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[Mike Price]

Hwy all!  I have been a long time lurker, and fan and I cannot locate what I need to solve in the search function. Maybe someone more adept with the search function can help me.

Anyhow,

Intro - I am a mobil DJ that specializes in weddings. I have a small inexpensive setup that sounds great for what I do and it is easily portable in my car. I serve central Utah. I am a 35 year old Father and have been married to a wonderful woman for 12 years. I work professionally as a Real Estate Appraiser and I have my own company. My DJ business is a side venture, but I would like it to get bigger and busier. But before I do that I want to have all the bugs worked out of my sound system.

My Setup -

I started Small with a Behringer PHH1000 Powered Mixer as I had some passive Squire Speakers. Well the amp blew quickly so I bought some Powered Behringer B215A speakers. I have this mounted on Tripod stands. Generally the only inputs I use are my Laptop (headphone jack 1/8" to line in 1/4" Stereo) and a Senheiser e835 mic XLR. This is all powered my a Monster Cable surge protector and power conditioner (not a pro audio one though). When I turn the speaker volume up to about 50% I get a noticable hiss. When I turn it down to about 35% it goes away. I am thinking this is due to power conditioning but I am not sure. I have been teaching myself everything as I go and I would appreaciate the input even though I realize this is a basic question.

Thanks in advance

[paul bell]

Welcome!

The first thing you need to do is change your name to the real one. Then you can proceed with The Live Audio Board.

[Mike Price]

Welcome!

The first thing you need to do is change your name to the real one. Then you can proceed with The Live Audio Board.

Name Changed

[paul bell]

Great, thanks!

I would suggest (without going through all the reasons) for you to consider a more "professional" level of speakers like QSC's K series. You'll notice most speakers of this type have a balanced input jack that's XLR. Come out of your latop to some kind of mixer that has a balanced main output to drive your speakers. Then use decent XLR cabling to the speakers. This should fix your hiss issue. You should also notice a good increase in sound quality, depending on the source material.

Stay away from hyper-marketed stuff like Monster cabling and power conditioners. Just use proper grounded cabling. Stay away from the Behringer junk.

[Riley Casey]

Go with the basics.  Gain structure:

1 - Turn your speakers all the way down.
2 - Turn the master fader up to unity ( the zero mark, about 3/4 of the way up, which ever applies ).
3 -Turn the output level on your laptop almost all the way up and play your laptop into the mixer. 
4 - Turn up the laptop input on the mixer until your mixer meters get close to but not in the red. 
5 - Turn up the speakers until it's the loudest you'd ever want it to be. 
6 - Stop the laptop playback

No hiss?  Problem solved.  Still hissy ?  Now it's time to address the fact that you have some fairly low grade sound equipment.  Now turn down the fader for the laptop.  Hiss gone?  Probably time to invest in a real USB audio interface.  The headphone out even on a premium laptop like an Apple is usually rather bad.  Substitute a Dell or other generic Windoze box and it usually gets miserable.  Hiss still there even with the laptop fader turned down?  Probably time to get a better mixer.  You get the drift of the procedure now?

Oh and the power conditioner?  Aside from the fact that you probably paid too much just for the Monster Cable name it's not likely to be a cause of hiss in the sound system.

[Othmane Alaoui]

Hwy all!  I have been a long time lurker, and fan and I cannot locate what I need to solve in the search function. Maybe someone more adept with the search function can help me.

Anyhow,

Intro - I am a mobil DJ that specializes in weddings. I have a small inexpensive setup that sounds great for what I do and it is easily portable in my car. I serve central Utah. I am a 35 year old Father and have been married to a wonderful woman for 12 years. I work professionally as a Real Estate Appraiser and I have my own company. My DJ business is a side venture, but I would like it to get bigger and busier. But before I do that I want to have all the bugs worked out of my sound system.

My Setup -

I started Small with a Behringer PHH1000 Powered Mixer as I had some passive Squire Speakers. Well the amp blew quickly so I bought some Powered Behringer B215A speakers. I have this mounted on Tripod stands. Generally the only inputs I use are my Laptop (headphone jack 1/8" to line in 1/4" Stereo) and a Senheiser e835 mic XLR. This is all powered my a Monster Cable surge protector and power conditioner (not a pro audio one though). When I turn the speaker volume up to about 50% I get a noticable hiss. When I turn it down to about 35% it goes away. I am thinking this is due to power conditioning but I am not sure. I have been teaching myself everything as I go and I would appreaciate the input even though I realize this is a basic question.

