design better.

Evan

[John Roberts {JR}]

Evan Kirkendall wrote on Sun, 26 February 2006 18:50

I like the rear to front airflow better. Its a better design IMO. You can walk up to the amp and feel how hot the air coming out of it is, and you wont heat up your racks with this design. Also, arent the fans still at the back of the crowns as well? If that's the case(I cant remember) then all your doing is pulling the hot air out of the amp... Not blowing cooler air into the amp like with the QSC's. Just my .02. Dont be hatin Evan

This has been discussed before. While it's good to be consistent with airflow when racking up multiple amps there is another subtle benefit from "pushing" the air into an amplifier vs. "pulling" it out of. While in theory you can move similar amounts of air and thus heat, when pushing the air you have far better control of where exactly that cooling air goes.

In my deja vu moment I ask again for all to think about the difference in air pressure when you put your hand a foot or so in front of a fan and even just inches behind it... A good thermal designer can be successful with either approach but I prefer the extra control in "push" designs.

JR

PS: A secondary issue is that contaminant filtering of the air can be better accomplished at the smaller cross-section area of an inlet fan, vs, larger, multiple, air inlets.

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

I don't have any opinion on whether it is better to push or pull the air.  I would imagine that the design inside the amp would determine which is better.  My only concern is that it is inappropriate to use amps that vent front to rear in the same rack as amps that vent rear to front.  It doesn't matter what brand or which is on top or bottom, you risk having the top amps pull the hot air in that just left the bottom amps.

[Dan Brandesky]

Where do you find TCS amps? I googled them and checked ebay and didn't find anything.

-Dan