I helped the school where we have church get a nice sound system with the small budget they had. And they have let us use the system! Two SH-96's have been installed in the 1,100 seat auditorium accompanied by a new QSC PLD4.5 amplifier and Behringer X32 console with stage box. I was blown away by the performance of all these components together at such a low price point. If an act comes in there I can confidently say they will not have any problem achieving rock concert levels in there with sufficient subwoofer support.
Our old speakers that are supposed to have the same amount of output as the Danley speakers, are down about 9dB from the Danleys. And the Danleys sound great with no EQ. The pattern cuts off right at the edges of the seating area keeping sound off the walls. Now the venue has even sound all around.
I was most impressed by the "small" sound of these huge boxes. What I mean is that they remind me of a movie theater, some fine home audio cabinets, an expert designed car audio system, or even studio monitors. Every source sounds good through the speakers and now we are left to just mix. I have not yet experienced the delight of not fighting a sound system at least a little in pro audio. Danley is getting us there.
After mixing the weekend services (we use a Yamaha M7CL-48), what I was pleased with was that the Danleys sounded great with no EQ and our other speakers needed an astronomical amount of EQ. I could hear the grain in vocals and speaking voices in the bottom end. We use an Avalon tube compressor on the pastor and I was able to hear the tube compressor working. I could hear the changes the tubes were making when compressing. I wasn't thinking about it at the time until I heard it, but I have never heard that before. The bass guitar had texture and was easilly heard as every note was clean instead of mudding together. The Motif sounded more real. The acoustic guitar just sounded like an acoustic guitar. The drums were DYNAMIC. In fact, when the whole band played louder near the top of their dynamic, it got much louder and more impactful than our previous speakers. I actually was decieved because everything sounds good in them that it's not as easy to mix now. I hope I am not stepping on toes when I say most of us mix what sounds good on certain speakers. Now that we can mix however we want or need - it opens up new possibilities.
Our church has used and heard many speakers (line arrays and point source; large and small). I see Danley Speakers in a catagory of their own above that of the others.