Thanks in advance

Hi Peter,

You need to first post your real name on the left corner, if not some one will lock this discussion.

There is way too many factors that impact the sound deliverred by a speaker. I can start by Gain stucture but before we get there,  The quality of your sound system is far from whath people here uses. You have what I can say Low End equipement that is not capable of a good Low Signal to noise ratio.  IMO, If you want to get bigger in this business, sell everything but the microphone and start using semi to pro Level equipement. 

Look at QSC, JBL, EV or Yamaga for Speakers
Look at QSC or Crown for Amplifiers
Look at Soundcraft, yamaha for mixers
And the DJ stuff from Pionner, rane, denon, A&H ...

Othmane

[Mike Price]

I have been looking to upgrade anyway as I know that Behringer (might as well be a 4 letter word) is not high end quality, nevertheless it does put out a decently clean sound if you don't push them too hard and they have been a great starter set of speakers.

The outputs, I realize that may be an issue. My current speakers do have balanced input, but I do not have balanced outputs off my board only 1/4" outs. A new board is already in the works.

As far as speakers are concerned - what are your opinions about the Yamaha DSR115 speakers. Anyone have any experience with them. I am also considering some RCF 312a speakers.

My power conditioner wasn't that bad as I bought it at the best electronics store around "Wal-Mart". Obviously I am being sarcastic.

Does anyone have any experience with the all in one DJ type mixers? I like the Idea of the Numark Mixdeck for a mobile jock useage.

Again - I realize what I have is not high quality gear. I would like to make my business be a little more productive before I sink more money into new gear. I appreciate Riley's suggestions, and I will try that out when I get it set up next time.

[paul bell]

Yamaha or RCF speakers are a good choice. As you're doing DJ work and haven't mentioned a separate sub, I'd stick with a speaker with a 15 inch woofer.

A 1/4 inch jack can also be balanced, it would be TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve). What is the new mixer that you have in the works? Many DJ mixers today have some sort of balanced output available on the mains.

[Mike Price]

Yamaha or RCF speakers are a good choice. As you're doing DJ work and haven't mentioned a separate sub, I'd stick with a speaker with a 15 inch woofer.

A 1/4 inch jack can also be balanced, it would be TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve). What is the new mixer that you have in the works? Many DJ mixers today have some sort of balanced output available on the mains.

I am looking at getting a Numark Mixdeck - I am trying to do research on it first and would love some input on it. I love the fact that it is a Midi conroller, CD player and mixer all in one (I know I will need backup equipment in case of failure). Does anyone have experience with this style of mixer. It does have the balanced outs. I am not real scratch heavy so scratching with this mixer is not a priority, but I like the platters for cueing. I am open to suggestions, but the sky is not the limit with the budget. We all would love to blow $20k on our rig, but I just don't have that. Typically the size of hall that I play in is the size of a basketball court (no seating) and right now my Behringer's fill it fine, just not as richly or clean as I would like. Eventually I will add a sub - again I like the DSR118.

I also looked at Brian S Redd on Youtube. He went with some RCF 408's and an EV XA1 sub. It sounded great for halls up to 150 people. What are your experiences with this mirco type of set up. With me I have heard small subs which gave small bass. The only small speaker subs I have heard work well are the Bill Fitzmaurice designs.

[paul bell]

As I'm a pro sound and production company, I have no experience with DJ mixers. Having said this, the Numark Mixdecks have balanced outputs should you should be good to go with it.

For speakers, I highly recommend you stick to self powered designs.

[Tracy Garner]

Hwy all!  I have been a long time lurker, and fan and I cannot locate what I need to solve in the search function. Maybe someone more adept with the search function can help me.

Anyhow,

Intro - I am a mobil DJ that specializes in weddings. I have a small inexpensive setup that sounds great for what I do and it is easily portable in my car. I serve central Utah. I am a 35 year old Father and have been married to a wonderful woman for 12 years. I work professionally as a Real Estate Appraiser and I have my own company. My DJ business is a side venture, but I would like it to get bigger and busier. But before I do that I want to have all the bugs worked out of my sound system.

