Hi there,

My previous set up was all working from a flight case that opens up at the front, with the purchase of a new mixer to cope with Karaoke I have also bought a new rack to mount it all on so that the Mixer and CD controls are on top. However there is no space for my amplifier. When I phoned the shop they said that as the amp is heavy most people have it seperate (this makes sense) and they have sleeves you can put it in for extra protection. If I do this where do I then put the amp when I am setting up?

Alot of my stuff is quite heavy (previous flight case set up), large (speakers), difficult to be versatile (Karaoke), lacking in lights and so I have yet to feel confident enough to go out into the commercial world and charge people for my services. I therefore want to make sure any money I spend is buying the correct things.

I hope this all makes sense.

Thanks for your help.

Consider buying a 2U (common rack size) or 3U rack sleeve for protecting your amp. Then you can place it on the bottom shelf of your stand (if you have one) or on the floor.

An amps other characteristic, other than being heavy of course, is that they tend to like sucking in coupious amounts of air. So, before flightcasing an amp, work out which side (or top, or bottom) your amp draws air in though and which side it blows the air out from - the last thing that you want to do is fit the amp into a nice snug flightcase if the amp uses the sides for intake or exhaust.

I'd be tempted to get a flightcase which would be big enough for the amp + about 3 or 4 spare rack U's. This way, you've got flightcased protection for any future crossovers, equalisers, compressor/limiters etc...

I personly use a 12U case on wheels with my amps and crossover other gear in. i then use this case as a stand for my mixer and cd player case .

If you want decent prices on cases of any size just pm me and ill sort it for you

I have my Amp mounted in a Silver Sleeve. Originally I had the whole Lot mounted in a ABS Plastic Unit with Lighting Switch panels, and kept cables in it too. I found it so heavy and needed 2 people to carry it. So When I brought my new sound system Peavey Pro 15s and PV1500 Amp beginning of last year I think it was I decided to change it and put it inside a sleeve. I tested about where to place the amp. Alot of DJs I have noticed put the AMP on the floor, which I find makes extra work from yourself when you could put it on the top and put the deck on top of it like I do.
I have posted a picture below, Its not all that clear as the camera I used was rubbish. Thats the setup I call Simple! Nice and easy with a couple of Lights on a stand. The event was a 13th Birthday Party.

I like your Mixer Marky! Is it Allen and Heath ? I am looking for a mixer that will cope with what i want it to do! My KAM Mixer is struggling and mic inputs on it are

Markys mixer is indeed an Allen & Heath Xone:464

OK, amps - they do need loads of airflow, so I keep mine in a flightcase which also contains the graphic where both ends open (a sleeve). I put the lids on top of the case, and the lighting controller on top.



Please excuse DJ Loulou watching a film whilst not much was happening!!


If the amp is on the floor, it will not fall off and break your foot

My amps live in a flightcase, the thing between the amps is a fan to help cool them too, although I never push them hard, in fact the two amps in the picture total 3000 watts so I never had to push them..............yet, but have only used this set up about three times, I usually put in my active system, which means I will dig it out and use it this week sometime to give it an airing.

I keep mine in the speakers. Gotta love powered Mackies!

I keep mine on thye bottom shelf of my goal post setup. I have considered rach mounting it but I switch between three different amps dependent on the type of function so it's too much hassle to swap them and too much money to rack all three.

Until May i had a 8U Rack which i put wheels on for my amps. But since i "re-designed" my system (for want of a better word) I now have used 3x 3U rack cases. Purely because i now have a more versitile system and i no longer need 6 amps !!!!!!

I used to have 3 amps in my big rack, with crossover and DSP.
Then had 3 seperate amps of various powers for different sized shows.

Now i have cut down to 4 amps, which gives me a 3 amp large system, and 1 medium sized show, or 3 medium shows and a spare amp.
But when i am with the big rig, and a band, then i can use all 4 amps and blow the windows out of most venues (well i have made a lot of corigated steel on a hanger roof move with my system! ) So by putting all the amps into individual cases makes then lighter - ok, so there is about 10 mins of cabling sometimes. And then the dsp is in with the big amp, and the crossover is with the small amp.

But it does mean that i can now take a larger rig upstairs!

Note:
I never put sound equipment and lighting equipment into the same case. Apart from wiring nightmares, the low level leads should be kept away from any mains leads, and since most lighting is mains, bulgins and IEC leads near to the low level audio can introduce noise to the sound. A DMX controller would be ok, but you would want that on the table really...

The only other thing to try to take into account is that, as mentioned above, amplifiers all tend to have a high throughput of air - eg: sucking room temperature air in, and blowing hot "amplifier temperature" air out.

So...the closer to the floor you have your amplifier the more dust its likely to suck in, but (in theory) the cooler the air would be.

I have two of my three identical amplifers racked in the bottom of a wheeled flightcase. The bottom amp is about 7 inches off of the ground, the upper amp is around 14 inches off of the ground. Both amps have dust filters on their air intakes (dual speed fans) and the bottom amps dust filter needs cleaning monthly (ish), whereas the upper amp, just 7 inches further off of the floor, needs cleaning only once every 3 months.

So, you may want to consider some racking solution where you can put the amps flight case up on a table, or on top of another flightcase etc - to keep them off the ground, and away from "dust snacks".

I have my amp in the bottom of a custom made box.




It is a bit heavy at 40kg! but it does allow rapid set up as internally all power and light connections can be made very quickly at the back. There are 2 IEC inlets, power and light. One bulgin is the output to a 4 lighting effect pre wired bar, One bulgin is for pin spots directly connected to the Euro 4E the last one is switched from the same controller. There are 2 IEC switched power outlet for more effects lighting. Speaker connections are XLR straight into the amp which pulls air from back to front. The wheels allow easy movement in my garage!



Now where is my spinach?

Cheezy
Nightsounds