PA System/Sub question – sub necessary?

What Chuck said… 😉 He knows his PAs hands down…

Do not let it get to your head hehe 😉

I found some REALLY cheap bass bins here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1000W-Ekho-MAX15SUB-15-Subwoofer-Bass-DJ-Disco-PA-Sound-System-Karaoke-Party-/121074515256?_trksid=p5197.m1997&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D16%26meid%3D7399016568563806902%26pid%3D100016%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D151026159844%26 and was thinking of adding them for some gigs I am planning to run. The main Ekho website isn’t great, errors in what’s written don’t inspire confidence. Some searches seem to relate these to Rokit speakers, and my DJ partner had some of their powered monitors and had issues with them.
Hard to go wrong with such little money gambled do you think?

Hi m8,

I personally use only one 18″ (Mackie HD1801 800W RMS) with my two 12″ top ends (Mackie HD1221) and I find it brings me plenty of low frequency power. The thing is that my particular 18″ sub sounded a dry and crisp as a 15″, which is usually not the case. 18″ have a tendency to be … wobbly :). The reason Mackie got this down (together with EAW) is probably excellent components, great design and great build. And, as has been said on this forum and blog time and again: “In PA you get what you pay for”

At these prices you know a few things:

• The cabinet won’t be made out of the best quality materials (wood and such) and probably it is just a square box with two bass ports cut in. Internal bracing is gonna be minimal if any. (This makes manufacturing a cabinet -much- more expensive). Lack of proper bracing means that the cabinet is gonna resonate/rumble because of the high level of energy inside the cabinet it has to deal with. Also roadworthiness would be an issue for me. Don’t want it falling apart after it slid half a meter out of the back of the truck once.
• The speaker driver (the actual moving part) is not gonna be anything special. To give you an idea, a good 15″ sub driver costs more all by itself than this entire 15″ cabinet. 18″ drivers are even more expensive usually.
• The amp will no doubt be analogue. Nothing really wrong with analogue, but it will be a lot heavier than it’s digital counterpart and have less headroom. Meaning when the end is near, the end usually is there too.
• The active ones at least take XLR cabling, the 15″ have these terrible springloaded press lever receptacles (sp?) that you really don’t want to use in a live situation (the slightest pull on the cable and it comes out). Thick cable might not even fit. And they seems to have a pair of mini-jack !? plugs as well, what is that about?
• You will need an active crossover before going into your amp (one for top end, one for the low end amp or active sub). The active one does have some sort of filter (you can set the cutoff frequency between 40Hz and 150Hz) but no high pass output, so if you sit a top end on it, you can’t run a single signal (XLR) cable to the top from the sub, but you have to run two cables from your crossover. For the passive ones you’d want 4-lead SpeakOn connectors (2 of them) on there so you can use one cable to send both the signal from the top end amp and the low end amp to your speakers. You can obviously do stuff like that yourself if you are handy, but just pointing out the drawbacks.

A word on filters. These are, although invisible, one of the most important components. And to make a good one is gonna cost good money, since the components (like coils) can be very expensive in high quality filters. Not in the least because designing a good filter is gonna cost lots of research and test time by some really serious scientists. So at this price offering you know they cannot have put a very good filter in. And filter quality is an absolute factor in sound quality.

I can’t comment on the sound quality of the speakers since I haven’t heard them. But, keeping the “get what you pay for”-adagio in mind and based on a lonnnnnnng experience, I am willing to bet a fair amount that they wouldn’t pass a round of rigourous testing.

And something that is advertised as “Bass DJ Disco PA Sound System Karaoke Party” … well need we really say more :-p!

I try to keep things simple these days. I want true quality gear to own. If I can’t afford it, I’ll rent it til I can. If my customers don’t want to pay for quality gear rental (either mine or stuff I rent in), than I don’t want to do a gig. I don’t have to live off of it and I am not desperate enough to gig to play with inferior material (based on my standards, everyone has his own of course).

As I have said before, I am not into bashing anything or anybody. Just try to look at the offering from a professionals view and point out the issues I see with it, as if I were advising a customer. This is not a speaker I would feel good advising to anyone who wants even a semi-decent solution. The price just belies the possibility of a reasonably good outcome.

Just my two cents (ok, buck and a half lol).

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Greetinx,
.

Sorry for inundating you, but one more:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/B-Stock-Skytec-SMWA18-1000W-18-Active-Powered-Bass-Bin-Single-Sub-Subwoofer-/171030857724?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Speakers_Monitor&hash=item27d23bc7fc

@Daryl: Good for you, glad to help.

@Don: I’d go for the Peavey every day of the week. Skytec is similar too (might even come from the same chinese factory!), take a close look at the back panel housing the controls. Looks identical to me.

Good luck,
C.