Who's gone from plate to pro and been OK? (1 Viewer)

[ColinM]

My PE plate amp is dying a slow death. When in constant-on mode, it drops in and out with a subtle "bummppp", erratically.

I'm thinking of going with a used pro amp, Crown or otherwise. I have full control of crossover levels from 40 on up and can't think of any other reason to be worried.

Opinions?

Passive SVS in diy.......

 

[Greg_R]

You will have to adjust your LFE output level but beyond that everything will be fine (assuming proper connections and setup).

 

[Patrick D]

My pro amp has no hum (PE amp did), fits in the equipment rack (PE amp hung off the back of the box), has easily adjustable gain (PE amp was a reacharound deal), cost less, and is far more versatile. X/O on the plate amp was useless, as it is done in the receiver. Only problem with the pro amp -- fan noise. Not a big deal though, IMO. Swap 'em, pull 'em, put 'em in another room, or turn the volume up a bit.

Oh, one thing that does suck... the pro amp weighs 45 lbs, the plate amp didn't. Don't forget an RCA->XLR adapter.

Does it drop in and out even when no source is playing?

 

[Mattak]

My biggest complaint is fan noise.

 

[ColinM]

"Does it drop in and out even when no source is playing? "

Yep - I'll turn off the feed and leave it on or in standby, and every 20 min or so it'll"burpp pp p" softly.

While playing, suddenly the movie will generate bass out of nowhere - the amp's been sleeping when it shoulda been active.

Looking for a pro amp.....(used local and cheap...)

 

[chuckg]

I'll second, or fifth, the "no roblem" comments. My plate died, was switching on and off rapidly. I rippped it out, plugged the hole, and added a couple binding posts in the plug. Now the sub runs on a pro amp and it never sounded so good.

 

[Darren_T]

Ahhh...I think I know your problem. The auto-on is waiting for a certain signal strength and you aren't reaching it. Turn up the gain on your source (receiver or whatever) and reduce the gain on the plate amp. Use the plate amp gain for final adjusting after that. You should find that it turns on appropriately once you have enough signal from the source. The signal isn't strong enough to trip the auto-on in your current gain setting. I've had the same problem with a parts express amp.

The only question is why it would be thumping when the system is not in use.

 

[ColinM]

It's a recent development, as I've always done -5db output trim, 4 years running. In the last 3 months this problem reared it's head.

But I'll try it to see if it changes anything.

There's also a hum that's louder than it should be, also newish.

 

[Travis_G]

Probably an on/off transient.