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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB Lounge => Topic started by: Adam Pace on June 29, 2011, 02:28:31 PM
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Friends,
I keep hearing about EWI Cases. In the past I have dealt primarily with Road Ready for our prefab cases and am getting ready to purchase some more. However, looking at EWI, their retail price is significantly less than our dealer cost with Road Ready.
So, to my loyal EWI road case owners, what are the major differences in the build quality of Road Ready cases verses EWI cases.
We are looking at racks, truck packs, and stands cases.
Thanks!
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I've only got a few of each, but I've had some trouble with the casters on Road-Ready racks and rolling trunks. I haven't had any trouble with EWI gear at all.
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Friends,
I keep hearing about EWI Cases. In the past I have dealt primarily with Road Ready for our prefab cases and am getting ready to purchase some more. However, looking at EWI, their retail price is significantly less than our dealer cost with Road Ready.
So, to my loyal EWI road case owners, what are the major differences in the build quality of Road Ready cases verses EWI cases.
We are looking at racks, truck packs, and stands cases.
Thanks!
I own approx 30 EWI cases. They are great. I have referred many friends to Mark and Liz to purchase thier cases too.
I have broken a handful of the locks on the casters, my fault. I have broken one latch, my fault and I have several with some cracks in the vinyl....It is currently about 113 degrees here, they are going to crack here no matter what, probably not an issue just about anywhere else in the USA. I also own a couple Anvil cases that also have cracks in the vinyl so that really doesn't matter to me.
I used to have two Road Ready cases for a couple mixers. I sold one mixer/case and now only have one. I am JUST as happy with the road ready case for the mixer as I am with any of the EWI cases. It does what it is intended to due which is to provide a safe place to store the console at a fairly affordable price.
The one thing that road ready could never ever compete on with EWI is the incredible service that you get when purchasing from Mark and Liz at Audiopile!
I spent some time on the phone with them last week and probably will agian next week. They have the best possible service and they make it really easy to due business with them!
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Friends,
I keep hearing about EWI Cases. In the past I have dealt primarily with Road Ready for our prefab cases and am getting ready to purchase some more. However, looking at EWI, their retail price is significantly less than our dealer cost with Road Ready.
So, to my loyal EWI road case owners, what are the major differences in the build quality of Road Ready cases verses EWI cases.
We are looking at racks, truck packs, and stands cases.
Thanks!
All my road cases are EWI, for the price and quality, I don't believe they have any competition. I haven't had one issue with any of my cases since the first purchase 4 or 5 years ago. I've had couple RR items that I could not get through EWI, the RR units were fine, just no need to pay more for the same quality (IMO). It is true that the customer service with Audiopile is awesome.
I believe their cases are marketed as medium duty, I don't know how they would hold up to thrashing about on 18 wheeled jaunts on the regular, but for local/regional gigs with a crew that does take care of its gear, it is perfect.
Garry
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Both garbage! prefabed crap!
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Ouch! Is that a troll statement? I have some of both they seem pretty similar in quality. I have been happy with EWI stuff
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Ouch! Is that a troll statement? I have some of both they seem pretty similar in quality. I have been happy with EWI stuff
When compared to the Big Boy® road cases by companies like Anvil, there is a large disparity in quality. The kind handling of road cases I've seen on big tours by stage hands would destroy RR & EWI cases pretty fast. For lighter duty use, they're fine. But make no mistake, they're not in the same league. And for the money, they shouldn't be. I myself own a few EWI trunks and a couple of amp racks. Since I'm not moving them a lot, they hold up fine. But know if I was doing truck packs and stacking them like they do on tours, they'd fall apart.
Greg
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When compared to the Big Boy® road cases by companies like Anvil, there is a large disparity in quality. The kind handling of road cases I've seen on big tours by stage hands would destroy RR & EWI cases pretty fast. For lighter duty use, they're fine. But make no mistake, they're not in the same league. And for the money, they shouldn't be. I myself own a few EWI trunks and a couple of amp racks. Since I'm not moving them a lot, they hold up fine. But know if I was doing truck packs and stacking them like they do on tours, they'd fall apart.