My Setup -

I started Small with a Behringer PHH1000 Powered Mixer as I had some passive Squire Speakers. Well the amp blew quickly so I bought some Powered Behringer B215A speakers. I have this mounted on Tripod stands. Generally the only inputs I use are my Laptop (headphone jack 1/8" to line in 1/4" Stereo) and a Senheiser e835 mic XLR. This is all powered my a Monster Cable surge protector and power conditioner (not a pro audio one though). When I turn the speaker volume up to about 50% I get a noticable hiss. When I turn it down to about 35% it goes away. I am thinking this is due to power conditioning but I am not sure. I have been teaching myself everything as I go and I would appreaciate the input even though I realize this is a basic question.

Thanks in advance

If you run your laptop on battery power only, does the noise go away?

[Mike Price]

If you run your laptop on battery power only, does the noise go away?

I have not checked that - That is an easy check

[Greg_Cameron]

Hiss is not generally associated with power issues, gain structure usually is. Or maybe a poor quality sound card or other audio device. Power issues are usually ground related and so-called "conditioning" is not the issue. What Tracy is driving at is that many laptops have ground coupled power supply noise, often the external power supply switching circuity dumps harmonics into the ground bus of the laptop and that gets into the audio circuity. A good fix is to use a decent quality USB audio interface for playback to the mixer rather than the built in headphone/line out jack. It's generally good practice to do so anyways.

[Paul G. OBrien]

I am looking at getting a Numark Mixdeck - I am trying to do research on it first and would love some input on it.

The compact nature of these all-in-one consoles is tempting but it is a risk putting all your eggs in one basket and you have to wonder what it's reliability is like given the price point. Also consider it's form factor, it won't fit in a standard 19" rack so it will have to be cased seperately from other gear and that adds setup/teardown time and wear and tear on the I/O jacks of assiciated gear. Also note that it is reported that these consoles are not compatable with the latest Ipod/Iphone models despite what Numark claims. Personally I like standard 19" equipment, there are enough choices out there from the numerous DJ equipment manufacturers to get all the features you want with seperate components and they can be racked with backups in a fairly compact 19" console.

[Mike Price]

Personally I like standard 19" equipment, there are enough choices out there from the numerous DJ equipment manufacturers to get all the features you want with seperate components and they can be racked with backups in a fairly compact 19" console.

Do you have any preferences? I really like the idea of the Denon DN-HS4500 but I have heard that it can be hard to get the CD player that goes with it.

As far as using an all in one console - I realize the eggs are all in one basket - that is why my current setup would be my backup if there ever was a problem. The beauty of the all in one design is just that - it is all in one. I would really only need the one mixer/case, speakers and the laptop to play. I would then have my light rack case next to it. It actually makes things a little quicker.

Would a Driverack help make sound better? Are they worth the $400? I don't know very much about them. Since I used powered speakers, I would be looking at the Driverack PX+.

I know I sound like a total noob but I appreciate the help.

[Paul G. OBrien]

Do you have any preferences? I really like the idea of the Denon DN-HS4500 but I have heard that it can be hard to get the CD player that goes with it.

If I were buying I think I'd be looking at a media player, something like the Numark DDS80 system or Gemini CDMP2700. I have spent a whole lifetime in the tech world around all types of computers and from my experience you get better reliability from a single purpose dedicated processing system like those found in a media player than something that is designed to be infinitely flexable like a laptop, this flexability usually means there are also an infinite number of ways it can be corrupted and crash without warning. But my priorities may be a little different than yours, I run a small rental business that provides more Dj equipment than anything but I need it to be able to accept just about any input type. I too have been considering buying one of those Numark Mixdecks to try out for the very reasons you describe.. it's simplicity, throw the console on a table connect powered speakers and you're done. I may yet but it depends where customer demand pushes me, that's my sole driving force but it's probably not the same for you. 

Would a Driverack help make sound better?

With quality powered speakers I don't think they're necessary, I removed all outboard EQ from my Dj consoles after getting powered speakers.. partially to minimize the damage customers can do but also because the speakers really didn't need any help at sounding good.

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