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Danley SM100 audition
John Halliburton:
Some may remember when I borrowed Rick Powell's SM80 pair and did some A/B listening in my main venue, the 650 seat theater space shown in the photo.
Move forward...picked up a pair of SM100. Took them down to the theater and set them up for a listen and Dave Unger joined me in putting ears on them. Round one was a single SM100 and a single SPL Runt(forerunner of the DSL SH95) next to each other on stands center stage.
The first thing that struck us was the similarity, and that they played together surprisingly well. Our main observations on differences were that the SM100 was a little more efficient, and had a more pronounced midrange, or conversely, the Runt was more "laid back". The very high end above 6khz was brighter on the Runt. Low end was pretty similar.
Next, as shown in the photo, the pair of SM100 on stands. Very nice soundstage. I was playing one of Chesky's test CDs that had various music tracks and an assortment of test tracks using the same piece recorded with different mic techniques starting with a single mono mic on down the list of different stereo mic techniques.
I am NOW looking forward to doing another comparison at another venue to hopefully use them for an upgrade there.
I like 'em.
Best regards,
John
(corrected that all caps word!)
kendallhadden:
Looking forward to reading your thoughts. I love my SM100M that I use as mains in smaller venues.
John Halliburton:
--- Quote from: kendallhadden on April 12, 2017, 07:20:42 PM ---Looking forward to reading your thoughts. I love my SM100M that I use as mains in smaller venues.
--- End quote ---
And that's the goal-install in a smaller venue where the room is shaped like the state of Nevada, and the stage is built into the Northeastern corner of the state. FOH is at the western side of the state right by Reno, where the state line shifts from north-south to diagonally running to the southeast. The depth of the room at the longest point from north to south is 40'. Capacity is around 100 with chairs set up for a concert. Ceiling is 10' and level across the whole room. Stage is about 12"-14" high.
The main speaker pair(12" two way) are hanging above each corner of the stage. There are two problems with this. First, the trap cabinets are sideways, and the horn pattern becomes narrow in the horizontal. Second, the house right speaker is right up against the soffit and wall, the house left speaker is just to the left of center for the main part of the room.
To top that off, there are three "zone" speakers(dual 6" two ways by the same company as the main pair), only one of which makes sense, as it covers the northwest corner of the state off stage right. The other two are part way back in the room. There is no processing, just an Ashly XR1001 crossover on the main pair and sub. There are 31 band eqs on all speaker feeds.
Needless to say, coverage is not consistent. To hear the main pair properly, you have to be in the seating section in their main coverage-that is to say "on axis". The horns being sideways causes a narrow pattern for them. This is tough on the engineer, as FOH is off house left of this main pattern, so you must go out and check. Of course, having the zone speakers on sort of helps(the house left cabinet mostly aims at the mixer) , but the sound quality is different.
My hope is to go in and set up the SM100 pair on stands as close to where I think they should hang-spaced equally from the side walls along the same line the current main pair are hanging, and do a comparison A/B listening test. I expect the nice even coverage of the SM100 to improve the overall sound quality at all seats. I anticipate the "power alley" of the two spaced SM100 to help reach the southern tip of Nevada, aided by the great ability of the Synergy horns to add constructively when placed close to a boundary(the ceiling in this case), and also help hit the back of the room effectively. I am also hoping that the improved overall directivity of the Synergy horns to help lessen bleeding back onto the stage area.
Next, the owners have been wanting to hang speakers out off the overhang/porch that runs along the whole eastern part of the Nevada shaped room to have music in the beer garden. The two smaller zone speakers that I will remove from the main room will go out there.
Last, I will install a processor with enough I/O to control all the new and rearranged speakers, introducing parametric eq, delay as needed, and limiting to the house system.
Keep your fingers crossed they go for it. ;>)
Best regards,
John
Weogo Reed:
Hi John ,
The SM100 is one of the best boxes I have ever heard.
Kinda like listening to nice headphones.
The pattern is a bit wide for some of the very reflective halls I work, but
since you are talking about putting the boxes near the ceilings
my guess is they will work very nicely.
Are you going to try them near the side-walls as well?
Thanks and good health, Weogo
John Halliburton:
--- Quote from: Weogo Reed on April 14, 2017, 11:55:16 AM ---
Hi John ,
The SM100 is one of the best boxes I have ever heard.
Kinda like listening to nice headphones.
The pattern is a bit wide for some of the very reflective halls I work, but
since you are talking about putting the boxes near the ceilings
my guess is they will work very nicely.
Are you going to try them near the side-walls as well?
Thanks and good health, Weogo
--- End quote ---
The potential install at the pub would not involve walls, just the ceiling.
I am thinking of stacking one on each main stack of my TD-1s over Orbit Shifter subs in the theater on Monday-from that position it appears they would make decent front fills, and possibly add some more output to the balcony. I have time in the afternoon to play around with this and see.
Best regards,
John
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