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Author Topic: The Peavey QW218  (Read 19072 times)

Steve Stallings

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The Peavey QW218
« on: June 15, 2004, 04:15:16 PM »

I bought these after quite a bit of tire kicking. I had extensive experience with the SR 4719 and in the end just wanted a 2x18 sub over a horn.

I thought I'd write a little bit about my QW 218 subs after playing with them for two weeks.

First thing you notice is that these are seriously good looking boxes. They are compact for a 2x18 design and are designed to stack on each other. They weigh in at 147 lbs each. The boxes really do have a "high end" aura about them.
Hook ups are all Speakon. There are two NL4 inputs in parallel, an NL8, and a NL4 thru.
 The subs are rated at:
1600 watts continuous
3200 watts program
6400 watts peak

They have a usable frequency range down to 30 Hz and are capable of 132 dB SPL continuous and 138 dB peak. SPL @ 1 meter with 1 watt (2 V input)is 100dB.

How do they sound? Well... I think quite good. They sound different than the SR 4719. Not better...not worse, just different. They are serious subs and I am very pleased with the pair. After seeing and hearing the quality of these boxes, I am seriously considering selling my JBL tops and moving to a complete QW system. My JBL 4733s are nice but I like the idea of a matched, four way, flyable system.

Anyway... I have not been much of a Peavey fan in the past. This time, I really think that they have fielded a nice system that will work well for a small to mid-sized  sound company. The sub is a clear winner.
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Eric Wong!

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2004, 02:20:06 PM »

Sounds good.  Does it have wheels on the rear?  I have never seen one of these in person, I'm debating between this and building 2 labs.  The labs are huge though.  
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Steve Stallings

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2004, 04:22:32 PM »

nope... no wheels. They do have several recessed handles however.
They are very compact for a 2x18 enclosure. If possible I'd find some to look at. I personally don't think anyone would be dissapointed especially at the price. They have a MAP of $999. I know you can get them for less. I think they would still be a great bargain in a sub even if you paid full list of $1350 each. Replacement baskets are available for under $150 each. Since the subshootout folks pushed these hard up to their full rated power with no problems, I'm not really worried about blowing speakers but it never hurts to have a spare.
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Dave Rickard

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2004, 09:19:41 PM »

Steve,

Here's a link which may be of interest to you:

http://www.proaudioreview.com/par/row/index.shtml

daver
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Dave
Yorkville dealer

"The wrong piece of gear, at the right price, is still the wrong piece of gear."

"If you don't have good stuff at each end of the signal chain, (mics and speakers) what you use in between is just turd polish."--Dave Dermont

Travis Watson

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2004, 02:15:36 AM »

Steve, go for it. Get the qw1 and the qw 215 make it a four way. I have a pair of each and am saving for another pair. They are built solid and sound great with a pretty good narrow throw as well. They are an eight foot stack and don't work that well in small clubs but I have a different rig for those gigs. I haven't fully decided to go with the 218's yet because I want to build the lab sub.  I just don't see enough spare time in my future to commit to building them. In the end I suspect that I will go with the QW218's though. Not to mention that they are every bit as good as certain three letter cabs and for less money, which in turn gets me more gear. Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but he started it. Very Happy
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Travis Watson
Laguna Sound

Mr.Nightro

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2004, 01:58:52 AM »

So Travis, by your justification it is worth saving money on the cabs but having to spring loads of cash & back pain on the amps to push them? Do you realize that at 3200 watts program per cab you'll need something like a QSC EX4000 OR QSC MX3000a bridged for EVERY cab to reach the manufacturers full spec requirements? Speaking of this cabs full specs, it is stated (By Peavey) that it can only go down to 47hz "SMOOTHLY" (Dang, full range cabs go down to 50hz)so Travis as far as this cab being as you put it "Every bit as good as certain three letter cabs" I trust those three letter cabs are not the Lab sub? The Lab goes deeper cheaper in the aspects of power requirements final build price not to mention in the final smooth low hz at high db. To be fair though the QW-218 are by FAR the best low freq. cab that has EVER brandished the Peavey name as far as build quality goes.

I had a chance to see what a cluster of four QW-218's powered by four Peavey GPS 3500's in bridge mode ran through a Peavey Kosmos for subs then four QW-2's powered by two GPS 3500's in stereo for tops about three months ago on a dj rig indoors of a small club. The rig sounded ok but wasn't overly impressive when considering the number & size of amps needed to run this relatively small system to achieve something that just passed to be stated as sounding ok. The owner of the rig said he would give me a call when he takes the full system of eight subs & eight tops for a test later this summer once he gets the rest of the system together for an outside gig but he himself said he wasn't happy with the results when he used his existing system outside against another dj rig a few nights prior but was happy in that the existing system goes loud indoors.

