Cardiff, UK-based rental house Magnum PA recently added Powersoft T Series touring amplifiers to its inventory after onsultation Powersoft distributor CUK Audio, including an initial order of four T604 and four T602 followed by another T604 as well as plans to add another three T602.
“I’ve known of Powersoft for years and was well aware of their famous high power per rack unit reputation,” says Philip Hughes, managing director Magnum PA. “We had been looking for an option to streamline our main system racks for a while, but it was difficult to find an option that also met our requirements for Dante connectivity and failover. Although we didn’t quite have the need for the power of the X4, as soon as we saw the T Series we knew we had found the perfect solution.
“Part of our production work is in large-scale site-wide systems, and to be able to deploy the T Series across all of our projects was a fantastic prospect,” he continues. “I also listened to a T604 on our hardest-working rig (the Logic Systems Ethos CA), which consists of two 8+1 fixed angle array boxes augmented by twin 15-inch subs. The difference between our previous DSP + 10kQ amp racks and the T604 was night and day, especially on the low end.”
In addition to its main Cardiff warehouse, the company also keeps a small inventory at its head office in Pembrokeshire, with Hughes and his team deciding to purchase the additional T604 to begin bringing it in line with the Cardiff operation’s standards. “While Pembrokeshire mainly has small PAs for small events, we do call on the inventory to service events all over the UK during the usually busy summer period,” he explains. “We took the decision to only buy T series moving forward due to its huge flexibility, hence the most recent T604 now resides in West Wales.”
The T Series platform can be controlled in a number of ways (through ArmoníaPlus, via the front panel display, or using the dedicated webapp), and offers a large preset library. Inputs include Dante, AES3, and analog, with the Dante and AES3 optimized for daisy-chained distribution of two-channel audio to enable routing to many amplifiers without the need for external switches, repeaters, or splitters. This, in turn, is intended to simplify the process of setting up a typical networked system, allowing an amplifier to act as an analog-to-Dante convertor, collecting analog signals and delivering distribution to other amplifiers.
In his capacity as senior lecturer at the University of South Wales School of Engineering (Sound and Live Event Production), Hughes recently hosted a line array rigging day where he began driving the Ethos VA from the original amps then switched to the T602s to assess the difference. “We only managed to create a quick profile for the low end in between demos but, yet again, in an A/B comparison the T Series was astounding,” he states.
CUK’s James Lawford adds: “Powersoft have proved once again that, with their T Series platform, it is possible to harmonise a whole warehouse of loudspeakers to run from just a few models of amplifier. This substantially adds to the versatility of PA hire stock inventories and, as a result, return on investment.”
