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Electro Voice ETX Series: Data Sheet Disparity?

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Luke Geis:
The whole idea that the 60x40 will splay better than the conventional 90* is a misnomer. The coverage specs are only nominal and really only pertain to the frequencies the horn/CD portion of the speaker produces. All typical speakers will be essentially omnidirectional below about 500hz. How directional it is above 500hz is mostly dependent upon how the box is made and how low in frequency the horn goes. Most conventional speakers have a crossover point that sets between 1.2khz and 1.9khz. The stated coverage specs will likely only be reliable down to around that frequency.

What I'm leading up to is that the physical size of the box will make ANY splay angle you think you have to work with not truly usable or practical. Any distance between two physical drivers centers that are more than 1/4 of a wavelength apart will not effectively couple. In the case of a 1khz, you would have a 1ft long wavelength, so the speaker's centers would have to be 3" apart or less to properly couple. Anything beyond that and you WILL have destructive interference. So as you can see, even with a tighter horn dispersion pattern, splaying your speakers is not going to stop the problem. Although it will make the issue less apparent because you can use less splay angle between the two boxes.

BUTTTTT, the 35P is a physically larger box, so there goes any advantage for that idea.

From a practical performance standpoint, the 35P is not much more than a regular 15" speaker with an additional high passed 15" speaker used to increase the low end a little. But the speaker and the box don't allow for much lower frequency output, and due to lack of additional power, nor does it allow for much additional output in relation. So you just end up with a bigger speaker that has only marginal low-end extension and a little additional output. The question then becomes what is the use of that resultant frequency response if linear is what we are after?

What I am ultimately getting at is that you should buy a speaker that meets a design goal. You certainly don't want to buy one simply because it has slightly better specs than another version of itself. A 3db difference in output has never ruined or made a difference in the quality of a show. 5hz of extra low-end extension has never made a show that much better. Being able to put the speaker where you need it, having a speaker that gets louder than you need it to, and having a speaker that produces the frequency response you need is the end game goal. The 35P and other dual 15" quasi three-way designs are not ideal candidates for much. the smaller you can go and still meet all your requirements is a more ideal plan.

Peter J. Curtis:

--- Quote from: Luke Geis on August 28, 2021, 06:39:06 PM ---The whole idea that the 60x40 will splay better than the conventional 90* is a misnomer.

--- End quote ---

Interesting. I remember that the Electro Voice ZX series had the CB5 array rigging, so I naturally assumed that the 60/40 coverage allowed for better geometrical coverage. I don't deal with MI boxes very often, as the systems I work with are mainly scalable for the geometric size of the event. It is nice to know that the splay is a misnomer - this is, however, not the case for arrays. I think I missed that part and assumed that the ETX 35P was "arrayable" via splaying like people do with the 3 way SRX boxes on top of the SRX 828 subs. I feel like so many people get that wrong as well as the fact that they talk about the number of attendees rather than the actual size of the event, which is what matters - the amount of attendees is mostly irrelevant. Always love learning new stuff though!

I've used 15's mainly for graduation events as fills, or as monitors for bands, but never really dug into the DJ scene so that's why I posed the question here. I just haven't seen many DJs with enough "rig for the gig" when it comes to large events, unless they're working for a larger company.

To ditto what Chris said, I have had 15 cabinets that can run without a sub. I mentioned in a prior comment in this thread that the ZXa5 is such a cab. So they do exist, but the woofer in the ZXa5 is an anomaly. I'm surprised they even put in there. It's also fairly light compared to the cabinet Chris was referring to.

David Morison:

--- Quote from: Luke Geis on August 28, 2021, 06:39:06 PM ---From a practical performance standpoint, the 35P is not much more than a regular 15" speaker with an additional high passed 15" speaker used to increase the low end a little.

--- End quote ---

Except it's not.

Single 15 up to 700Hz, Horn loaded 6.5 700-2900Hz, 1.25 HF from there on up.

While it is true that the mid horn still only gives pattern control into that mid-hundreds of Hz range, that'll still be more pattern control than the 15P with it's crossover from 15 to HF just over a octave higher.

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