Is this a decent speaker?

As I answered before. In this price range (and with all these no-name brands) the results are probably gonna be the same for all of them. The only way to tell the difference will be to listen to them.

Ok. My final words on the subject:

General:
bi-amped is better than mono-amped (= having seperate amps in your active speakers to power low and high frequencies)
2-way is better than 1-way (= seperate speakers for low and high frequencies)
3-way CAN be better than 2-way (in which case tri-amped is again better). (3-way is seperate speakers for low, mid and high frequencies)
Active crossover is better than passive cross-over (in general, although I run a risk of discussions with some of my live sound tech colleagues 🙂 ). Only bi- and tri-amped active speakers will have active crossovers. There is no use for an active crossover in a mono-amp system (as there is only one amp anyway).

Having said that, bi-amped means more electronics, active crossover means more electronics. And more equals more money. So if you are looking for something that is RELATIVELY good in a certain price range, take the one with the least bells and whistles. You don’t need EQ in your speakers, you don’t need a mixer in your speaker and in low end speakers, bi-amped will mean you will get two amps of even lesser quality.

Of the ones you ask about, the Ibiza is odd. When you look at specs it says 15″ woofer and no tweeter (high frequency speaker). If this is correct, it is all but impossible to reproduce nice sounding highs with just a single 15″ drivers. It’s pure physics, nothing mysterious.

The Ekho reports max power in SPL, the Ibiza efficiency (but with +/3 dB, which might not sound like a lot, but a total spread of 6 dB is pretty big, so this number really doesn’t say much). Both values can not be compared.

Power output is equal at 400W RMS, but both forget to mention at what % harmonic distortion that is, i.e. at what power output it reaches what amount of distortion.

Personally I would not buy either, ever, but if I had to pick, I’d go for the Ekho, mostly because ABS is a sturdy material and in tight corners (like living rooms and such) it’s not unlikely they’ll be thrown over by a drunk dancer. Normally I’d prefer wooden cabinets for a number of reasons, but building a good wooden cabinet is difficult and expensive. In this price range it will most likely just be 6 sides and, if you are lucky, one cross-brace.

A speaker I am not personally fond of (don’t like the way it sounds) is the Behringer Eurolive B215D. This is still considered low-end, but these speakers retail at a discount around approx. 185 GBP. American Audio DLT15A is digital bi-amped. Pretty decent low-end speaker. I think it’s going end-of-live, but with a major discount I have seen them for 300 GBP. This is close to three times as much as the Ekho. And while these speakers are definitely not the best, they will make minced meat of the two you suggest here.

By comparison, my Mackie HD1221s are about 650 GBP each (prices have gone down since I bought mine LOL), they are 12″s not 15″s, have no EQ, no mixer and no other fancy stuff. Yet they are worth every penny in that I can go anywhere to any event in the full knowledge that my PA sounds great.

Reason I am saying this is, that you are trying to get speakers for sub-sub-budget and you will get what you paid for.

Hope that helps.

P.S. The most “boomy” low-end speaker has been mentioned in earlier replies, the Mackie Thump TH-15A. At about 175 GBP, I think this would be the best way to go. In total you’ll spend between 130 (compared to the Ehko) and 50 (compared to the Ibiza) more for them, but there will be no comparison in sound, really. The Thump is a bit of a love/hate speaker, you either love them or you hate them. The hate is often because of the somewhat “exaggerated” low end, which seems to be important to you.

So my final recommendation is to find a place that stocks the Thumps, listen to them (bring your own favorite tracks to play!) and if you don’t hate them, you’ll love them.

Only rated at 250W RMS and not a digital amp (like it’s brother the 215D). Might be lacking a bit in the low frequency end. But I am guessing the will sound better (even if not louder) than the other two quality-wise.

Note the term better, not good 🙂

My money would still be on the Mackies though at 50 GBP more each. Not my wallet and don’t know how long you have to save up for a 100 GBP more, but I’d say iit is worth it.

Something we haven’t talked about is that you’ll be needing cables and, more importantly, a good set of stands. To keep your speakers in shape in transport, a couple of covers are recommendable.

So, don’t forget to calculate for those expenses too.

There is a new version out, but you can still find the “old” model. The newer ones are better, but as you found out way outside your budget. Don’t know where you are, but Keymusic and Thomann (to mention two online retailers in Europe) have them:

http://www.keymusic.com/nl/item/mackie-th-15a-thump/
http://www.thomann.de/nl/mackie_thump_th15a.htm

Without going into details, digital amps are lighter and have a totally different design concept. Smaller, lighter amps that can react faster to musical impulsus, produce higher power and produce less heat than traditional analogue amps.

If you want the details, Sound-On-Sound wrote a very good article on the differences. Being at least somewhat interested in the technical side of things is necessary to fully grasp this article though.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun06/articles/loudandlight.htm

The Behringer is without an amp, so passive. It’s D-brother comes with a 350W RMS amp.

1) we speak of crossover if we want to let one speaker handle one set of frequencies and another speaker another set of frequencies. The best known exqmple is having one or two subwoofers with two satellites/top speakers. It is possible to use brand A subs and brand B tops. Generally people will stay within the same brand and often even same series as manufacturers will finetune the speakers to work best together.
If you just want to daisy-chain two fullrange speakers, this is no problem with active speakers (there are some rules to follow with passive speakers though). I use a set of Mackie (same brand as my main speakers) SRM450V3s (different series) when I need an extra set os speakers in a room.

2) yeah, you should be good with one speaker in a small living room. Just set your software or controller to mono and you are good to go.

SORRY AND THIS ONE – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QTX-Sound-QRC15A-Active-DJ-Disco-PA-Speakers-1400w-Max-Kit-Pair-of-/140777346334

<3 you too