Experinces with poweramp durablity & longevity.

  • When I use my powerhead I rarely go beyond like 25 watts as it is really loud there. Just wondering how the amp would hold up and if anyone has experience or knows of someone that has say, ran it 500 watts night after night that way for years. I know the brand is well known to be quality, but class D amps always have me worried most likely because of my experiences in the past with inexpensive designs as well as high end audio used to be snotty about them. Now I have a big poweramp in my studio that uses class D and it's great.

    Looking for stories using the poweramp hard and it's ability to hold up in a touring application pounding 4 x 100W cabs night after night or something. I imagine it was designed to do this but I don't really hear about it.

  • Yeah I'd have to say I'm curious about this as well. Running my 4x12 cab @ 16ohms I hit the 100 watt mark on the meter which equates to 25 watts @ 16ohms and its freaking loud.

  • Yeah I'd have to say I'm curious about this as well. Running my 4x12 cab @ 16ohms I hit the 100 watt mark on the meter which equates to 25 watts @ 16ohms and its freaking loud.

    I agree running it @25 watts IS loud as heck. That's why I'm wondering if anyone had actually ran it at like 400-500 watts daily for a length of time and how it held up. I would really think someone has done this with all the touring Kempers out there. Not everyone goes direct. I wonder if Kemper/B&O tested this amp at full rated output in like the EVH test. (running it cranked for a month and see if it lived)

  • I agree running it @25 watts IS loud as heck. That's why I'm wondering if anyone had actually ran it at like 400-500 watts daily for a length of time and how it held up. I would really think someone has done this with all the touring Kempers out there. Not everyone goes direct. I wonder if Kemper/B&O tested this amp at full rated output in like the EVH test. (running it cranked for a month and see if it lived)

    Do you know the brand of power amp that's in these?

  • I agree running it @25 watts IS loud as heck. That's why I'm wondering if anyone had actually ran it at like 400-500 watts daily for a length of time and how it held up. I would really think someone has done this with all the touring Kempers out there. Not everyone goes direct. I wonder if Kemper/B&O tested this amp at full rated output in like the EVH test. (running it cranked for a month and see if it lived)

    Bass players is who you're more likely to hear from. That 600 watts is really to accommodate them. Especially since the powered Kabinet is 'only' 200 watts, making it rather guitar-specific. Especially with the Kone being 12" and the imprints currently available.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Bass players is who you're more likely to hear from. That 600 watts is really to accommodate them. Especially since the powered Kabinet is 'only' 200 watts, making it rather guitar-specific. Especially with the Kone being 12" and the imprints currently available.

    If someone ran four16 ohm 4x12 cabs in an arena or something it could get there.

  • as Ruefus said, the 600w is really intended for bass players. I spent over 10 years on bass (the dark side ?) before returning to the light. My bass amp was a 500w Ashdown with an Ampeg 808 cabinet. That beast was LOUD but even that could still struggle to keep up with a 100w and 412 guitar amp. Bass frequencies just need so muh more power.

  • as Ruefus said, the 600w is really intended for bass players. I spent over 10 years on bass (the dark side ?) before returning to the light. My bass amp was a 500w Ashdown with an Ampeg 808 cabinet. That beast was LOUD but even that could still struggle to keep up with a 100w and 412 guitar amp. Bass frequencies just need so muh more power.

    I totally understand bass takes way more quick big power. But regardless of what it is intended for, I was looking for testimonies of how the amp would hold up used to it's peak continually. You know, pushed HARD. Seems no one really knows.... I emailed B&O to see how hard they tested the durability of the circuit. In the end I'm just trying to make myself comfortable using this amp live like I would a 100W Marshall if I wanted and don't want to worry about it "melting down". If it hasn't been tested HARD ever, I don't feel comfortable relying on it.


    I guess I am looking to find someone... anyone to tell me; "Don't worry I ran this thing @ 500 watts on a 6 month tour, and it was solid as a rock. and actually have done it. I can't find any testimonies, even from B&O.


    Ok then if it's for Bass the how does it hold up when used pushing 500 watts for a week straight on a 100 degree stage?


    IMO if it's a 600 watt amp it should be able to produce 600w for 10 hours straight, not have a time limit. And should be able to do that every day without caveats. If there are caveats, they should be made known. I would better accept that then be a guinea pig to the durability and make a show go down.

  • IMO if it's a 600 watt amp it should be able to produce 600w for 10 hours straight, not have a time limit.

    Sorry to disappoint you but in terms of continuous output power without thermal shutdown you'll get around 55 - 65 Watts @ 4 Ohms and around 160 - 180 Watts @ 8 Ohms. You might get less than that on a hot day, more on a cold day. The power amp doesn't have active cooling and is enclosed in the Profiler box.

