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| Mike Volkerding FCS&L Owner |
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Freq City Sound Lighting & Stage is a Regional Sound Company. We travel Ohio Indiana and Kentucky doing production for tours, fairs and concerts and a lot of Nashville acts Freq City Sound Client List. Each time we bid a show; we call the national act’s sound guy to get our equipment approved or “defend” our gear. For instance, I use Allen & Heath consoles and have to get them approved because the rider says Midas. This process goes right on down the list until the band’s guy knows that you know what you’re talking about and the sound will be big and be good.
My rig can hit 115dB 125’ out from the stage smoothly (a lot more than that when we did three6mafia – my ears are still bleeding). A National Act’s FOH guy will usually put in his favorite system tuning CD to hear what changes need to be made. Nine times out of ten he/she will leave the EQ flat. This means the system is time aligned, in phase and set up correctly and….. I DO KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!
OK on the meat of this discussion.
In the PA Power Amp manufacturing world, there’s been a lot going on. Mergers, buy outs and consolidations have really changed the landscape for power amp builders. The big names we think of (Crown, QSC, Crest) still make good amps but their focus, purpose and mission has been “tweaked” by the big business corporate thing. I am a dealer for all three by the way.
Crown was “acquired” by Harmon (A&H, DBX, Soundcraft, etc). Crown is one of several companies under the Harmon umbrella. I come from a corporate background and I can tell you, the CEO looks at from Crown is the bottom line (profit). “Your mission Crown is to increase profit and market share.” Let’s think, how would we do that? How about cut costs by finding ways to make the amps cheaper etc.
I have literally racks of Crown amps and have loved them for their Damping spec (how fast the amp can take a kick drum hit, recover and do it again just the same). The new XTi / XLS / CDI all are >500 which is good. The face amps I stock are all >800. This is done by not cutting costs. Build the amp right and then figure out what to charge for it (not figure out a selling price and then build an amp).
In defense of Crown, their I-Tech has a great spec it just costs 4 times more than Face.
The new QSC talks about their line array or powered speakers to compete with the Mackie Dudes. I never hear the rep say “power amp.”
If you look at their amp line on eBay, check the selling price of the new PLX amps vs. the old PL236 type amps (I have racks of these as well). The old amps sell for more money used than the new amps sell for new. QSC like Crown has been re-focused.
The Crest 8001 was used a lot on the pro tour circuit. Crest was acquired by Peavey and “fixed up” to be more profitable and to seize more market share. I never see any of the new Crest amps on stage with the pros. I like Hartley Peavey and think him to be a visionary. I bet they’re selling more amps with him at the helm – it’s just to a different kind of amp buyer.
There’s Lab Gruppen. These boys know how to make an amp but you need to be wearing a turban and have oil pumps in your yard to afford one.
Guitar players (that are old like me) remember when CBS bought Fender? The big boys in power amps have all enjoyed the same “changes.”
For several years I’ve been watching this amp company merger/consolidation phenomenon wondering what would be the outcome for us power amp users that can actually hear an amps quality/performance.
A Manufacturers Rep buddy of mine stopped carrying the Crest line to pick up Face Audio. Each time I talked to him, he spoke of amp shoot outs with all the amps you and I have grown to love over the years. Each time, I’d read that the sound company at which the shoot out was held bought a couple skid of Face amps.
Face had been building amps for other companies mostly in Europe for the last ten years. Face makes amps- period. They don’t make powered speaker boxes, consoles etc – just power amps – That’s what they do. When you do only one thing, you tend to get pretty good at it
What makes a Face Audio amp way better than the rest and what’s made me toss in (ordering two skids of the beasts)? The key point is that every component is way overbuilt. The big corporations can’t overbuild – try getting that by the bean counters.
The transformer is huge (made by Face for their amps). All of this “overbuilding” translates to you and me as better performance, more headroom, Faster response times, faster recovery times, able to dissipate more heat and to continue performing under very extreme situations. If you’ve been in the business long enough, you’ve had gear go down during a show due to over heating. That won’t happen here.
The Face Audio amp will knock dead any of its competitors in the areas of heat tests, load tests bottom line - any tests! The face Audio amp will be the last amp running long after the other amps have “given up the ghost” (smoke pours from them).
I have a show coming up for a band called Asia. Steve Howe from YES and Carl Palmer from Emerson Lake and Palmer are in the band. I have a two hour ride from an airport with these guys. My plot is to ease in to a power amp discussion……………
The pricing on the amps is very aggressive. I would imagine these prices will ease up to be in the same area as the upper end Crown and QSC once Face Amps take hold in the market. I got in on the ground floor and I’m taking advantage of the deal. Remember when your buddy told you to buy Microsoft years back and you didn’t?
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