bob6397

Firstly – I would match the brand of your tops and subs if possible. They are designed to be used together and therefore nearly always sound better..

Secondly – I have used the KSubs’s being used at an event and they are really good. It just so happens that the KW181’s beat just about any comparable single-18 driver sub on the market in terms of volume and sound.

Thirdly – on to the tops – I have used 2 x K10’s (without a sub) being used in a medium sized room no problem – they filled it well. The bass when “DEEP” is enabled makes it sound and almost feel like you have a sub in the system as well. It sounds like a pair of 15″ drivers if I’m honest. The volume when they were in External Sub Mode was incredible as well – so if you paired them with a sub (Either a KSub or KW181) then it would sound awesome.

I’m not too sure if the K8’s would be big enough really to get to the volumes you need to match a sub.. The frequencies however would work as the tops have the crossover built in, not the subs. This means that it should always work when used with QSC subs…

Finally – The ULTRANET speaker system is the first of it’s kind and therefore probably not as good as it can be. And when you are only running 2 speakers (and possibly a sub), the difference between using Cat 5E cable and XLR cable is nothing. I would stick to the XLR’s for now and have a bigger choice on which speakers to buy. Reviews on the Turbosound speakers are few and far between as well, whereas the K12’s are now pretty much Hire-Stock defaults now in the industry…

Also – In my opinion (and this is really subjective), QSC’s sound so much better than the equivalent Yamaha’s – I did a AB comparison – they were so much warmer sounding at high volumes it was ridiculous. And both blew the RCF’s I also compared out of the water for warmth and quality of sound..

bob6397

So.. Gain structure..

0dB is the point at which the pre-amp is neither adding nor taking away any signal. Meaning that it leaves it untouched as it flows through. It is identical on the way in to the way out.

On some (cheaper/Less professional) equipment, Sometimes the point at which no sound is let through is labelled as 0. This can be correct – as long as it isn’t labelled as being in dB. This point measured in dB is actually “-Infinity”. (The way this works is by using a resistor to stop the signal flow). Most gain controls have an indication of where “0dB” actually is however..

About the signal – if you have a stereo signal coming out of the R1, then the Left signal is not necessarily the same as the Right. What comes out of each depends on the mixing engineer for the record. Ever listened to old 60’s recordings through a stereo setup? And heard how some instruments are only in one ear and other just in the other ear? That’s because of what is called panning. Back then, they didn’t have the tech to be able to put audio in both channels at once so you either had a completely mono recording or completely stereo. Nowadays, we can do that but quite often panning is applied to open up the soundstage of the track..

Basically – the mixing engineers use the stereo signal to place instruments in between your ears. This means that you don’t necessarily have the same signal going to both speakers at the same time.

bob6397

The way the CD rippers get the metdata for the tracks is by searching an online database for the information – iTunes uses the Gracenote database I think – and I don’t know of any software that so this without an internet connection..

An alternative to iTunes as an audio ripper would be AudioGrabber – which is free.

Personally I use iTunes (and I am a Windows user) as it means that I can organise all my music in iTunes and then just Virtual DJ for playing out – as it reads the iTunes databse and shows all my iTunes playlists in VDJ..

There is currently no alternative for that aspect of iTunes (although other software will organise your music, none of them will sync with Serato/Traktor/VDJ/Cross..)

bob6397

I would be surprised if both were damaged tbh.. The exact same signal cannot have been sent to each speaker..

Open them up and have a look then.. It can’t be as hard as when I took a pair of OHM cabs apart once.. (They are birch, passive units with non-removable foam across the grill. And the units are built t last. Meaning that it took me an hour to just get the handle off the top of the things.. 🙁 )

Why don’t you run the gains at 0dB normally anyway? That would be where they are designed to be used.. 😉

I run mine at about -15dB on my Active’s.. Thats mostly because I like running quite high levels out of my mixer though (As in actually 0dB on the mixer, not quite in the yellow..)..

bob6397

Stick a signal too hot through anything and you’ll damage it..

BTW, Balanced vs unbalanced cables has nothing to do with how loud a signal you run through them.. Its to do with electromagnetic interference and how it gets rid of it..

bob6397

It depends how much music you have and how much space anything else you will want on the laptop will take up..

I wouldn’t get a non-retina mac now. The display once you have seen them side by side will never seem the same again.

And as Apple offer customisation of their products, you have no excuse for getting the model you need..

3 Things to consider: CPU, RAM and Storage

CPU: You will be fine with the i5 version for DJing. I personally use a 3 year old (2nd Gen) i5 Processor in my laptop and that has more than enough power. The newer models are even more powerful. The i7 is unnecessary..

RAM: Ideally you want 8GB. I have 8GB in my laptop (I upgraded it from 3) and run 4GB in my Mac Pro (Older model). 4GB simply isn’t enough really for day to day usage. Despite what people say, OSX is really not very good at managing the amount of RAM it uses. You will want 8GB and as it is non-upgradable, get it when you buy the laptop. 4GB is usable though – just.

Storage: I would recommend that 128GB will probably not be enough. If it was me, I would want the 512GB model, but I would partition it and have multiple OS’s on mine… The 256GB is likely a good compromise but I know it wouldn’t have enough storage for me. This one you can only answer yourself.. 🙂

bob6397

Not just you..

I’ve had issues too – I currently count 42 emails since 16:21 today – it is now 19:41 – all from users @Rock_One, @Lila_Jahar and @Ali_Express..

bob6397