My new 340's

[einsteinjb]

Darren, to be perfectly honest with you, Carvin isn't taken too seriously in the pro audio field. Most of their products are, well, junk, or at least that's the way it's always been as long as I've been in the business. (Behringer is too, much as folks around the forums love the BFD.)

Look into Crown and QSC amps. I use the ones designed for live sound systems so they do have loud fans, but I know both companies produce amps designed for studio use which would have quieter fan solutions. Both companies make outstanding products. Please let us know what you end up with.

Oh -- you might look at Mackie amps too. Haven't used them personally but Mackie makes pretty good stuff.

[bikeman]

(Behringer is too, much as folks around the forums love the BFD.)

What's the problem with the BFD? It's $100. and does what we need it to. What are the better alternatives in this price range? You definition of "love" is a world away from mine.

David

[mboy]

I wouldn't take too much offense at what was said about Behringer.
I to, have a BFD and it can not be beat at the price for what we use it for, but in the pro sound world, it is considered a lower end brand for sure.

[Lou-the-dog]

In one of those huge pro-amp threads over at AVS alot of the Crown 402 users were disabling the fans and not having any problems. Also some were swapping in quieter fans with success. For driving a set of Ascends I suspect that the fans in the Carvin could be disabled without a problem. Also a variable speed control could be wired in to slow the fans down to a suitable noise level. The Carvin rep would not dare stick his neck out that far by telling you that tho.

Randy

[einsteinjb]

What's the problem with the BFD? It's $100. and does what we need it to. What are the better alternatives in this price range? You definition of "love" is a world away from mine.

David

Hey David,

I didn't say there was a problem with it, and I've personally never used one. It might be a fantastic piece (especially for $100). I was just pointing out that in general, Behringer is considered a low end pro audio company. For that reason my company does not buy or use any Behringer gear, and neither does any other reputable company I have personally worked with. Does that mean everything they make is crap? Of course not. As someone who works in pro audio, I just thought I should point out that their rep isn't very good in the business, so folks here don't labor under the misconception that they're a really highly respected brand, that's all. Take it for what it's worth, YMMV, etc. I don't have documentation, proof, scientific studies, or anything else to back my statement up other than years of anecdotal evidence from what other engineers have told me. Well, that, and the fact that their gear is generally priced WAY lower for any given piece than that of their more respected competition, which (considering that they are not an ID brand) could lead to the logical assumption that it's cheaply made. Quality generally costs money, so if they're charging bargain basement prices and still making a profit, well you can draw your own conclusions. (I do have a little experience with one of their compressors, which a friend of mine has in his little system, and the sound is definitely inferior to all my DBX gear.)

When I first heard about the BFD, I looked at it online and thought it looked nice, but you have to remember that the sound quality of your system is always only as good as the weakest link. You carefully choose a good receiver or pre/pro-amp combination, use good speaker wires, pay for good speakers and a quality sub, keep everything in the digital domain as much as possible... then you run the whole thing through a $100 EQ/processor from a company with a rep for producing cheap, inferior-sounding pro audio gear? That just didn't seem right to me. Of course if you're only using it to EQ your sub, meaning only the LFE signal from 80 Hz (or whatever) down, I'm sure that's not nearly as intrusive as if you used it on your mains. I just feel that if I really felt the need to EQ my sub, for room modes or whatever, I would like to choose an EQ that I know is quality (like Ashly or at least DBX) and one that doesn't include a lot of unnecessary processing (e.g., the feedback reduction circuitry). I've had enough experience using low quality EQs to want to avoid them like the plague. But that's me.

BFD users please don't take offense to my comments. If the piece works well for you, especially at that price, that's very cool.

[dae3dae3]

einsteinjb

Since you gave such a glowing review of Behringer products I decided to give them a try.

I am going to try two Behringer A500 amps. I will run each in bridged mode which will give me 500 watts per channel. I'm not too shy about returning stuff so if they stink I will send them back. I have read some good personal testimonials about these amps so I decided to find out myself.

I can tell you that my sound took a definite turn for the worst when I unhooked the Carvin amp and plugged my speakers back into my Pioneer 1015. I am not going to try the Crown amps because I know that they have louder fans than the Carvin I just sent back. The A500's don't have fans.

