Amp and Cab Switcher

[Ed536m]

I know that many members here have multiple amps and cabs. Do any of you have experience with amp and cab switchers? It’s primarily for home use. Would be nice to be able to easily switch without having to unplug and reconnect. Are there any downsides?
Thanks

 

[mmarchi21]

I have been using DeLisle amp switchers for a while with no issues. I currently use the 12 amp/12 cab version which has support for an attenuator and I appreciate the ISO option for eliminating hum (not caused by the switcher). I just upgraded to the Kahayan 16x8 amp switcher (installed today) but it does not have an ISO option so I am dealing with some hum which I find irritating. I would have this issue without a switcher and I have a Morley hum eliminator on order to put into the PS100 effect loop to see if that solves the problem (after talking with my Sweetwater rep). It’s incredibly convenient to switch between amps and cabs at a moments notice. Also, these two versions have amp input jack support so you never really have to do any cable swapping. My set up is Shure wireless into Voodoo Lab Dingbat pedal board (I was daisy chaining 2 but now am just using 1)….. That goes into the amp/cab switcher. PS100 is attached to amp/cab switcher so it can be shared across all amps and cabs. Since my amp heads are in a rack where it can be hard to get to the on/off switches in the back, I have power strip selectors in my rack so that I can flick a switch to turn on my amps that are hard to get to. Everything is powered by 2 power conditioners which go into an AmpRX PowerStation so that I can get the voltage close to 120 (runs higher in my house from the wall). Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Ed536m]

That helps a ton. I was looking at the De Lisle 4x4 deluxe and the Khe 4x4 fx. I appreciate your input.

 

[Title17]

I use the Fryette ZMACS, which handles impedance matching as well as switching any combo of 4 heads and 4 speaker cabinets. I use a midi controller foot pedal to switch between various combinations and have had very good results with it. Only good if you have a more limited number of heads / cabs (you can link multiple units, but that gets cost prohibitive fairly quickly) but it works well for me.

 

[Ed536m]

I use the Fryette ZMACS, which handles impedance matching as well as switching any combo of 4 heads and 4 speaker cabinets. I use a midi controller foot pedal to switch between various combinations and have had very good results with it. Only good if you have a more limited number of heads / cabs (you can link multiple units, but that gets cost prohibitive fairly quickly) but it works well for me.

Thanks for your input. I was looking at the ZMACS and I saw that it has an attenuator input. Do you know if that can be used as an fx loop?

 

[mmarchi21]

I use the Fryette ZMACS, which handles impedance matching as well as switching any combo of 4 heads and 4 speaker cabinets. I use a midi controller foot pedal to switch between various combinations and have had very good results with it. Only good if you have a more limited number of heads / cabs (you can link multiple units, but that gets cost prohibitive fairly quickly) but it works well for me.

I also have a ZMACS and I used it with the De Lisle 12x12 amp/cab switcher. Worked great. I had my cabs connected to the ZMACs and had the De Lisle feeding the selected amp input into the 4th ZMACs Amp In jack so I could have support for 15 amps and 4 cabs. I also had things set up with a Midi controller. The problem I ran into was that I wanted to have more than 4 cabs available which led me to the Kahayan which I got up and running this week (16x8 version). Going back to using the Weber Z-Matcher’s to handle the OHM difference for the cabs that don’t match up. The ZMACS attenuator ports are for a typical cab signal so Fryette expects you to use a PowerStation and that effects loop. Hope that helps. If I had 4 amps and 4 cabs, the ZMACS would be my perfect solution but I’ve got too much stuff. And, I did not feel like daisy chaining ZMACS together given the cost.

 

[Ed536m]

That helps a lot. I only have 4 heads and 4 cabs. All are 8 ohm at the moment. Also have a power station so it appears that the ZMACS is the logical way to go. Btw.. can’t imagine what cabling 15 amps and 4 cabs must be like. Thanks again.

 

[Title17]

I use a Power Station in one of the attenuator loops and use the effects loop in the Power Station. My current heads and cabs all are 8 ohms, but it is nice to have the flexibility for the future to do impedance matching.