I'm having a bit of a nightmare deciding on the equipment i'm going to buy so was hoping for some 'expert' opinion

I'm definately buying a pair of Yamaha S115V top cabs rated at 500w PGM and probably a set of Peavey Pro Messenger Series subs rated at 500w RMS each

I've been offered a Peavey PV2600 amp rated at 900w RMS per channel and a Peavey PV1500 amp rated at 500w RMS per channel.

Will I be able to somehow use the PV2600 amp to run the subs and tops and just buy a cheap amp as backup, will I need to buy crossovers to make this work?

Or, should I get both Peavey amps (which I can't really afford) and run the tops with the smaller amp and the subs with the larger amp?

Any help appreciated!

Idealy bi amping is better and you will get the full potential out of your speakers.This might give you some headroom too dependant on size of the room.

The subs should have a bass crossover in them being passive.This is usually set at about 100 hz

Hope this helps ...Paul

Yeah definately helps makes me think I should get the other Peavey if I can stretch to it.

On another note I usually say that second hand goods should go for about 50% of the new value, these amps have been offered to me at about 70% of the new value which isn't much off considering they're ex-hire items.

Should I perhaps hunt around for a better deal or is it usual for decent amps to fetch a decent second hand price?

Edit: The PV2600 has been offered to me at £260 (£370 new) and the PV1500 at £200 (£290 new) - does this sound like an ok deal?

According to Peavey EU, the Messenger are 300w RMS. The UL 115's are 500w. In my opinion, the 2600 is too big to run the subs only, if they are the Messengers, but fine to run all four, using the crossovers in the subs.

Get the best you can...even if it means spending more but will benefit you in the long term..ie/ years and years later.

It will pay for itself if you get enough bookings.

It may seem expensive at first but worth while.

The louder you can go, the bigger the event you can entertain at...after all..who knows what can happen in the future as word gets around..

That's exactly what i've been working out since vaugely getting my head around ohms, wattages etc.

The PV2600 provides 900w RMS @ 4 ohms
The messengers as you say are 300w RMS @ 4 ohms

I calculated that this would result in 'blow uppage' in exactly 32 minutes 8 seconds

The S115v's are 250w RMS at 8 ohms which means erm, something like it would be better to run the lot off the larger Peavey amp.......I think!

What does it mean for calculations if you're running one 8 ohm and one 4 ohm speaker per channel? (confused)

If you run the tops from the ( high) output of the subs, basically the amp sees the impedance of the subs only. It was explained to me that you are creating a three way speaker, but in two boxes. Hope that helps.

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What does it mean for calculations if you're running one 8 ohm and one 4 ohm speaker per channel? (confused)
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it means your amp dies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dont do it ever in a million years.

it works out at summat like 2.47 ohm imp.

not good at all unless you have a proper amp that run at 2ohm all night.

and for that momey you aint.

Hmm two conflicting opinions there from the last two posts, can anyone clarify as i'm going to be ordering and picking stuff up this weekend.....

They are both correct (to confuse you further!) An 8 ohm and a 4 Ohm speaker connected in parallel gives 2.67 Ohms.

The exception is with some bass bins, the crossovers are wired in such a way that adding tops will mean that the amp will still see the impedance of bass bins. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Peavey pro Bass bins are 4 Ohms and adding tops to them will still give an impedance of 4 Ohms (according to the manual).

One way to tell is if the speaker sockets on the bass bins are marked "input" and "output" so you can only connect them one way. Chances are if this is the case then the amp will only see whatever impedance the bass bins are.

If you can plug the speaker lead into either socket on the bass bins then the "connected in parallel" rule will apply and the amp could see only 2.67 Ohms.

There is no set rule and it is best to read the manual or check with the supplier or manufacturer.

Ah, got ya now

I'll call the manufacturer/supplier of the Peavey subs to try and find out if they can be connected in such a way as to not damage the amp.

I have 6 hard dome tweeters in my system and the amp barely seems them as they are high impedance.

Not sure i would mix 8R and 4R speakers in a system.
One set is likely to be half as loud.

8R and 4R are nominal valuesas the imp-edance of a speaker can vary wildly over its frequency range.
Some have massive peaks at the resonant frequency.