PA Speaker Advice & Reccomendations

Hi,

Reading Terry’s 4-part series on PA on the blog, including what to look for when buying, is a must read for you at this point.

I will give you a real quick run down on your questions and the speakers you are looking at.

First and foremost is that in PA: You Get What You Pay For.

There is NO (no exceptions) cheap way to get it loud, great sounding and built for the road.

The QTX look like the run-of-the-mill Chinese OEM speaker. The factory makes a ton of them, several companies buy them, stick their own label on them and sell them. Those manufacturers (usually) don’t spend too much time in designing the technical end of things, nor do they bother getting top quality components. Mostly they will stick in more features than you need, meaning that money is taken away from the main purpose of a PA speaker, making good sound loud music for an extended period of time.

In this case it has a three band EQ and effectively a small mixer (you can hook up a mic I think and a stereo source, like an iPod or MP3 player). As a DJ you don’t need that. Just one input (XLR preferably, but balanced Jack will also do) and a place to stick your power cable and finally a hole that will sit your speaker on a stand. Anything more is really not necessary.

Power. It is 1400W peak, only 350W RMS each (700W total). Not bad, but you are looking at a room with max 140 people for wedding like stuff, 70 if you want it to be headbanging loud. These speakers have only one amp powering both the woofer and the high end. You really want to look at speakers that are bi-amped, i.e. that have two seperate amps built in for the low and the high end. And digital trumps analogue by a long way these days.

Trouble is, can’t get decent bi-amped, digital amp active speakers for the price you mention. So if you want to work something with that budget, there will always be trade-offs, either in power, quality or both.

Sensitivity. With manufacturers like these I have a hard time believing their numbers on sensitivity and max SPL (Sound Pressure Level). Sensitivity means the amount of sound level a speaker produces when it plays 1Watt of power, measured at 1 meter. It is a mark of the efficiency of a speaker. 101dB is a very high value, usually reserved for high end speakers, but I don’t know these, so it might be accurate. Max SPL is the amount of sound level a speaker can bring to the floor when it is running just below distorting.

Quite frankly, if you or your customers can’t afford to buy a decent PA, perhaps you should consider renting til you can buy something that suits your needs. I would not invest a dime in speakers like this, let alone adding a cheap sub. It might be loud in a living room kind of setting with 30-40 people. I am not sure about the quality at high sound levels, although I am afraid that might be something of a letdown.

Good luck with your choices & greetinx,
C.

Sure, glad to help.

At the upper end of your price range sits the Mackie TH-15a. It’s bi-amped, half digital (the 300W RMS for the lows is digital, the 100W for mid/high is class A/B). It has no frills, quite a bit has gone into designing it and Mackie does tend to use better components. The one thing it does have is a three band EQ (but one that is actually useful) with a fully sweepable mid frequency parametric EQ. Great for tweaking the sound to the room conditions.

The Thumps are available (here in Holland) for about 245 GBP each, so a pair falls right into your budget with just a little to spare towards a set of good cables and speaker stands.

For what you intend to do, these will be plenty loud with decent low end. The lows on the Thump in smaller spaces is sufficient, I would not invest in a sub (trust me, hauling it around becomes a pain REAL quick and it won’t fit in a regular car!) if you do the kind of parties you are telling me about.

In the price range up to 250 GBP each, anything else falls in the American DJ, Behringer, DB Technologies, DAP, Skytec, etc. category. Just more of the same. I have owned a pair of American DJ 15″ bi-amped (not digital) speakers for years and played many gigs with it. But I can safely say that now that I have a set of Mackie HD1221s (different price range) and I have played them side-by-side, I am almost a little embarrassed I had my customers pay for renting my gear :-).

I know all about being on a budget. But sometimes the smarter choice is to go for quality, even if that means renting not buying. With the Thumps the possible exception, I don’t see too much out there that will fit your bill. Unless you sacrifice quality and or power and go with some of the lower end brands.

You might want to check out this review:
http://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/community/entries/207-mackie-thump-th-15a-review

Greetinx,
C.

I have the Mackie TH15 Thumps, and have only good things to say about them. I play a mix of literally everything and have not been given any cause for complaint with them. And they are lighter than I expected. In small venues such as houses like you mention, these things pack a punch!

Come on, guys … we started with QTX speakers at almost no money. When the choice is between Thumps (and I wholeheartedly agree with Simply Disco here) and Behringer/Alto’s, the choice is influenced by the price (B and A being cheaper than the Thumps with better spec performance). So I dare venture a guess that a decent EV set is out of budget.

Greetinx,
C.