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[Scott Bolt]

Love the UPA-1a's .... can't afford (or justify) them, but really love the way they sound.  As you said, a different league.

But one thing is for sure.....down at that 7 to 8 hundred price range, you can buy a hell of a good speaker......and if you are a gear wise , used market savvy guy like me, you can pick up 4 MRX-512ms for $1.2 K US.

That is a great price.....Even for one engineer! 

For sure.  The current crop of 12" powered speakers (and the accompanying subs for that matter) are making it possible for local bands to have 75% of the sound quality of a professionally supplied system at 1/10th the cost.

Lots of the guess work is being removed as well with the built in DSP, cross-overs, and time alignment all built in (as it turns out, most musicians haven't even heard of SMAART). 

Speaker and amplifier technology has definitely taken a huge step forward over the last 5 years.  The newest crop of powered speakers are really good sounding stuff.  Just a few years ago, I was looking down my nose at local groups using powered speakers because the sound quality just wasn't there compared to passive systems.  Today .... well, I own a pair myself

I really had to take the time to go out and listen to what was available to understand how far the market had come.

[Dave Scarlett]

Dear Mr. Screws. Please change your handle to your real name as requested on the top of every page - Read Before Posting.

Thanks

[Tim McCulloch]

Dear Mr. Screws. Please change your handle to your real name as requested on the top of every page - Read Before Posting.

Thanks

I've inquired about this, as Mr. Screws isn't the only member with both a handle and a "Full Real Name" disclaimer in the user info.  Perhaps it's a transition thing for the RecPit users or the sign-up page has changed, or....

I'm sure we'll find out.

Tim Mc

[Scott Bolt]

Today .... well, I own a pair myself

So which ones do you own?

The DSR112's.  They were the best in clarity and in tightness of bass.... and they held up to higher SPL without getting harsh or losing any bottom.  The PRX wasn't bad either, but not quite as good as the DSR.

[Douglas R. Allen]

Hey guys,

An audio store located near the Atlanta metro area hosted a comparison of budget powered boxes.  The comparison only included powered speakers at the $1,000 or less price point. The speakers were hidden for the listening tests and none of the DSPs on the amplifiers were engaged.  One of the judges stated to me each box inherently performed well for certain types of media (e.g., music playback, male vocals, female vocals, etc.) and not so great for others.  I guess it really comes down to the tuning results of the cabinet with respect to materials, components, and costs.  I would tell you which speaker placed first, but that would spoil the surprise, check out the link below.

http://www.peachstateaudio.com/ccpage/ccpage.htm

I see speakers in different locations in the room. Some are close to walls and others are in the middle. There is no damping seen in the pictures so wall reflections would effect the test speakers differently. Also a speaker playing this close to another speaker not in use would resonate the non working speakers box. The boxes could have different tunings and cause the speakers to work against each other. Or one may add to the working speaker. Where a speaker was placed in line and which speaker (s) it was placed against makes it a crap shoot as to how the working speaker would sound.
A/B test are tough enough. This many speakers and this many locations makes it to me not very accurate.

Douglas R. Allen

[Scott Bolt]

This many speakers and this many locations makes it to me not very accurate

I thought about that too, but felt that the bigger injustice was not allowing each of the judges to attempt to eq the speakers to their own taste and then test with a variety of different music (live would be even better).

This was how I tested myself.  The default "coloring" that the speaker ships with is hardly a valid mechanism of determining which speaker will do the best since what you end up evaluating is the default voicing of the speakers DSP.... not the capability of the speaker.

Surely there are few of us here that do not tweak the channel strip and even the main eq to get sound to our liking (within limits).

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to keep a speaker's clarity or fullness going as it starts to be pushed. 

[Jeff Babcock]

Of the 2 Mackie speakers tested, the one which is cheaper, has much simpler DSP, and lacks the outstanding phase response of the HD model was the higher ranked unit.  Go figure.

Such shootouts can be misleading unless great care is taken in the process.

[Tim McCulloch]

I see speakers in different locations in the room. Some are close to walls and others are in the middle. There is no damping seen in the pictures so wall reflections would effect the test speakers differently. Also a speaker playing this close to another speaker not in use would resonate the non working speakers box. The boxes could have different tunings and cause the speakers to work against each other. Or one may add to the working speaker. Where a speaker was placed in line and which speaker (s) it was placed against makes it a crap shoot as to how the working speaker would sound.
A/B test are tough enough. This many speakers and this many locations makes it to me not very accurate.

Douglas R. Allen

Thanks, Doug, for pointing out that this "shootout" is about as valid as having an in-law suggest new wives....

The only "shootout" that matters is what happens when products are compared "in situ" at a venue the prospect is familiar with; running the program material the prospect intends to encounter most often; set up the way the prospect intends to use the gear.

The random nature of the shootout in question pretty much invalidates even the subjective opinions because moving the speakers closer/further from walls, changing the height above the floor, etc, will all affect the audible results.... and therefore the opinions of those present might well be different if any physical parameter had been different.

Having attended a few shootouts, I've decided that most of them are meaningless once you're outside THAT venue and use different deployments or change any of the processing.

They're still fun to attend, though, and the networking with others is the biggest benefit I see to most of them.

Have fun, good luck.

Tim Mc

[Scott Bolt]

So do you believe that in a GC room with speakers on shelves (close to each other), the sound would be greatly effected?

[Jay Barracato]

So do you believe that in a GC room with speakers on shelves (close to each other), the sound would be greatly effected?

Absolutely, I was going to point that out two weeks ago but never got up enough ire to type out a response

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