Also, since I am going to be stacking them I thought there might be a problem with heat so I found a guy on E B A Y that builds super-quiet fan kits that plug into an standard AC power socket. I am going to plug it into the back of my receiver so the fans kick on when I turn on the reciever and give the amps a little extra cooling that will hopefully be absolutely silent from the seating position. For an extra $5 I had him throw on a controller that can set the fans at five different speeds. These are quiet computer fans and are running at a slower speed than normal so I am hoping they will be dead quiet. I originally purchased the kit because I was going to disable the fans on the Carvin and then use the kit to suck some air through the amp but I decided to return the Carvin because I didn't like the idea that I was voiding my warranty by doing this.

[einsteinjb]

Hi Darren.

einsteinjb

Since you gave such a glowing review of Behringer products I decided to give them a try.

I am going to try two Behringer A500 amps. I will run each in bridged mode which will give me 500 watts per channel. I'm not too shy about returning stuff so if they stink I will send them back. I have read some good personal testimonials about these amps so I decided to find out myself.

I can tell you that my sound took a definite turn for the worst when I unhooked the Carvin amp and plugged my speakers back into my Pioneer 1015. I am not going to try the Crown amps because I know that they have louder fans than the Carvin I just sent back. The A500's don't have fans.

Also, since I am going to be stacking them I thought there might be a problem with heat so I found a guy on E B A Y that builds super-quiet fan kits that plug into an standard AC power socket. I am going to plug it into the back of my receiver so the fans kick on when I turn on the reciever and give the amps a little extra cooling that will hopefully be absolutely silent from the seating position. For an extra $5 I had him throw on a controller that can set the fans at five different speeds. These are quiet computer fans and are running at a slower speed than normal so I am hoping they will be dead quiet. I originally purchased the kit because I was going to disable the fans on the Carvin and then use the kit to suck some air through the amp but I decided to return the Carvin because I didn't like the idea that I was voiding my warranty by doing this.

Lol. OK, sounds good. Just remember, if they crap out on you in a year or two... don't say I didn't warn ya. Also note that if you're bridging them, that generally makes the amps run hotter, thus further shortening their lifespan. Just so ya know.

You might, before you take the plunge, look further into Crown and QSC. They both make lines of amps designed for studio use, which have very quiet fans. The Macrotechs I use are loud of course (and even my QSC PLX amps have loudish fans) but I wouldn't recommend them for home use anyway. They're huge, POWERFUL beasts designed for heavy touring (or those who love having WAY too much headroom).

[dae3dae3]

einsteinjb

Which line of QSC amps have the quiet fans? The place that ordered the Behringer amps for me is jerking me around with when they are coming in so I may cancel that order.

[einsteinjb]

einsteinjb

Which line of QSC amps have the quiet fans? The place that ordered the Behringer amps for me is jerking me around with when they are coming in so I may cancel that order.

Well, you could look at a few of their series. The RMX series is inexpensive, very popular and highly regarded, and features "Low-noise variable speed fans with rear-to-front air flow."

The DCA amps look good and are designed for cinema use, and their CX amps come in 2, 4, or 8 channel varieties, but no idea how quiet or loud their fans are...

QSC products: http://www.qscaudio.com/products/products.htm

Personally I prefer Crown amps. Check here: http://www.crownaudio.com/amps.htm

The K Series in particular uses no fans at all so they're silent, and they're VERY powerful amps capable of driving any load down to 2 ohms (K1 is 350 watts at 8 ohms and the K2 provides 500 watts/channel at 8 ohms).

Either QSC or Crown will cost more than Behringer, but as usual you get what you pay for.

[dae3dae3]

I bought a QSC RMX 1450 yesterday. I took it home and the fan is LOOOUUUUDDDDD.

Well, I hope nothing ever goes wrong with this amp and I need warranty work because I sure as heck voided it last night. I cut the fan wires because I am tired of screwing with this. I have been trying to buy an amp for two months now.

I have super-quiet fans that I set to blow directly through the fan tunnel of the amp and I am getting good air flow so I'm not worried about overheating since my 340's are 8 Ohm speakers.