Peavey CS-400 User Manual

INSTALLATION AND CONNECTION
The Peavey CS-400 ™ Commercial Series power amplifier is designed for durability in commercial installations and delivers the quality of
performance required in studio and home applications. The CS-400 ™ is a dual channel power amplifier with each channel capable of delivering
more than 200 watts RMS into a 4-ohm load. The amplifier is of the standard 19" rack mount configuration and is cooled by an automatic two-speed
internal fan.
Industrial and Commercial Installation
For commercial and other installations where sustained high power operation is required, the amplifiers should be mounted in a
standard 19" rack with one standard rack space (1 : 'A") between each amplifier in the stack. It should be noted that the fan pulls air in from one
side and exhausts the hot air through the opposite side and top cover. It is for this reason that one rack space must be left between the units.
Adequate air supply must be provided for the amplifiers when rack mounted. The internal fan must have a source of air that is not preheated
by other equipment. The fan may be operated at high speed continuously to provide better cooling situations at all times. If fan cooling is
inadequate due to preheated air or reduction of air flow, an internal thermal breaker may cause temporary shutdown of the amplifier. This is
indicated by the front panel high temperature lamp (4). As a general rule, the cooler electronic equipment is operated, the longer its useful
service life. You have invested in the finest equipment that money can buy and a little care will insure long and reliable operation.
Studio and Home Installation
In most low to medium power applications, the power amplifier can be mounted in almost any configuration. It is desirable that, if at all
possible, the power amplifier be located at the top of an equipment stack. This will prevent possible drift or overheating of sensitive
equipment from the hot air rising from the power amp. As a general rule, most home requirements will never cause the fan to switch to the
high speed mode. Inadvertent short circuit or sustained high power usage, however, will cause high speed fan operation and could cause
thermal shutdown.
Input Connections
All input connections are made at the rear panel jacks. The two jacks marked “Channel Inputs” (11) are wired in parallel for ease of
connecting several amplifiers. Shielded cable must be used to minimize hum and noise pickup. The nominal input impedance is 50K Ohms.
Th'is impedance represents a bridging load to professional equipment and is compatible with the load requirements of home stereo devices.
The CS-400 ™ has an input sensitivity of 1 volt RMS for rated output with the front panel level set at “10” allowing complete compatibility in
home applications. This sensitivity decreases at lower level settings. It is generally wise to operate the level control at “7” or greater.
Output Connections
Two types of output connections are provided on the rear of the power amplifier modules. Two standard ] A" phone jacks (12) and one set
of binding posts (13) are available from each channel. Due to the high currents (greater than 10 amps) at full output, it is recommended that
No. 16 or larger wire be used whenever possible. Smaller wire sizes will waste power and yield less than optimum results at the speaker.
It is also suggested that in commercial and other non-portable applications, the binding posts (13) be used instead of the 1 p hone
plugs. The binding posts are an industry standard and mating banana plugs are available from most electronic distributors. As with all
electronic equipment, proper phasing of the outputs is important. A little time spent in correctly identifying the wiring could save a lot of
problems in the field.
OPERATION
The CS-400 ™ Commercial Series power amplifier is designed for maximum ease and flexibility of operation. When the unit is installed and
connected as described in the previous sections, operation is simply turning on the main switch and turning up the front panel level controls for the
desired output level or until the front panel overload LED shows that the amplifier is clipping or compressing.
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DDT® COMPRESSION
The CS-400 ™ is a compact and powerful amplifier that features a new type of dynamic compression. This compression system enables the
user to maximize the performance of the amplifier/speaker combination. We have determined through much research that the compression
circuitry should prevent the power amp from running out of headroom (clipping) and should be as simple to operate as possible to avoid undue
complication for the user. The compression system is activated by our exclusive “Distortion Detection Technique” circuit (DDT®) that senses
conditions which might overload and activates compression when clipping is imminent. In other words, compression takes place whenever signal
conditions exist which prevent the amplifier from faithfully reproducing the input signal. The threshold is the clipping level itself and no specific
threshold control is provided. This technique effectively utilizes every precious watt available from the power amp. Because of the dynamics of
music and vocals, it is quite common to activate the compression circuitry virtually constantly during a performance since this is what it is designed
to do, i.e., to maximize the dynamics available from the amplifier within its power output capabilities regardless of power supply/line voltage
variations and load impedance selection.

Peavey CS-400 Specifications

General

Minimum Load Impedance (Stereo)	4 ohms
Input Impedance	20 kOhms
Frequency Response	20 Hz to 20 kHz
Total Harmonic Distortion	Less than 0.1%
Input Sensitivity	1.0V RMS for rated output
Signal to Noise Ratio	>100dB
Power Output	200 Watts RMS per channel at 4 Ohms