A client of ours wanted to hear some powered speakers, so here's what we compared.
EV ZXA1, and ZXA5
QSC KW122, and KW153
Mackie SRM-450
Subs - Yorkville UCS1P
Danley TH-115P
Also had Sennheiser E9xx mics and an A&H iLive-T.
Results, as per a half dozen of us. Disclaimer - I am a dealer for most of the brands, so I switched between boxes at the DSP and made sure they adjusted levels dynamically so no box would stand out due to being a dB hotter than the rest. Opinions below are theirs more than mine.
No EQ. Source was various tracks we all knew well, the best being GnR Sweet Child of Mine. Crossovers were whatever was on the speaker itself for HPF. Subs were 24 L-R at 75hz LPF and 18 Butterworth at 30hz HPF.
ZXA1 - for the price and size, loved it. It gets harsh when cranked; no surprise, it's not meant for high output.
SRM-450 - Yep, as non-pleasing as everyone remembered. Rated the worst overall.
ZXA5 - got louder than expected. Mid range was indistinct and mushy, HF was harsh especially when cranked. Was quite disappointing.
KW122 - sounds a lot like K12 and HPR122, better than Mackie by a lot. Overall, very average, didn't come back to it for additional listening.
KW153 - at low levels, very 'flat' sounding, in a non-flattering way. Sounded like it needed some smile EQ (don't shoot me). Has that QSC sound that I recognize across all HPR/K/KW lines.
At 90' back or so, we cranked up the ZXA5 and KW153 to limit. The ZXA5 was so harsh, they asked me to kill the level quickly. At full output, the KW153 sounded better, and I'll admit, wasn't bad at all. The next day they had a small outdoor concert, and I went from 40' to about 300' a few times. Even at long distance, the vocals stayed on top of the mix, and it sounded better than expected.
Subwoofers - The Danley had the old, underpowered amp (note: new TH-115P with full power amp is available now), and was compared 1:1 with UCS1PB. The Danley was a lot tighter and deeper, with many comments about how it sounded 'huge'. Overall output - I thought the Danley sounded louder, they thought UCS1P but with less LF. We didn't push to the max, as the -115 belonged to someone else and didn't have the full power amp.
For the concert, I had the Danley and a KW153 on one side, and 2 UCS1PB's under a KW153 on the other, subs padded down 3+ dB. Other than crossovers, the only EQ was about a 1dB cut at about 1khz on the console output. Delay was educated guess, no Smaart, and 7ms (max available on cheap DSP) on tops and Danley, polarity reverse on Danley. Lots of comments on how the sound was 10x better than ever. Very little EQ on other channels (D6 kick, AE5400/E935/E945 vocals, i5 snare, SM57 guitar) other than HPF.
iLive-T doesn't like direct sun. Even with brightness cranked, the screens were essentially unusable. Also, the surface of the surface expanded and bubbled by at least an inch after about 5-10 minutes, and the touch screen wasn't happy at all. After moving to shade and waiting a few minutes, all was well.
Caleb