Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Tyler James]

I'm not opposed to a little more work on the setup to get better sound. But I'll be damned if last night didn't tilt me even more towards a sound stick.

Story time... I sold my Roland KC350 keyboard amp about a month ago in anticipation of buying a powered speaker of some sort, which I've obviously not done yet. Well, tonight the worship team at my church decided we would practice for the first time... in one of our member's closed coffee shops, with no PA. My keyboard doesn't have built-in speakers, so I had to make do with possibly the worst "sound reinforcement" solution you could imagine:  a 15w ebay amplifier hooked to a spare 5" home bookshelf speaker that I typically use for listening to music in my garage. Of course, the guitar players (bass and electric) both brought amps, but the worship leader brought nothing - acoustic guitar and, critically, no microphone. I keep my mixer and microphone in my gig bag, and a mic stand in my truck so... see below.


A sound stick would be much easier to tote in and out of this setting as well. Proaudiostar has a B-stock one pro for $650 shipped... I think I will get one of these and try it for a while. If I find myself needing more, I can always trade up without losing too much (the beauty of buying b-stock or used)

[Kevin McDonough]

Those column systems run out of steam real quick. While they do sound pretty good, I feel like they would get overpowered pretty easily given the venues you listed (particularly ones outdoors). A similarly priced pair of SOS would be more versatile and get you much better coverage over a single column setup.

If you're willing to look into the used market, you could go a bit over budget ($1500ish) and get a pair of JBL SRX812/815 or even crack into the Yamaha DSR line. I'm sure there are other very stout options in that price range from other manufacturers as well.

Yeah I've found the same, most people I know who have purchased these kinds of systems have reported the same thing: that the sounded great and plenty loud in the small demo room where they tried them, but as soon as they started to use them in a real life venue with an audience making lots of background noise, they were very disappointed. The only one I've ever used that has held up to a decent sized audience was the very expensive K-array one, and even then it was just about getting to where I needed it, you could tell it didn't have any further to go.

In particular, an acoustic duo of 2 older gentlemen I knew wanted to replace their old heavy Peavey PA with something a bit easier on their backs. Bass and Guitar.  They asked me for advice and, while it's not the lightest thing ever I recommended DSR112s.

They went to a local MI store to try a few things, and ended up spending their money on one of these stick PA systems (think it was db technologies though I couldn't be sure) and said it sounded great in the shop. I replied I was looking forward to hearing it.

However I didn't get the chance, at their first gig they phoned me in a panic, asking about how the settings on the back should be set as they felt the system was way to quiet for what they needed at the gig, they couldn't get enough volume at all. I talked it through and they had everything correct, it was just nowhere near the kind of SPL they were looking for in an actual venue at an actual show.

They quickly returned it to the shop, and were willing to take little hit on it with a "restocking fee" because they were so disappointed. They got the DSR112s instead, and said it was night and day, and have been happy ever since.

k

[Patrick Cognitore]

I agree with the posters above re: budget column/sub systems. IME a comparably priced traditional 2-way will outperform a stick solution in output and sound quality.

[Jay Marr]

A sound stick would be much easier to tote in and out of this setting as well. Proaudiostar has a B-stock one pro for $650 shipped... I think I will get one of these and try it for a while. If I find myself needing more, I can always trade up without losing too much (the beauty of buying b-stock or used)

I do plenty of acoustic duo shows.  That EON system will not cover 200 people, unless they are all sitting dead quiet, staring at you.

Buy once, cry once.

A single DSR112 and a 15" sub would destroy that EON system.

[Jay Marr]

However I didn't get the chance, at their first gig they phoned me in a panic, asking about how the settings on the back should be set as they felt the system was way to quiet for what they needed at the gig, they couldn't get enough volume at all. I talked it through and they had everything correct, it was just nowhere near the kind of SPL they were looking for in an actual venue at an actual show.

I witnessed a similar experience.
I was staying in a hotel recently, and there was an acoustic solo performer at the bar.  He has a nice acoustic and some backing tracks via iPad.
He set up his Bose L1 system, played a few minutes....then ran out to his car to get a K12 to add to his rig.

[lindsay Dean]

I second the motion on getting✋
A single DSR112 and a 15" sub

[Rob Spence]

So, 2 vocals and guitar/keys... why a sub?



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[Jay Marr]

So, 2 vocals and guitar/keys... why a sub?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

When playing acoustic, I love having a sub if I'm thumping on the body to create some percussion.
And/or I may do that same thing with a looper to create a percussion pattern that I can play over.
DSR just doesn't go low enough for me in those cases.
But from what folks say about the DXR15 - that may do the trick also.

[lindsay Dean]

it will definitely do the trick and have more thump than you'll probably need outside will be a little different but it can handle that for a small area

[Tyler James]

Well, back to the drawing board. My local guitar center had the jbl eon one, eon one pro and ev evolve 50 in stock, so I brought my keyboard in and had a little shootout.
I couldn't get any sound to come out of the eon one pro, but the guy I usually buy all my stuff from says he's sold 8 and had 7 returned. Not great.
The evolve 50 sounded alright - pretty warm with nice low end, soft on the high end. Didn't crank it up but the sound was nice.
The eon one... Was pretty disappointing. At similar volume to the evolve, the mids sounded muddy and the lows were boomy and undefined.
For kicks, I set up a k10.2 in the same location and it blew the jbl out of the water. Compared to the evolve, much better clarity and high end, obviously lacking a little on the low.

So I'm back to looking at a single box and sub combo. The dsr112 seems very popular around these parts, but some folks say it's all high end. How will it sound for smaller gigs if I leave the sub at home, compared to something like a turbosound iq12?

[ProSoundWeb Community]