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[Tim Talbot]

Thanks for the advice Tim.  We're supposed to go audition that Mackie SRS1500 tomorrow.  Now

Question -- which Mackie subs do you (or did you) have?  In my list I mentioned the most recent model 1801 and 1501. 

I only ever used & owned the SWA1501 and the SWA1801 Mackie sub(s) both are as bad as each other. I've not tried there new lightweight kit thou.

Am the older subs might be a bit better but please test test & test before you buy, you should be able to run them hard (hitting limit) without them sounding crap & without them over heating. This is where the RCF wins for me.... run them as hard as you like & your find it hard to find a fault. 

[Sherman Johnson]

Well, we went ahead and bought the SRS1500. It's about 4 years old and was made in Italy. Price was $400. It sounded a bit muddy to me but it should be a big improvement to my wife's rig.

I looked at the speaker through the ports.  It seemed fine and the surround (what I could see) looked almost brand new.  Checked the high pass outs to verify that they work.  Checked the level control and phase switch.  I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it.  Even the cabinet was almost scuff free.

I'm anxious to hear how it sounds with her gear.  She has a gig Friday.  I may go just to hear it, even if I have to put up with the karaoke singers.  ;-)  Actually, many of them aren't bad at all, but man when they are -- that's torture.  My wife is a singer and was in bands for a couple decades before doing this karaoke/DJ thing.  She has a very good ear.  I'm surprised she can handle it.  Better her than me! 

Anyway, now I'm in the middle of modifying her Mackie 808M so that inserting a plug into "power amp in" will cut the signal from the mixer -- so she can take advantage of the crossover in the sub. For anyone who's interested I've uploaded a few photos of the 808M PCB to Picasa:

https://picasaweb.google.com/ShermanAJoh...CJDtjqmJ1cH3OA#

[Tim Talbot]

Sounds like your all sorted then

Best of luck buddy and do tell us how it all goes....

[Jacob Goldenthal]

What about the QSC Ksub?

[Tim Talbot]

I've never tried the K sub..

[Kurt Stephens]

Some compact and lightweight subs to consider:

RCF ART 902-AS (60lbs)
FBT ProMaxX-15SA (65lbs)
RCF SUB 705-AS (71lbs)
QSC KSUB (74lbs)
RCF ART 905-AS (75lbs)
Yorkville NX720S (78lbs)

on the heavier side, but still compact, and a beast in terms of real-world max. SPL (for the size) is the EV SbA760. Has casters.

[Sherman Johnson]

What about the QSC Ksub?

The KSUB was also suggested by Aaron (reply #4).

I couldn't really audition the KSUB when we saw it in a local music store because they didn't have any decent CDs on hand -- just home made ones from local bands that had poor sound quality -- and we had just gone in to pick up a wireless mic so I didn't bring anything with me.  That said, what I did hear sounded good considering the source.

As I wrote above, one serious drawback (IMO) is the lack of high pass outputs.  Apparently the KSUB is designed to work with QSC speakers that have a crossover built in and have a low pass out for the KSUB.  Seems to me that for $1,050 the QSC could have sprung for a crossover and high pass outs like their competitors have, but for those willing to buy the entire QSC system or use an external crossover it isn't an issue.

[Sherman Johnson]

Some compact and lightweight subs to consider:

RCF ART 902-AS (60lbs)
FBT ProMaxX-15SA (65lbs)
RCF SUB 705-AS (71lbs)
QSC KSUB (74lbs)
RCF ART 905-AS (75lbs)
Yorkville NX720S (78lbs)

on the heavier side, but still compact, and a beast in terms of real-world max. SPL (for the size) is the EV SbA760. Has casters.

Those look like good suggestions Kurt.  If the SRS1500 doesn't work out (my wife and I haven't heard it with her gear yet) I'll definitely check those out.  I wasn't aware of many of them, thank you!

[Tim Talbot]

I've heard quite a bit of the FBT range ( not those subs thou ) and its lovely kit but i find it just runs of of steam a little to quick for me.

[Duncan McLennan]

I have one of the Yorkville subs mentioned, and it's a decent little unit. Not super loud, but more than enough for rock n' roll in the little 80-100 cap club where I have it.

One of the nice features is a sweepable boost on the back. I'm not sure how much the boost is, but it's a really easy way to give them a little more output up top (for rock) or roll the boost down low, which smoothes them out quite a bit.

I am quite pleased for the money, but they're also cheap here (Canada) because they're made locally. I got mine for $625. I'm not sure how it would hold up against the other offerings at US prices.

I think you'll be reasonably happy with the Mackies for what you're doing.

[ProSoundWeb Community]