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[Lee Jacobson]

Face Audio sent me an amp to check out. It is their F1200TS, which is the bigest amp in their Titanium Series. The amp is rated at 650/1200/2350 watts per channel into 8/4/2 ohms. It is two rack spaces, 55 lbs. Being that this amp is very close in power to the amps I use for both LF in my monitor racks as well as the 15" cones on my TX4s, I will use it for both over the next few weeks and see how she does. I have fired it up and run some passive wedges off the amp, sounds very nice thus far. My initial thought with this amp was "jeez, this is heavy". Then I took a look at some similar amps. My 15" cones in the TX4s are running off the Yorkville AP6020, which is 3 RU and 66lbs. For all practical purposes, these amps are interchangable, with the Face being smaller and lighter. The QSC RMX4050 is rated in the same ballpark, and is also a 3 RU amp, weighing in at 68lbs. I say that in defense of the weight of the F1200TS, as 55 lbs seems heavy in the world where switching amps are as popular as they are. That said, for a "big iron" amp, this one is not heavy at all, for its power. Retail on the Face is $1169 according to Northernsound. I have a show this week where it will do passive wedges in a real setting. Then I'll replace on AP6020 with the F1200TS, match the gains, and run the TX rig with it for a while, followed by one of the PL236s in the 4mix racks.

[Chris Barney]

Lee,

  Thanks for taking the time to test.  If you have any questions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to ask.  One of our Sr. Audio Engineers will post his contact info shortly as well.  Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

[Sara Elliott]

Lee Jacobson wrote on Wed, 25 April 2007 08:07

I have a show this week where it will do passive wedges in a real setting. Then I'll replace on AP6020 with the F1200TS, match the gains, and run the TX rig with it for a while, followed by one of the PL236s in the 4mix racks.

So Lee, wanted to find out how your show went this week.  Has it happened yet?  I will be interested in hearing ALL about it as well as how the amp performed.  Also, I want to invite anyone in the community with Face Audio product to also post their experiences to this thread and to help out Lee with any questions he might have regarding the product.
Signed anxiously waiting    

[Lee Jacobson]

Sara,

 Yep. Two wedges per mix, two mixes. Nothing real stressful for an amp. The amp did very well. It has tons of power, stayed cool to the touch, and clean as a whistle. I do intend to use the amp for other stuff as well, and report on the performance. If my experience thus far is any hint, it'll be good everywhere. There isn't much to question about this amp. It is an amp, period. It is a solid, good sounding amp, but still an amplifier. It ain't rocket surgery....


Lee

[Sara Elliott]

Lee Jacobson wrote on Wed, 02 May 2007 08:16

Sara,  I do intend to use the amp for other stuff as well, and report on the performance. It is a solid, good sounding amp, but still an amplifier. It ain't rocket surgery....

I like that - cool to the touch...anyway, great.  So when are we going to use it again.  
Do we have something in the cue, what kind of event will it be?  
Do you feel the amp was power friendly?
What do you feel the amp is suited more for install or touring applications?

[Lee Jacobson]

Sara,

 Objection your honor, councel is leading the witness....


OK, I'll play:  I'd say in the duty I used it for, it was very power friendly. That said, mon duty in this instance was not as demanding as some other uses may be. My gut right now says this amp would be great for installed use, moreso than touring, if only for the weight issue. I would not hesitate to use these amps in a rig that was parked. In the market where you can get amps that put out huge power and weigh very little, using a 55lb amp on the road isn't something I'd do by choice. I know Face has a line of lightweight amps as well. I look forward to playing with them after this one. Next show I'll use this on, prolly May 18. If not then, June 1. The rest of my stuff right now involves smaller, self powered, SOS systems.

I don't dare bridge the amp into 4ohms on subs, as it puts out TONS of power that way!

Again, not intending to be flip or anything, but this is a simple amp. I don't mean simple in the sense of "cheap", I mean it has no filters, no dsp, it is "just" an amp. Signal in, power output, clean, solid power.

[Will Davies]

Hello All, I am a Sr. Engineer with Face Audio. I happy to hear back from anyone about there experience's or questions about the Face Audio amp lines. Feel free to drop me a line and we can chat.

[Mark Steven Lewis]

May I dig up an older thread and refresh with some recent testing? The nice people at Face hooked me up with an F1200TS to try. The intended purpose is to power portable Growler subs. My high output plan is to be able power 2 Growlers by one bridged F1200TS (3000w into 4 ohms). The optimal plan is to power a single Growlers with a bridged F1200TS (2000w into 8 Ohms). I haven't had a chance to try either yet.

I'm also a bass player and had a chance to see how this would do for bass alone. I hooked the F1200TS in parallel mode so I could just explore the capabilities of a single channel. It was used to drive a 4x10" Epifani 1000w 4 ohm cabinet. The venue was a smaller shack with some 100 people. I was relying on this system alone without any assistance from the house.

Tone

The tone of this amp was everything I like. Smooth, detailed, pleasing, and yes, has balls on the low end. It was authoritative and solid at the bottom. It was tight and quick with explosive power.

Power

Only using one side, I had that side all the way up. So in theory it was 1200w into a 1000w 4 ohm cabinet. It did the job well but there wasn't much headroom on the knobs. I had a little more output on my bass but everything else was all the way up. I was hoping there would have been more headroom on the amp. The good news is the one side in use was just getting warm. It wasn't hot at all. It was well within it's thermal design. (Makes me think about the limiter switch now. More later.)

Quality

Excellent - no complaints whatsoever. Outside it beautiful with beefy handles and tasteful gold tone face and texture top. Pots seem very nice. Power cable seemed like it could be beefier but adequate.

Features

It's a straight ahead class H design. Fine. Only thing I would really like to see is the bridged output configuration in one of the Speakon connectors. You know +1 and +2 on two pin of the Speakon. Otherwise, the only way to get bridged is with the spades or bare wires.

Face Audio

Couldn't be nicer. Jim and Chris and others have been very helpful. They offer a 5 year warranty, with a in-flight swap for the first year. Very nice!

Questions

I'm wondering about that limit switch. First, how dangerous is it to run unlimited in a parallel/dual channel mode? That might give me the additional headroom to run maybe 1400-1500 watts per side into 4 ohms.

Does unlimiting really invalidate the sweet warranty? If so, how is that monitored?

How dangerous is it to leave the limiter on and run bridged into 4 ohms? So each side of the amp is seeing 2 ohms. This is what I get in my high output configuration. I'm wondering if this is a stable and reasonable configuration.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

... Mark

SactownSounds.com

[Jon Smith]

Mark Steven Lewis wrote on Tue, 22 April 2008 12:01

Questions I'm wondering about that limit switch. First, how dangerous is it to run unlimited in a parallel/dual channel mode? That might give me the additional headroom to run maybe 1400-1500 watts per side into 4 ohms. Does unlimiting really invalidate the sweet warranty? If so, how is that monitored? How dangerous is it to leave the limiter on and run bridged into 4 ohms? So each side of the amp is seeing 2 ohms. This is what I get in my high output configuration. I'm wondering if this is a stable and reasonable configuration. Comments and suggestions welcome. ... Mark SactownSounds.com

Mark,

This is an older thread. I own two of F1200TS. I run them in several configurations. One such set up is bridged, limiters on and with a 4ohm load. They power my SRX 728's with my larger rig. One per side. I have never had a problem. Used them for over a year now and they still just work. They are a basic amp... but a great basic amp.

I would also like to see the Speak-on configuration +1/-1 & +2/-2 on one side.

Jon