Oh, there is sooooo much to choose from.
In addition to what is said above, things you want to look into are:
- Build quality. ABS plastic is less susceptible to scratches and chips than wood cabinets. BUT, wood cabinets tend to have better acoustic characteristics.
- Weight. It does matter if you go out two or three times a week if you are carrying around 40 or 60 pound speakers
- Size. Do you really need 15″ top end speakers, or would 12″ suffice (especially if you are also bringing one or two subwoofers to the scene).
- Amp. If you get active speakers (which I highly recommend, if only because amp failure leads to no sound, where as if an amp in one speaker goes you still have number two going :-)), you should probably be looking for digital amps. They weigh a lot less, are a lot less bulky, produce less heat (which means more power goes to the speakers than to the room temperature) and generally sound better (although that is a matter of debate and I would agree with the notion that cheaper model digital amps might sound worse than their analogue counterparts).
And I would like to emphasize the point DiscoVideo made, SPL (i.e. the amount of dB = decibel = sound pressure that a speaker produces for every 1 Watt you put in it, measured at 1 meter distance) is the most important measure for P.A. speakers.
Without getting to technical, but a 3dB increase in SPL equals DOUBLING the Watt level of the amp. A 10dB increase to the human ear sounds TWICE as loud.
So, a 100W amp powering a 125 SPL speaker will sound as loud as a 50W amp powering a 128 SPL speaker!
When it comes to Watts, you must also take into account things like RMS, Peak, Program or Music Power and other fancy (marketing) terms. Music is never a constant. RMS is the constant power a speaker can provide. Peak or Music Power is usually double of RMS.
In short, not an easy thing to advise on.
Greetinx,
C.
my P.A.: 2x Mackie HD1221 with 1x HD1801.
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