Speaker help for mobile set up

A little. I think I heard the Eurolive 10″ with digital amp a while ago for a few hours. Hardly an extensive test, but I think they worked ok for the size. Behringer is a bit of hit and miss these days. In the old days it was (as a whole) a brand with a rather miserable reputation and only one real selling point, it was ridiculously low priced. While prices are still low, it looks like they have upped their game somewhat. Some things are now actually pretty decent, others still suffer. As to what is what, that I can’t answer anymore, the productcatalogue has just become too big.

As with all speakers, you get what you pay for, so if you pay low-end you’ll get low-end and nobody will ever accuse Behringer of making high-end speakers. Within the segment your plan to buy you will have better and lesser speakers (objectively) and then there is your own ears. The sound I am looking for might not be the sound you are looking for. So for the same budget, after an afternoon of listening to PA speakers, we may very well (likely even) go home with different speakers, claiming those were OUR best choice!

Greetinx and good luck with the decision.

I’ve left the passive speaker circuit a long time ago. Several reason. Setup is more work. Another rack (amps) to carry around. If my amp breaks down, I am out total sound.

I think 2x 15″ plus 2x sub is overkill for about 100 peeps, frankly.

Peavey is a good brand, although I haven’t listened to their speakers for a long time. Traditionally they are a musicians brand.

When you say the system is supposed to work together at 4 Ohm, I am guessing the subs or tops have passive crossovers in them. So you’d need a stereo amp or two mono amps putting out at least a bit more than 700Watt RMS for each side. Contrary to popular believe, UNDERpowered amps blow up speakers, not overpowered (provided you are clever enough not to run the higher rated amps to the stops of course). So something in the 800-850 range would be nice.

Never mind how good your speakers, a bad amp can make them sound like bogus. So, you’ll need a good quality amp. And it needs to be a real PA amp. I think you’ll be looking at at least 1.000 euro for a good amp (or two mono’s). You don’t want to carry your amps around unprotected, so add the cost of a good (wood/abs plastic) flightcase to it.

I think you will start to get the point why some of us are all for active speakers around here 🙂 .

Both money-wise, power-wise and sound quality-wise there isn’t a real reason to go passive speakers anymore (even in larger PA systems there is a tendency to go to more active stuff). Amps have gotten better and smaller and can run cooler, so having them in the speakercabinet and not having to worry about Ohm loads and amp power is a bonus. And the ease of use is SOOOO much better with active speakers in my opinion, that it really is a no-brainer.

Hope this helps. As someone said here “buy good once”. I have been both places (in the old days there just weren’t any active speaker systems worth the money) and I can honestly say I will NEVER go back to passive speakers. As far as I am concerned, especially for the purpose of DJ-ing, an amp/passive speaker setup is pretty much a passed station.

If money is the only reason you are considering this option, I revert back to earlier advice. Rent til you can afford to buy. With the added bonus, as also mentioned, of being able to rent different sets and making up your mind which you like best before shelling out the big bucks.

Greetinx.

I hope some others will chime in, but if I look at these, they still scream musician and not PA. Having speakers on the floor isn’t all that good a plan for several reasons. The high frequency speaker should be at least at or even a little above peoples head. For that reason alone, you’d have to mount them on stands anyway.

Furthermore, they deliver 800W PEAK power, which probably roughly translates to maximum 400RMS. So with a total of 800Watt RMS for 100 people, it can be done, but won’t be overly load. Especially if you play bass-heavey music types (as we DJs tend to do right).

They weigh a whopping 40 kilos each lol. Your poor back. Especially lifting them off the floor and onto your stands.

The only thing that is gonna make your music go oomph is a sub, imho. And I had 15″ tops and switched back to 12″. Lighter, more compact, I think more detailed sound in the mids and highs, especially with a subwoofer (single 18″ works fine for me) taking care of the lows below 125Hz.

If I look at your budget, you might check out Terry’s article on the set he got a look at in Frankfurt at the Prolight+Sound show last week. Look for HK Audio Lucas 600. It pumps out a total of 130dB combined sound level.
It has a little brother called the 300. Small, portable and apparently sounding larger than they look.

Ask Terry on his experience, he heard them (well the 600s anyway, but they are rated at 200 people).\

Greteinx.

I had an older version of that Peavey once. Very solid, really road worthy and good bang for the buck.
Sound quality is also very decent. I mean yes there are higher end PA out there, but the sound is much much better than any of the lower end gear I have seen.
Even without a sub the Peaveys tend to put out a good OOMPH so I would try them without the sub first and then add one if you feel like you have so many people in the room that they suck away too much base.

So generally thumps up for Peavey from me, good value for money generally.

If you get a second sub, you just go L mixer output, L sub, L top (or L mixer, L top, L sub, if your sub doesn’t have a highpass filter, but your top has one) and the same for R side.

EV is a readily available brand in Europe (well in my part of Europe at least). It’s been around since the early days (have built a set of 18″ EV Eliminator W-Bin bass cabinets copies back in the day).

A few little things on subs:
1) the bigger the driver inside the sub, the lower the frequency it can produce
2) the lower the frequency that needs to be produced, the more energy (=amp power) is needed to make that happen
3) the bigger the driver inside the sub, the more “wobbly” it CAN become (not a hard rule, my Mackie HD 18″ sounds as tight as their 15″ model and keep a straighter face at high volume, but I find that to be a favorable exeption)
4) acoustic coupling really only becomes an issue in bigger multiple sub set ups, imho (and I don’t mean two 🙂 )

I prefer to have my tops on poles on my sub. If I have only one sub (which will remain that way in my case, because the balance with one sub is excellent), I will still set one top on the sub, the other on it’s own stand.

Let’s not forget that no venue likes gear that takes up floor space. Less floor space, means less people, less people means less turn-over at the bar. Having your top above your sub saves a bit of space. Plus it puts the sub to the side some. I have played with my sub right next to the DJ booth and it drove me crazy!. I prefer to have it 5-10m away from me.

Greetinx.

I have a Renault Kangoo, which I got primarily for some of my computer work, but with a VERY big eye on transporting my DJ gear. It’s been a blessing. But I did get a cheapish car to get me around when I don’t want to drive the Kangoo.

Greetinx.

It’s the truth …

I agree partially with your statement about home-built systems. I built (amongst other things) EV Eliminator W-Bin 18″ cabinets back in the day. Well, not quite the EV (ours had bass ports in the front) but those are the most well-known example of the type. It can be done, but to do a job as good as the factory you’d need at least very good wood working tools. So an well-equipped tool shed is in order. Which is nice if you have it, but defeats the financial benefits when you have to go buy stuff or have things done.

Besides, technology has progressed to the point that, unless you reverse-engineer a modern sub, there is no way you can design/build one with the same specs as a ready-made system. The 18″ bins I talked about were effectively just folded horns, so with the right measurements, which we had, it was a pretty straigtforward build. Nowadays stuff like venting (or even pressure chambers), all kinds of acoustic metrics, all come into play to make things sound properly.

Oh well, times are a changing 😀