Greg
I almost completely disagree! I do agree that the heavier duty cases made with 3/4" plywood should be stronger but I can tell you from experience with the cases that I own that the over weight, 3/4" ply cases that I have are not in a different league. The corner hardware is similar how ever the extruded edge pieces on the 3/4" heavy duty cases that I have are definately stronger than both the EWI and Road Ready Cases.
With that all being said, I load my EWI cases into trucks and trailers all the time. Up ramps, on lift gates, up and down curbs and stairs, etc. I climb on them and walk on them and generally treat them as a typical road case would be treated in the normal day to day operation of a busy audio company. They have held up quite well. In fact much better than you would expect. The few Anvil cases I have actually look worse for the wear than the EWI cases. Many of my EWI cases have several hundred events under thier belts and they pretty much look very close to new.
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I almost completely disagree! I do agree that the heavier duty cases made with 3/4" plywood should be stronger but I can tell you from experience with the cases that I own that the over weight, 3/4" ply cases that I have are not in a different league. The corner hardware is similar how ever the extruded edge pieces on the 3/4" heavy duty cases that I have are definately stronger than both the EWI and Road Ready Cases.
With that all being said, I load my EWI cases into trucks and trailers all the time. Up ramps, on lift gates, up and down curbs and stairs, etc. I climb on them and walk on them and generally treat them as a typical road case would be treated in the normal day to day operation of a busy audio company. They have held up quite well. In fact much better than you would expect. The few Anvil cases I have actually look worse for the wear than the EWI cases. Many of my EWI cases have several hundred events under thier belts and they pretty much look very close to new.
I think the "I" in this statement is the point. I have several cases from EWI and higher end one's from a local case maker. When I use them, the EWI are fine. When abused by stage hands, that's another story. I had two EWI mic cases and they each lasted one tour before someone used it as a step and went through it, or it cracked from some other abuse. Same for the 4 space rack I was using as an in-ear rack. The shock rack has faired better. I have not used the cable trunks that you speak of. Maybe they are better built.
I also like the idea of buying a locally made case. Who knows what materials, labor practices, etc. go into the EWI stuff. As a part of the local economy, supporting other local businesses is important to me.
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Both garbage! prefabed crap!
Hello,
As, someone else posted, Road Ready and EWI are both what could be called medium duty cases. If either Company built 3/4 cases, I'm sure they'd be comparable to Anvil or Calzone or Portare' cases.
If someone should want "ATA" Specs....then, they should buy a case that meets ATA Specs....and expect to pay for ATA specs.
By the way.... Anvil, Calzone and other premium spec case Companies pre-build a lot of their standard size racks... so, what do you mean by "prefabed crap"?
Hammer
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I almost completely disagree! I do agree that the heavier duty cases made with 3/4" plywood should be stronger but I can tell you from experience with the cases that I own that the over weight, 3/4" ply cases that I have are not in a different league. The corner hardware is similar how ever the extruded edge pieces on the 3/4" heavy duty cases that I have are definately stronger than both the EWI and Road Ready Cases.
With that all being said, I load my EWI cases into trucks and trailers all the time. Up ramps, on lift gates, up and down curbs and stairs, etc. I climb on them and walk on them and generally treat them as a typical road case would be treated in the normal day to day operation of a busy audio company. They have held up quite well. In fact much better than you would expect. The few Anvil cases I have actually look worse for the wear than the EWI cases. Many of my EWI cases have several hundred events under thier belts and they pretty much look very close to new.
Agreeing with Jason R... We have a couple of EWI racks and they do a good job because our crew is handling them most of the time. For the 'big boy' stuff that is handled 90% by stagehands, we went with Blackhurst (now StageGear). It's about 'horses for courses.'
