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Auction action!
I was looking through ShopGoodwill.com and pulled up the location here in town. I was looking for vintage gear, but prices were climbing way too high. But I spied an 8 channel Ashly power amp and thought it might be an easy flip on ebay. I ended up winning it for much less than my max bid and picked it up yesterday. 150W/Channel @ 8 Ohms, 250 @ 4 Ohms & 500W @ 8 Ohms Bridged.
It's not what I would call high end HiFi. The distortion measurements I have seen are not great by any stretch. 0.5% THD - probably typical Class D pro amp specs. But it doesn't sound horrible on my desktop speakers. Maybe a little rolled off on top. It turns out this is the model with their Protea DSP boards installed. That's a huge bonus! The list of DSP functions covers most anything you could want/need. The interface is so much better than others I've used over the years - DBX, BSS, Behringer, & miniDSP. I hooked it up to our home network and the software found the amp immediately. I'll run a few basic tests at some point, just to make sure everything is working properly - and the noisy fan will be replaced.
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WoW!
Right on👍🏻
That's awesome!
The DSP functionality looks interesting. ASR actually reviewed that amp and FR did roll off by 1.5 dB by 20 kHz and distortion wasn't great - which lines up with your observations. I picked up a similar amp (QSC CX168) that was also too good a price to pass up. 8 channels of pro audio amplification in a reasonably small package is nice to have available.
Sehlin Sound Solutions
I saw that ASR review too and had a touch of buyer's remorse. But for only $66.00 I'll play around with this thing for a little while. I just noticed it has an FIR filter function, so that will be something to explore.
Your QSC looks similar to the old, bulletproof RMX amps I've used, with all the back panel dip switches to set various parameters. Looks like distortion & headroom are better on the QSC amps compared to this Ashly.
I think the main difference is that the CX series that the 168 is a part of (along with the PLX series, etc.) is that they use a switching power supply where the RMX used a linear supply along with the associated weight. There is an older CX series that seems to align more with the RMX.
Sehlin Sound Solutions
Curiosity got the best of me, so I ran a set of measurements on the CX168 and posted them over on the Scott's Electronics Shelter thread. It doesn't have the output power of the Ashly, but was reasonably well-behaved with respect to frequency response, distortion, and noise.
Sehlin Sound Solutions
THD & response on that QSC is much better than this Ashly!
I hooked this thing up to my main system and the roll off in the high end is obvious. It has a sound somewhat similar to my Dynaco ST-70 when running 6L6 tubes. Not horrible, but not what I would want to listen to on a regular basis. The on-board DSP can solve the frequency response issue, but I'm unsure if the elevated distortion will still color the sound.
It's a bit of an odd-ball. The first watt looks pretty comparable to my QSC amp except for the HF roll off - then the distortion kicks in. The THD+N stays below -60 dB (0.1%) until about 5 watts. The 2nd and 3rd harmonic are both pretty high, so it won't just be some "tube like" warmth, but also harshness. Then, the other obvious strength is that it can put out a lot of power - but it won't sound great doing that...
I think it will be usable for some applications. When I ran my outdoor speakers with a little Pyle marine unit that had similar distortion levels to the Ashly, guests still were impressed by the sound. Moving to a better amp was a noticeable improvement, though.
Sehlin Sound Solutions
Unnfortunately the average person thinks Bose is "state of the art" and sounds awesome. It's mostly us DIY speaker guys who can hear and appreciate lower distortion amps and proper sounding speakers. That said some of my friends who play and sing on our worship team have very good ears and have had me design/build speakers for them. Some (a specific bassist) destroyed his hearing playing in a touring band.
I just bought these, $50 for the pair
, I really do not need more amplifiers around here but the price was cheap and I been watching them for awhile.
https://www.jfcomponents.com/
Are those mono blocks?
No. These are not bridgeable.
https://www.jfcomponents.com/
ok.
I'm looking for a new test amp, I think my trusty old Dayton APA150 is doomed.
Those look pretty promising!
Sehlin Sound Solutions
They remind me of the Sonance buyout from PE a couple years back internally.
InDIYana Event Website
Pretty beefy amp and a surprising number of output transistors for 75w/ch. I read they are stable into a 2 ohm load.
They certainly do. I have one of those sonance buyouts powering the garage system.