    But would you ever continuously play an extremely compressed (limited) signal into a guitar cab? I very much doubt it. The power amp has more than enough "balls" for a very loud gig. And regarding bass, there's enough headroom for the power hungry transients but generally speaking a bass is wayyyy more dynamic than a heavily distorted (compressed) guitar. So the average power draw isn't much different to a distorted guitar signal.

  • Sorry to disappoint you but in terms of continuous output power without thermal shutdown you'll get around 55 - 65 Watts @ 4 Ohms and around 160 - 180 Watts @ 8 Ohms.

    When you say:

    "in terms of continuous output power without thermal shutdown you'll get around 55 - 65 Watts @ 4 Ohms and around 160 - 180 Watts @ 8 Ohms."


    I know the cold/vs hot makes a diff but what time frame are you speaking of experiencing thermal shutdown? 30 seconds? 5 min? 3 hours? 12 hours? 4 days?

    I'm not going to be "disappointed", as I had no expectations. Asking please where did you come up with these numbers? If what you write is accurate, it gets me closer to the answer I'm looking for, but is this just going by class D amps or known Kemper /B&O testing results?

    You KNOW there has to be testing results somewhere. But where? Is it classified info?


    I didn't buy a power head thinking I was going to drive 4 greenback cabs with it, but if it's advertised to produce 600W, don't you think it should be fine driving 4 100W cabs all night, every night night after night @ 8 ohms? I know it's loud, I know its powerful, I know it sounds great, I just want to know it can go 15 rounds being that loud and powerful. Out of all the powered racks/heads out there, I was expecting more testimonies.

  • To be honest, I think you have a misconception about power vs. loudness.

    For the Greenbacks you need 1 Watt to get a sound pressure level (SPL) of 95dB in 1 meter distance.

    If you're typically standing at 4 meters distance from your cab, you need 4 Watts for an SPL of 95db.

    You should not listen to an SPL of 95dB for more than 1 hour per day unless you want to damage your ears. ;)

    Now for every 3dB of added SPL you need to double the power.

    With this in mind: If you'd pump continuous 128 Watts into Greenback loaded cabs, you'll end up with an SPL of 110dB in 4 meters distance. That's a hell of a lot and you should avoid listening to this for more than 2 minutes a day.

    And just for the record, it doesn't matter if you run a single 4x12 cab or four 4x12 cabs.

    Now if you were using V30 loaded cabs, it gets even louder due to the increased sesitivity of the V30s.

    4 Watts into V30s at a distance of 4 meters already results in an SPL of 100dB ... 128 Watts would result in 115dB SPL, which is insane.


    Now, all this being said ... why on earth would you ever want to pump a continuous power of 400, 500 Watts into cabs?

    It's good to have enough headroom from the power amp for strong, short transients (like e.g. palm muted low Es or for typical bass playing). But the max power rating of an amp isn't intended for continuous use.

  • There is theorectical and real world.


    lightbox has given the theoretical and there are many on here that have used the power amp in anger for many years.


    I have run my power rack for 6 years, doing circa about 40 gigs a year. I drive it pretty hard as the bands I'm in certainly do not hold back on volume so no issues.


    Not sure if that helps :)

  • To be honest, I think you have a misconception about power vs. loudness.

    Not at all, in fact it has nothing to do with my question at all. I'm well aware of wattage & decibels.

    Now, all this being said ... why on earth would you ever want to pump a continuous power of 400, 500 Watts into cabs?

    Why has nothing to do with my question either, I'm looking for testimonies of power amp durability not lectures on what will hurt my ears or why running 4 cabs doesn't make sense.

  • I'm looking for testimonies of power amp durability not lectures on what will hurt my ears or why running 4 cabs doesn't make sense.

    1. I told you the facts. No, you can't run the power amp at 500W continuous all night, deal with it.

    2. I only told you that it doesn't make a difference in terms of loudness or wattage whether you use 1 cab or 4 cabs. I didn't say it doesn't make sense. Deal with it.

    3. Regarding lectures: Show a little more respect for those who take the time to answer your questions, thanks.

  • 3. Regarding lectures: Show a little more respect for those who take the time to answer your questions, thanks.

    I will if you take time to understand the question which you didn't. I never said I wanted to run four cabs it was hypothetical. What documentation do you have with this particular power amp that makes you know for sure this will not run @ 500W continuous? From Kemper? B&O? Your opinion? So what will it run continuous? THAT'S the answer I'm looking for.