Adding A Second Power Amp

[Subzeero]

^^^ What Bill said. Doing it the way you describe will almost certainly not give you an optimal setup. You want the same crossover applied to both sides of the split. You can buy a 2nd GX5 (see note below about power handling) and send the left signal to one amp, the right to the other with the crossover engaged on both.

The better option - buy a crossover with a summed mono output for the subs. Ashly and dbx are good brands. You can also get a crossover as part of a loudspeaker management system from either BBE (DS24) or dbx (DriveRack series) that will give you more options like delay.

POWER HANDLING: A good rule of thumb... buy an amp with 1.5x to 2x rated power (preferably using a 20Hz-20kHz signal on the spec sheet vs. 1kHz) of what the RMS rating of the speakers is. If your tops and subs differ by much in their RMS power handling, then you need to go the crossover route vs. 2 GX5's.

This is good advice.The peavey PV118 subs are rated for 200 watts continuous, 400 watts program, 800 watts peak. Even the GX5 is a little too much power for them. The 20-20K rating will be be about 450 watts continuous.

[drzinc]

I said all of the above in my post. Get rid of the Maximizer get another GX5 and get the BBE DSP. I even welcomed him to the forum. BTW the DS24 is no longer made or available.

[martydale14]

Sweet. Thank you all for the responses.

Ryan

[Incognito]

^^^ What Bill said. Doing it the way you describe will almost certainly not give you an optimal setup. You want the same crossover applied to both sides of the split. You can buy a 2nd GX5 (see note below about power handling) and send the left signal to one amp, the right to the other with the crossover engaged on both.

The better option - buy a crossover with a summed mono output for the subs. Ashly and dbx are good brands. You can also get a crossover as part of a loudspeaker management system from either BBE (DS24) or dbx (DriveRack series) that will give you more options like delay.

POWER HANDLING: A good rule of thumb... buy an amp with 1.5x to 2x rated power (preferably using a 20Hz-20kHz signal on the spec sheet vs. 1kHz) of what the RMS rating of the speakers is. If your tops and subs differ by much in their RMS power handling, then you need to go the crossover route vs. 2 GX5's.

[ampnation]

I should point out something. There is one minor flaw to the plan of using one amp for the left and one for the right... your subs will be getting slightly different signals so coupling won't be perfect. Although I'm not sure how much the left and right differ for most music in the 100Hz and below range between left and right. For that reason the crossover or DSP (loudspeaker mgmt system) is a better option.

Didn't know the DS24 was discontinued. Any replacement model in place now?

[martydale14]

Well I ended up picking up a GX5 today, so we shall see how it works out at the next gig I do, which is tonight (July 14).