Buyiing things piecemeal - okay to buy amps before speakers?

[JLNorthGA]

In the present grant environment, it is doubtful that we will ever get enough money to wholly replace our leased sound equipment in one fell swoop. Chances are we will get the money from two different organizations or over a protracted period of time.

Our current thoughts are to get some more powerful amps and more powerful speakers. Our current leased speakers are capable of handling 250 W RMS, 500 W peak at 8 ohms. Our current leased amplifiers (QSC RMX 850) are capable of outputting 185 W at 8 ohms (continuous average output).

I was thinking about getting a QSC GX5 (500 W at 8 ohms) and a GX7 (725 W at 8 ohms) for the amplifiers and some speakers (JBL JRX118S for the subwoofer and JBL JRX115 or possibly an equivalent Yamaha for the fill speakers). Powered speakers won't easily work in our situation - so we are going with amp/speaker combinations.

That being said - we're looking at well over $1K for either the speakers or the amps. The granting agencies to whom we are applying will give us $1K-2K. Just enough for one or the other - but not both.

If we get the grants - I'd probably purchase the amplifiers first - figuring I can turn the power down. I can't supply power where there is none available.

Thoughts?

 

[BillESC]

The JRX series is not one of JBL's better products, you should look in an other direction.

Can you post a floor plan or pictures of the venue?

 

[DaveySimps]

You did not give enough info about your venue and what the system will be used for, so we can't say if the speakers or amps you list would be well suited to your needs or not. In the scheme of things they are not very powerful speakers but, perhaps, you do not need very powerful speakers.

To your greater point, there is nothing wrong with buying gear piecemeal as the funds are available. Some gear is better than no gear. I would agree that getting amps before speakers has some decent logic to it. Is there equipment that you do not have now, that it might make more sense to have first? For me, I always think of the biggest issue I have to conquer and start with that.

~Dave

 

[JLNorthGA]

The JRX series is not one of JBL's better products, you should look in an other direction.

Can you post a floor plan or pictures of the venue?

We are currently getting a reasonable amount of sound with Nady PS115 speakers (500 W peak, 250 W RMS) and QSC RMX850 amps.

These are primarily used for our concerts. They work okay - but they aren't ours. The RMX850 is a bit underpowered for the Nady PS115 speakers - they are pretty much at full bore.

 

[DomLauria]

The GX5 is an odd amp in terms of config's for stereo parallel, built in crossover, etc, but it definitely offers the bang for the buck for simple two ch setup!

 

[museav]

Our current thoughts are to get some more powerful amps and more powerful speakers. Our current leased speakers are capable of handling 250 W RMS, 500 W peak at 8 ohms. Our current leased amplifiers (QSC RMX 850) are capable of outputting 185 W at 8 ohms (continuous average output).

I was thinking about getting a QSC GX5 (500 W at 8 ohms) and a GX7 (725 W at 8 ohms) for the amplifiers and some speakers (JBL JRX118S for the subwoofer and JBL JRX115 or possibly an equivalent Yamaha for the fill speakers). Powered speakers won't easily work in our situation - so we are going with amp/speaker combinations.

If the speakers are 250W "RMS" (continuous) then they should be rated 1,000W peak while if they are 500w peak then they would be expected to be rated 125W continuous. The 250W may actually be a Program rating.

You can't 'turn down' the power of most amplifiers. You can attenuate the input signal in order to reduce the output derived from a given input signal level but that does not reduce the potential output of the amplifier, it simply increases the input signal level required to get the full output.

In terms of output, using the same ratings as those for the GX series your RMX 850 is rated at 200W and going from 200W to 500W is around +4dB, a readily noticeable difference but probably perceived as a less than 50% increase in volume. But in addition to any changes in the amplifier power, the relative sensitivity of the speakers can also affect the resulting output. If the new speakers have a higher sensitivity than the existing ones then you may get more output from the same amplifier.

Since they may offer potential improvements in areas other than output and possibly also some increase in output, then as long as you could get by with the existing amplifiers I would probably tend to look at the speakers first. I also agree that the JBL JRX do not seem to get the best reviews, but your budegt apparently will limit your options. However if you are also going to be using one or more subwoofers then you might also consider whether mains with a 12" woofer might be a better option.