So, yesterday I had the unpleasing experience of mixing on the Soundbridge XYON series boxes. I had 12 boxes flown a side, and 10 subs per side. I expected a decent experience after reading some reviews on the LAB, but it turned out to be quite the opposite.
Some background on the venue/system:
It's the Six Flags in Dallas Texas. A 10,000 seat outdoor venue. The rig was apparently installed sometime in July, so it was still fairly new. Everything was setup and properly tuned. Itechs provided powered, and a Dolby lake was the DSP. I had a PM5D out front and nothing else was in the chain between it and the DSP.
So, as I fired up the rig there was an apparent lack of mids, and an upper shrill, harsh sound. Not to mention some weird bumps around 250hz... The mains sounded very unbalanced. It hit me as soon as soon as I started thinking about it. A 2" compression driver was supposed to cover all the way down to 600hz. Well, it just wasnt happening. It sounded ok at lower levels, but as soon as I cranked it up, the whole upper range of the box just went to shit. The HF needs a much larger horn to actually cover as low as they want it to...
So, I started EQ'ing the box a little, hoping to get something useful to work with. I ended up with some pretty steep cuts. But, I had something workable.
As I played some tuned and walked the arena, I noticed that coverage was pretty poor too. Up front it was muffled and it dropped off fast off to the sides. As I walked further away, all the low mids completely disappeared and it just became harsh and brittle sounding.
The rig also lacked get up and go. I was struggling to hit 103dBA @ FOH. I was only ~70' from the stage too. It was no louder up front either. Maybe 106A as you got right up on the stage.
The subs were the best part of the rig, and that wasnt saying too much. They had enough to make me happy, but no more. I was honestly expecting more from 40 18" speakers.
Come show time, we had around 6,000 kids in attendance. It was tough getting it loud enough for everyone and not having a shit mix. I'd hate to see the system try to cover a packed house. The whole show hovered around 101-103dBA @ FOH. I wasnt overly happy with the sound all night, but I couldnt get it any better. 6 d&b Q1's, 8 dV-dosc, 8 EV XLC's, or 8 EAW KF730's per side would have completely owned the sound quality and output SPL of the Sound Bridge rig.
So, if your considering a SB rig, I'd look elsewhere. Put your money into something that actually sounds good...
Evan