I've been hearing a lot of great things about the Camco Vortex series of amplifiers, so when Jim Stahowski (my local Ashly/Camco guy) asked if I'd like to try out an amp or two, I was more than willing. Along with the Ashly PE amp he sent me that I've reviewed in another post in this forum, I received a Vortex 4 and a Vortex 3 Quadro.
They all look basically like this, which I think is pretty cool:
The Vortex line additionally includes the Vortex 2.6 (1,300 watts into 2 ohms), Vortex 6 (3,000 watts into 2 ohms), and Vortex 200V (3,200 watts into 4 ohms). All of the amplifiers are microprocessor controlled for increased linearity, advanced troubleshooting, and remote monitoring and control. The entire series weighs just over 27lbs (12.4Kg) each, features Neutrik Speakon outputs, and has a worldwide switching power supply with permanently attached mains cord.
The Vortex 4 claims to produce 2Kw into a 2-ohm load per channel and 4Kw bridged into 4-ohms. Unlike your garden variety amp, however, it will drive 4Kw into a
1-ohm load in parallel mono mode... nice to have that extra option available. It's got XLR in and through for each channel as well as switches on the back for globally lifting the input grounds, setting input sensitivity (26dB, 32dB, or 1.4v), defeating the internal limiters, and setting the amplifier mode to bridge, stereo, or parallel. Front panel lights are available to indicate per channel power, signal, and clip plus global operating mode (bridge or parallel mono) and Camco Audio Interface status (more on this later). The Speakon connectors on the back of the amplifier have both channel A and B available for easy bi-amping or what-have-you.
If you need four channels of top-quality amplifier in a lightweight package the Camco Vortex 3 Quadro may be for you. At 750 watts per channel into 4-ohms and the ability to drive bridged loads at 8 ohms or parallel mono loads at 2 ohms with 1,500 watts of power, it certainly packs a punch. It has a few noteworthy differences from the rest of the Vortex line... while there are independent front panel attenuators for each channel (except in mono mode, in which case only the odd-numbered channel control is active) there are only two Speakon outputs on the back, with the first two channels paired to one and the second two available from the other. Channel gain and mono/stereo mode is also shared between pairs of channels, with input ground lift and limiter mode global across all four. There are XLR ins but no throughs, and they're hard-wired to the chassis unlike the rest of the line which has swappable input cards. Front panel indicators are identical to the other amplifiers in the Vortex series.
Having four channels in such a flexible and powerful package could be a real boon. You could bridge one and use the amp to tri-amp pretty much anything, one amp per speaker. You could bridge both and drive... subs! Or do two bi-amped mixes with a decent amount of power behind them, or run four channels of compression driver. I'm getting a little creative here, but you see my point.
One paragraph spec sheets over, here's what's cool. First of all, the front panel attenuation controls aren't in the signal path... they control DCAs that do the actual work. This also allows remote level control of the amplifier over CAI (Camco Audio Interface). CAI's a pretty cool thing in and of itself... string together a bunch of Camco amps using telephone cable, set their IDs using the front panel knobs (it's all spelled out in the manual) and you can adjust input level, mute individual channels, standby an entire amp, and monitor temperature, output signal, clipping, and output current.
Every amp except for the Vortex 3 Quadro also has an Extended User Interface card with the inputs on it. The stock inputs are nothing fancy, but you can swap in your own card with advanced filters, limiting, level control, or whatever strikes your fancy. Similarly to Crown's PIC concept, this would allow you to build something like your entire set of wedge processing into one card and then slap it into the amp for a simple, powerful, lightweight, bi-amped monitor mix.
The built-in microprocessor is also used to control channel limiting. With the limiters enabled, the amplifier monitors the input signal as well as the output and will use the DCAs in the front end to keep distortion below 1% at all times. This limiting function is also used to ensure that if the amplifier is loaded to too low an impedance its output will be pulled back in order to keep it operating, albeit at a significantly lower level. Perhaps this is the feature that has generated such rave reviews of the sound quality produced by these amplifiers?
As would be expected from a high end amp, these also have a truly all-encompassing list of protection features. Three-point DC monitoring, servo-coupled capacitorless inputs, over current, under current, thermal protection, inrush current limiting, variable-speed fans, and input current protection (the amp monitors itself to ensure it does not exceed 30 amps of current draw at 120v) all combine to make this amp virtually Bennett (er... fool) proof. In case of a non-recoverable fault, the amplifier will indicate its fault status by blinking the "On" LED of the channel affected in one of 9 different ways.
So far I've used these amps twice, both times driving monitors. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly a critical listening test, and I certainly wasn't driving them up against their rails so I didn't get to experience how they performed under duress. I also recently used a Vortex 6 while working with another company, and it was good to me as well, but since it was running front fills I barely tickled the signal lights. Since I'm doing a bunch of suitcase gigs this time of year, I palmed both amps off on others... John Chiara and Mike Butler should be showing up with their opinions soon. I'm sure they'll put them to good use, and after they're done we can move them on to others who may be able to subject them to some real world abuse.
The product page for these amplifiers is available here:
http://www.camcoaudio.com/Vortex.html
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Topic: Camco Vortex Amplifiers (Read 90958 times)