From beginnings in retail and installation services 20 years ago, US company SPL Systems moved its focus exclusively to live sound. Today, owner Bill Forbes and his team spend a lot of time transporting gear to jobs that range from state fairs to corporate events. Looking to upgrade the audio performance, DSP and networking of the company’s amplifier rig, SPL Systems turned to Powersoft and the X and K Series amplifiers.
Forbes’ decision to overhaul the SPL Systems amplifier inventory was not made lightly: ‘I’m a very cautious buyer and it took a lot for me to pull the trigger and make the switch,’ he says. ‘I wanted more power with less weight, and I also wanted get into the 21st century as far as DSP and networking technology. Everyone in the industry I talked to said Powersoft was the best choice to address those needs.’
As a result Forbes purchased a package of two K20 amplifiers, five X4 amplifiers, and two X8 amplifiers to drive his EAW speaker system. Fitting all of the amps into only two racks, he had slimmed down his rig while powering up his output. Since the changeover, Forbes has been using Powersoft’s Armonía software to get the most out of his new amplifiers.
‘What’s great about Armonía is that I can change any amp to any role on the fly, so my racks aren’t limited to just one use,’ he says. ‘I used to have a specific rack for monitors, one for my KF 730 speakers, one for my KF 740 speakers, and so on. Now I’ve just got my two racks and I can designate any amp for any task on the fly through the DSP platform.’
Forbes uses Armonía’s presets to provide optimal settings for his EAW speakers, as well as other manufacturers. ‘Powersoft always has the most up-to-date presets from EAW, so I simply load them onto my amplifiers and I’m good to go,’ he says. ‘They also have great libraries for other manufacturers, which is good to know because if I ever rent out my amp racks I know the user will find whatever presets they need.
‘The power density I can achieve with Powersoft’s single and dual-rack space amps is amazing,’ he continues. ‘I don’t have to worry about getting pulled over at weigh stations on the way to one of the fairs we work and having the trucks be over weight. And I can handle a lot of these events with just one of the Powersoft racks, saving around 600lbs of amplifier weight compared to the old system.’
Reliability is also a valuable quality of the new amps: ‘I’ve been putting these amps through their paces this summer as far as heat and general environmental nastiness and they don’t let up,’ Forbes says. ‘With all the outdoor fairs we’re in the dirt, the dust, the rain, and the humidity, pretty torturous conditions for an amplifier, and these things are just loving it.’ Forbes has also tested their capacity for handling low-resistive loads. ‘I’ve purposely loaded them down to 2Ω to see how they’d handle it and they make it look easy. I didn’t have a single issue with the amps all summer; it was a real breath of fresh air.’
While it wasn’t an easy decision for Forbes to overhaul his amplifier stock, he knows he made the right choice with Powersoft, and Powersoft’s excellent support has made the transition as easy and seamless as possible. ‘The support has been great,’ he says. ‘Any question I’ve had has been answered promptly and thoroughly, but to be honest the product has been really easy to navigate on my own. The interfaces all make sense, which is important for somebody like me who doesn’t like to read manuals!’ While winter is a slower season for SPL Systems as outdoor events wind down in the Northeast, Forbes is already looking forward to hitting the ground running in the spring with his new rig. ‘I can’t wait to get the Powersoft rig out again and take it through its paces.’
More: www.powersoft-audio.com