In the end though if your happy with them that's all that matters, just they can't compare against "certain three letter cabs" or a few others out there to be honest. Maybe the extra money you save on a purchasing  these cabs could be spent on the number of large amps needed to power them or a distro system needed to power the quantity of amps you'll end up with maybe a few racks to house the many amps. With enough subs you could couple enough of them together to reach 30hz "smoothly".
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John Chiara

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2004, 12:54:24 PM »

Mr.Nightro wrote on Tue, 22 June 2004 06:58

as far as this cab being as you put it "Every bit as good as certain three letter cabs" I trust those three letter cabs are not the Lab sub? The Lab goes deeper cheaper in the aspects of power requirements final build price not to mention in the final smooth low hz at high db. To be fair though the QW-218 are by FAR the best low freq. cab that has EVER brandished the Peavey name as far as build quality goes.

.


I think he was refering to EAW <g>
And...I believe that the QW-218 are actually Crest boxes loaded with PEAVEY speakers.

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"mix is a verb, not a noun" Sooo, as Aunt Bea would say.."Get to it!!!"

John A. Chiara aka. Blind Johnny
Albany Audio Associates Inc.
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Travis Watson

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2004, 07:00:06 PM »

No actually I was referring to the JBL subs. And either my reply was private to mrnightro or it was deleted as I recommended to Craig. Either way The QW218 is a good box and got favorable reviews at the sub shoot out. The lab sub will kick its but everyday as will most folded subs or this forum wouldn't even exist. I cant imagine why a DJ cant get a PA to sound good unless of course there are red lights to be lit up. As for the distro you bet, I use it on light weight amps like the plx.
Travis
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Travis Watson
Laguna Sound

Mick_LoMauro

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2004, 11:42:07 AM »

The Crest boxes (discontinued) had kick back casters and the  were tuned to 41 Hz. Connection was by two NL4's.

The Peavey boxes are tuned to 36Hz, have no casters, and the power handling is 800 watts higher program than the Crest box was. Connection via 2 NL4's and an NL8.

That is the basic raw data.
Though I couldn't tell you how either sounds.
Mick

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Mr.Nightro

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Re: The Peavey QW218
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2004, 05:11:25 AM »

Travis wrote on Sun, 27 June 2004 00:00

No actually I was referring to the JBL subs. And either my reply was private to mrnightro or it was deleted as I recommended to Craig. Either way The QW218 is a good box and got favorable reviews at the sub shoot out. The lab sub will kick its but everyday as will most folded subs or this forum wouldn't even exist. I cant imagine why a DJ cant get a PA to sound good unless of course there are red lights to be lit up. As for the distro you bet, I use it on light weight amps like the plx.
Travis


Hey Tavis,
        Sorry for the delayed response but I have had a busy schedule as of late. I just got a call from the Peavey QW218 owner to tell me that he is due to pick up the last four of his QW218's this Friday & plans to use them at an outdoor beach skating rink this weekend. I shall be stopping by to see what the rig sounds like with double the number of cabs (& amps) as used last time when I saw them used indoors. I will be sure to post my thoughts of the system after giving it a listen, I just regret that there will be no other system there to A-B test them against.

I never said in my post that he couldn't get the system of four Peavey QW218's powered by four Peavey GPS3500's through a Peavey Kosmos to sound good just that it couldn't compete against three outdated from the early 80's homebrew dual 15" Fane W bins powered by one QSC Mx3000a to power two bins & one QSC Mx1500a to power the third processed by a Drive Rack Pa. I had the privilege to have access to see behind the racks so I could get a glimpse of the systems at work & both dj's did a great job of keeping their systems out of the red (probably due to the use of the compressors each had been using). Yes I know the debate will be that it isn't fair to compare apples with oranges or in this case a reflex design against a horn but if you look at it in that the reflex is a newly properly designed sub & the other is a poor horn design over twenty years old. The Peavey cabs are loaded with two 18" woofers rated at 1600 watts program each for a total of 3200 watts program per cab, the Fane cabs are loaded with 15" woofers rated at 800 watts program each for a total of 1600 watts program per cab. The outdated cabs are using half the power as the QW218's yet where yielding higher SPL at lower freq., granted this wasn't a controlled environment to do a more detailed A-B test but it was better in that this was REAL world conditions. As stated in my last post The Peavey rig was using four Peavey QW-2's for tops while the Fane rig was using two homebrew dual JBL 15" woofers with a 2" JBL horn trapezoidal tops (that he refused to give me the designs for Surprised( ...)

There aren't too many dual 18 reflex's in my area (besides for a few of the lower level Peavey dual 18's I see a few people around here using on the odd occasion) that I could compare the QW218's against on a reflex against reflex A-B test but I do know of someone who has a few reflex design EAW LA dual 18's that I could borrow to do a A-B "real world" test if the QW218 owner is up for it. I shall ask him this weekend.
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