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[Jay Michael Tetz]

greetings all! i want to thank everybody for the hours and hours
of great reading ive enjoyed during the last few days researching
my upcoming purchase. i operate a small production in vancouver
canada doing primarily electronic music events. music styles are
trance, techno, progressive house... occasionally break beats
downtempo that kind of thing. my wish list is the best sounding
most reliable gear for the money. ive always used active gear and would prefer to keep it that way... although im WILLING to consider a passive system if it meets my wish list. i envision 2 tops, preferably with 2 12" or 15"
and 4 18" bottoms. with the stuff we play ive found 2 bottoms for each top pretty much necessary for our bigger shows... 2 bottoms and 2 tops for our regular size shows. our events range from 100 to 400 people indoors and outdoors. i would prefer the system to be more punchy than boomy as techno/trance is more kick drum oriented than say drum and base or hip hop/top forty dance stuff. being from canada has had its disadvantages as i have not been exposes to allot of better pro audio gear, typical stuff we have access to when renting is ev, jbl
yorkville... and usually not even the better models of these. through my experience the best sounding gear as far as the stuff i had access to was the mackie gear. i purchased a system consisting
of the old 1530's and 2 of the 15" subs pre china era. ive got great use out of them but they are tired and i would like to step
up into something with better quality sound and reliability. i considered some of the new 1530's and 18 subs but i cant ignore the
horror stories ive heard post china production. is all the bad new hype? or is there something really there. a friend has 2 of the new 15 subs, 6 months old, both currently waiting for repair.
cant say i want to go down that road. so here's where im at.
i was pretty sold on a pair of hdm 212's and a pair of the xmax
218 subs. when i really started to crunch the numbers, the pricing started getting out of reach, i have 15% tax i will have to pay crossing into canada, plus possible duty and 600 bucks shipping. i like the hdm 212's because of have 2 12" drivers vs the more common single 12 or 15, figured id get lots of punch from them. my newest thought was a pair of the rcf 4pro4001
and a pair of the 4pro8001 subs. the con to this configuration in my mind is i would only have 1 lf driver on the top vs 2, and i would only be able to afford 2 18" bottoms right off the top... have to save for a bit longer to get another pair, in the mean time i could rent for the bigger shows. alternatively i could
go for 4 b52 act 18s for the same money as a pair of the 8001 sacrificing sound quality for quantity.i have been looking into the rcf mainly because there is a rep in vancouver and stock
in alberta. this is a huge bonus because getting expensive gear
of any sort across the border can get really costly for us, and i dont want to pay retail from box stores. again due to lack of exposure to more high end pro audio gear i warmly welcome any comments, alternatives, or info that would help me in my decision. i would really love to find tops with twin 12's or 15's, but also with seperate mid and hf drivers. kicker is rcf's year end is friday, if i can make up my mind it will save me another 10% than if i wait longer.
thanks all!

[Mike Pyle]

If you can get a 10% discount on the RCF pricing, that might put a pair of 4PRO6001 tops and a pair of the 8001 subs pretty close to your budget.

I like the 8001 powered subs a lot, very nice package and sound quality, but you could get more bang for the buck using Yorkville LS800Ps. It would be natural to recommend the Yorkville U15P tops along with them, but if you can only afford a pair I doubt that they would cover your larger crowds as well as the RCF 6001 tops.

[Jay Michael Tetz]

thank you for the feedback, im trying to contact my canadian rep for yorkville to try and get some pricing. i have not heard the ls800p's but did reconize them as being a possible alternative to the the rcf's. the u15p's are a really interesting speaker, they are not nessisarily out of my budget but again we have no retailers around up here that carry them so i have not heard them. any idea how they would compare to the 4001's pros/cons? speaking with my rcf rep he actually leaned me away from
the 6001's. his reasoning being that because of the nature
of my events the bulk of the listeners... dancers will
be up close to the front end. he figured the nature of the 6001's
being exellently suited as a mid to long projection unit may actually be too hot on the mid/top end for someone standing a couple feet in front of them.

[Pascal Pincosy]

jay michael wrote on Thu, 29 March 2007 08:03

speaking with my rcf rep he actually leaned me away from the 6001's. his reasoning being that because of the nature of my events the bulk of the listeners... dancers will be up close to the front end. he figured the nature of the 6001's being exellently suited as a mid to long projection unit may actually be too hot on the mid/top end for someone standing a couple feet in front of them.

Then stack them up higher! I have no opinion on these cabinets but I do know that if you're doing electronic music you want some really punchy horn-loaded subs, and as much mid-bass as you can get. For that reason I'd stay away from the U15 and go with U215's instead. Even a 2 12" cabinet I would be concerned about. You really want 2+ 15's or a horn-loaded mid-bass section.

Whatever you buy, you'll have a hard time getting anything that will really rock for that price. I'd suggest sticking with your 1530's (you can eventually use them as monitors) and upgrading your subs for the time being. Then save up some more cash to upgrade your tops in the near future.

[Jay Michael Tetz]

i understand that a top with 2 15's would be ideal, but who
makes a self powered unit like that other than mackie?
the only one i noticed was the jbl prx line... but never really
hear any feed back on these, anybody care to comment?

[Darrel Harris]

PM sent

[Winston Gamble]

If your old 1530's still fit your needs, another similar box to consider is the QSC HPR153i. While I haven't heard them personally, the HPR line has been getting very good reviews and it is comparably priced to the new Mackies.

http://qscaudio.com/products/speakers/hpr/hpr153i.htm

Good luck, Winston.