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[Renard Hurtado]

Hi All,

I was looking forward to this review of the new Yamaha DSR loudspeakers. ( I was and am hoping for a poor man`PS-15)
http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-1937

Pretty soon I will have some to do my own shooting against my two favorites: RCF ART-322A and QSC -HPR-122i.

Any of have heard these new Yamah soeakers, with the Nexo influence ??

Renard from Curacao

[Ryan McLeod]

I demo'd a pair of the DSR15's this morning, and played with the 12's last week.

In short, from a sould quality perspective, they sound fastastic - they are much more then a "powered version of the club series" and in my market priced favorably vs. the QSC K-series I already own lots of.

[Daniel Cash]

I demo'd a pair of the DSR15's this morning, and played with the 12's last week.

In short, from a sould quality perspective, they sound fastastic - they are much more then a "powered version of the club series" and in my market priced favorably vs. the QSC K-series I already own lots of.

Would you care to expand on this.  I too am familiar with the QSC K series, and have been looking for a comparison to the yamahs.  Aside from price, how do they compare?  It appears that you like the sound of the Yamaha DSR... how is the output compared to the QSC?  Any other observations on them side by side?

[Scott Bolt]

I have been looking into the DSR's and will buy either these or the JBL PRX612's this weekend.

I have auditioned the K12's, DSR112, and JBL PRX 612 side by side.

The K12's were the first to clip, and as they were pushed sounded harsh and thin.  If you played them below their limit, they sounded better.  At medium volumes they sounded really good .... but so did the other speakers.

The PRX's sounded evenly equalized and did well all the way up to where they clip.  They sounded good the whole way and didn't do anything nasty when clipping.  They liked being pushed.

The DSR's had more definition in vocals and were a little punchier than the PRX's.  The box is equalized with a bit of bottom and top eq.  The bottom was pleasing, but the top was too much IMHO.  These speakers went further than the others despite the SPL equality in their specifications.  The top end got harsh to my ears.

I didn't try to equalize any of these speakers, so I am making another trip this weekend with the intention of seeing how the speakers sound once they are equalized.

The DSR's were without a doubt the most pleasing for vocal clarity.  I just need to see if I can tame some of the high end.

[chuck clark]

The yammies have a 2" voice coil hi freq. diaphram. The QSC and JBL boxes you mention have 1.7 or 1.75" v.c. 's on highs. All other things being roughly equal, the Yammies have more output capability in the high end. This gives better clarity at higher volumes. Yes they will go loud enough to hurt your ears, but it's relatively cheap and easy to turn something down a little bit. When you need more up and you don't have it-that's difficult and exspensive.  That said the QSC and JBL boxes are quality, well balanced, good sounding boxes, but if your after loud clear vocals your going to have a little easier time getting there w/ the Yammers.
Happy sailing
Chuck

[Scott Bolt]

@chuck clark,

Good point about the available high end and vocal clarity.

The other thing about my auditioning is that the speaker room at GC is a very small room.  What would be ideal would be for the speakers to be auditioned in a bigger setting and from a bit further away to get a feel of how they would sound at a venue of say 200 people (sufficient for most weekend warriors who don't tour).

Another person reviewed these here:  http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-DSR112-Active-Loudspeaker-106226970-i1546108.gc#customer-reviews

Quickly, popular girl QSC K12's have unnatural top end coloration and become harsh when pushed; good at being loud. JBL PRX612M's very good mid-range performance (warmer than K12's), especially with guitar sounds-not so much with vocals. Does loud just as well, lightest weight and lowest price point in the class, so far. This is based on living with both in many live-sound situations this past year, and you notice things. GC made me buy the Yamaha DSR112 from their online
store to check -it-out, since they didn't stock it at their local brick & mortar. Ran it against the others at a few live shows, and you KNEW which side of the stage it was on. Very consistent response top to bottom; detailed and smooth on everything, widest sound stage and goes lower than the others, very hi-fi like. Bigger voice-coils, lower crossover point, 1300w on tap (850w/450t) doesn't hurt either. The DSR112 kept on going when the QSC & JBL ran outta gas (clipped). Oh, and ran cooler too. Okay, so it has a fatter ass (47#) and costs a little more, but man it sounds so good after the others pass out. If you want to save your back and some money, get the JBL; if you want GREAT sound, get the Yamaha DSR112. Yeah, I like it!

[Chuck Simon]

The yammies have a 2" voice coil hi freq. diaphram. The QSC and JBL boxes you mention have 1.7 or 1.75" v.c. 's on highs. All other things being roughly equal, the Yammies have more output capability in the high end.

Of course the size of the voice coil does not tell the whole story on output capability in the high end. The 2408 driver used is the same used in some of the JBL VRX speakers, so I'm sure it is of high quality.

That said, I have not heard the Yamahas.  Does anyone know what drivers they use?(who makes them)

[Rob Spence]

When listening to the 3 speakers mentioned, are you measuring SPL? To me, it isn't what they sound like when I have exceeded their capabilities but more will they go loud enough for the job.

[Scott Bolt]

Of course the size of the voice coil does not tell the whole story on output capability in the high end. The 2408 driver used is the same used in some of the JBL VRX speakers, so I'm sure it is of high quality.

That said, I have not heard the Yamahas.  Does anyone know what drivers they use?(who makes them)

I agree.  The real test is in the ears of the beholder

From Yamaha's website:

Transducers were scrupulously selected, then thoroughly customized. The waveguide horn was designed and optimized for the DSR Series requirements.

Doesn't sound like they are proprietary .... at least not completely.  "Thoroughly customized" could mean they stamped it with a "Yamaha" logo

[Scott Bolt]

When listening to the 3 speakers mentioned, are you measuring SPL? To me, it isn't what they sound like when I have exceeded their capabilities but more will they go loud enough for the job.

Nope.  Not listening to SPL; however, it is a good thing to have headroom.  Typically, more headroom means less distortion at reasonable volumes.  It also means that if I need to do something outside, the speaker will have more room on top trying to keep up with my folded horns

I agree with your general idea though.  Sound quality at normal gig levels is the most important factor.  I typically play for ~75-150 people in a bar, with the occasional outside 300 person gig.

If I had to, I could pick up 2 more tops to do bigger venues.  At that point, the PRX's may start looking good since at 34lbs vs 47lbs, two on each side (on poles above the subs) starts to make a bit more difference.

I was planning on testing with some CD music and my venerable EV ND767a microphone at GC while tweaking the channel eq parametrics to get the best tone from each speaker.  I will report back what I find and what I went with and why.

The reality is that all 3 of these speakers are good (much better than what I see being used in 90% of the local bar bands).  They are not quite what I could call high end like Meyer or even JBL's SRX line, but they are in a completely different league than the JRX, Behringer, Carvin, B52 junk I see lots of bands using 

In fact, they are generally better sounding that some passive speakers that have much better drivers than they do simply because not many weekend warriors have the knowledge to properly setup the eq and digital crossover correctly to get the most of their drivers and amplifiers.

Of course, even with a good matched set of powered speakers and subs, you have to have enough ear to get the mix and channel eq's right ..... which sadly many do not.

[ProSoundWeb Community]