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Author Topic: passive or powered pt.II  (Read 9354 times)

Tyler Wolfe

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passive or powered pt.II
« on: December 10, 2012, 12:18:55 AM »

we're needing a pa for small bars and are about to buy new mains and a sub. we're looking at Yamaha C112 or EV ELX-112 with seperate power amp (maybe qsc gx5 or a similar peavey), or the powered ELX-112p. i understand powered is the easy way to go. i would like to know if it's worth the money saved to go passive? if so, what's the best route?

thank you, mac, for the route suggestion.
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Paul G. OBrien

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2012, 11:14:15 AM »

we're needing a pa for small bars and are about to buy new mains and a sub. we're looking at Yamaha C112 or EV ELX-112 with seperate power amp (maybe qsc gx5 or a similar peavey), or the powered ELX-112p. i understand powered is the easy way to go. i would like to know if it's worth the money saved to go passive? if so, what's the best route?

thank you, mac, for the route suggestion.

How do you figure you're saving money going passive? To get performance similar to a good quality active box(Yamaha DXR/DSR, QSC K/KW, JBL PRX) you need amplifiers and DSP processing and the knowledge to correctly configure it for your particular speakers. Powered speakers aren't a complete magic bullet but at this level they will sound better right out of the box and be more idiot proof.. which is most of the battle.
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Jamin Lynch

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2012, 03:38:06 PM »

we're needing a pa for small bars and are about to buy new mains and a sub. we're looking at Yamaha C112 or EV ELX-112 with seperate power amp (maybe qsc gx5 or a similar peavey), or the powered ELX-112p. i understand powered is the easy way to go. i would like to know if it's worth the money saved to go passive? if so, what's the best route?

thank you, mac, for the route suggestion.

Every time I add it up, I come out spending less with powered speakers.
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Scott Bolt

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2012, 06:47:36 PM »

You may want to consider the RCF312a as well.  These can be had for $450.00 ea and are a better sounding speaker than the LiveX IMHO.  They are really a steal in this market segment.

As for the passive/active debate, for bar bands I would never recommend anything but active.  They are simply easier to get great sound out of for the vast majority of users out there ..... and they offer built in protection from most stupidity as well ;)
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Sam Feine

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2012, 10:26:55 AM »

I recently had a thread that was in a similar vain as yours. Other than the specifics of my situation being different, it seams like active almost always wins out in the case of smaller systems that don't already have all of the support infrastructure that passive needs (ie. amps, dsp, power distribution).

I believe that right now your best bet is to go powered if only because it is much harder to accidentally kill and requires much less tuning to get a good sound.
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Steve Kas

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2012, 04:05:01 AM »

I'm getting some ELX-112Ps this week. I'll post a review when I get them. Cheers.
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Steve Kas

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2012, 05:13:30 AM »

So, I got 2 of 8 EV ELX-112Ps yesterday (*Saturday"). I put them on a stick tonight at a volunteer appreciation dinner gig in McKinney Texas. 300+ people with speeches, awards, and a new "national" recording artist singing to a track. 

Gear- (35 min in and 20 minute out!):

- 1x Mackie 18" powered sub off an aux (A&H desk).
- 2 x EV ELX-112Ps on 1 stick with dual spk. adapter
- 1 x Shure Beta 58 wireless
Puter w/ virtual DJ and MK2 DJ mixer
- 4 x Par 64 LED on tripod w/T

1. Very light weight box. They look like they would be heavy, but they're not. Easy to put up and down on/off a stick.

2. Annoying almost "white noise" though cabs (at home). However, not noticable in venue with people.
 
3. Good vocal clarity (notch out the EV 2.5- 3K garbage). Much smoother and warmer than QSC K series or RCF ART's.

4. These guys get hot (temperature). My A &H didn't see -6 dB all night and the tops were still warm/hot at the end of the gig. They are definetly not going outside this summer in Texas.

5. Good track reproduction- but you wlll need a sub.

Overall, 4/5 stars on this entry cabinet. I am a bit worried about the heat issues. However, the portability (<40 lb) and clean sound of the box make the EV ELX-112P a winner! I got mine for $399/box NEW! 2 x Yorkville LS- 801P , X32, and 6 more ELX's come tommorow (Monday). I'll let y'all know about these soon. Cheers.
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Mario Maric

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2012, 10:59:07 AM »

I enjoy not needing to plug in every individual speaker to a power source, personally. It gets annoying if your whole system is powered. That's not the only reason of course, but it's a thing to keep in mind. Choose a route that best fits your needs. From what it sounds like you do, powered speakers sound like a better choice. Otherwise the GX5 will be fine if you choose a passive route with the speakers you mentioned.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2012, 11:00:38 AM by Mario Maric »
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Scott Bolt

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2012, 11:55:18 AM »

Steve,

Thanks for the report.

I am surprised to hear that the RCF's didn't sound as smooth as the ELX (not so surprised about the K's as I have always thought they were a bit on the harsh side at higher volumes).

Those 801p's are going to really surprise you if you have never heard them before (easily 2 times as loud as most powered subs .... and 2 times as heavy ;) ).

I am surprised to hear about the heat on the ELX's as well.  The PRX's also appear to have the same design (ie get hot even when idle).

My DSR112's stay relatively cool even when pushed to their limiters, but my PRX618S-XLF's get hot as others have mentioned.

From my understanding, this is done by design with the positive being more signal to noise ratio.

I am guessing (I am an electrical engineer, but not an amp designer) that there is also a power to weight advantage to this design as well (while my DSR's do remain quite cool, they are considerably heavier than either the PRX or ELX).

Looking forward to hearing how the rest of your gear sounds ;)
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Brett Gilbert

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Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2012, 12:52:23 PM »

I debated this for about 6 months while rebuilding my PA system. In the end I went passive on the mains and powered on the monitors.

The main thing for me was being in Oklahoma and dealing with outdoor heat.  Direct sun on some, not all, powered cabinets can push them into a thermal fault.  Going the passive route let me protect the amps with some shade and extra fan cooling.

Additionally as several people said having to running multiple cables takes extra time and the potential of having switches bumped or levels adjusted incorrectly can be an issue. 

But this was for my particular scenario, I wanted a fairly bullet-proof system.
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Brett Gilbert

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: passive or powered pt.II
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2012, 12:52:23 PM »


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