For Adam P... is your purchase to handle gear the store owns and sends out on rental, or is this to replace Road Ready as a retail product? Off-topic, is Kirby Y still running the operation? I lived in MEM and worked the show at Tunica's first casino, Splash... Wow, it's been THAT long!
Have fun, good luck.
Tim Mc
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As, someone else posted, Road Ready and EWI are both what could be called medium duty cases. If either Company built 3/4 cases, I'm sure they'd be comparable to Anvil or Calzone or Portare' cases.
If someone should want "ATA" Specs....then, they should buy a case that meets ATA Specs....and expect to pay for ATA specs.
Agreed. It's not just the thinner walls. The metal corners, edging, rivets, handles, and casters are not the same grade as what you find on the expensive cases. I've got old Crest amps in my EWI amp cases, so they weight in the neighborhood of 280lbs. The castors are stressed and the handles feel like they want to rip out doing short lifts. There's no way those would hold up very long doing truck packs where amp racks are often inverted and stacked. The Anvil cases can handle this abuse without flinching for decades. Same with the EWI cable trunks. The walls flex and the castors are stressed. I would never send them on a large tour with non TLC stage crews handling them. They're fine for local use or mild tours with folks who realize their shortcomings and treat them accordingly.
Greg
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We are looking at racks, truck packs, and stands cases.
I've been using a 14 space RR case for about 5 years now and haven't had any problems. Total weight of the case is about 150 lbs which I move mostly by myself so it gets dinged around quite a bit. Would I recommend it for tours? no. As mentioned, RR & EWI's are medium duty cases.
RR seems to have have more case selections than EWI. I've emailed Liz a few times asking about cases for moving heads and did not get a response- I have to assume they don't make them.
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I've only got a few of each, but I've had some trouble with the casters on Road-Ready racks and rolling trunks. I haven't had any trouble with EWI gear at all.
+1. Had lots of problems with casters on my Road Ready case.
However, someone pointed out that RR makes a low-end line as well as a higher-end line. That being the case, I suspect the case I've had the most problems with is probably a lower-end case as I've never been impressed with it at all.
I've actually been real happy, lately, with OSP cases (of all brands!). They've gone way up in price in the past couple of years, but they seem to be rock-solid. I know a lot of people dis OSP because they make low-cost clones of many other products (e.g., SM58s), but they're cases seem to be rock solid. I also have a small 30-ft 6-channel XLR snake that seems to be much better built than most of the other snakes I own. However, I've only had it about 8 months at this point, so I'll reserve judgement until it's a couple years old and has been abused a bit. However, I was really impressed with the build quality (better than some Proco snakes I own).
cheers,
Randy Hyde
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The EWI cases I use (16 sp amp; 2 x 12sp equip; rolling chest) have been excellent. Much better quality than the Road Ready. Had the following happen to a few Road Ready cases I used to own... handle pop lose on an effects case; rack mount rails were not centered, compression locking device on a mixer case fell apart in my hand while loading it in a van - what a pile of shit.
There are stage hands that help me setup, however they respect the equipment and do not use it as it was not intended (i.e. step stools, or car jack-stands). The cases take some abuse but hold up well.
I'll probably never purchase another Road Ready, Road Runner, etc.. case. The EWI's have been excellent.
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If we were looking for heavy duty cases, we would buy heavy duty cases. I am well aware of Anvil, R&R, Calzone, and the rest. I'm throwing together a "smaller than mid-size" ground stack rig to use for some of the small shows we choose to do around the area. Road Ready is pretty prevalent on our sales floor but EWI spec'ed out fairly equal and at a much better price.
For my friends bashing all but the best, know that most everything has its place. I was simply looking for a good alternative to Road Ready.
Thanks everybody for your time and priceless information, after this and a short conversation with Liz, I can safely make an informed decision.
To Tim, I asked around, several people seem to remember a Kirby, but he hasn't been here since I arrived.
Thanks again,
Adam