Hi guys,

I help a charity by running sound for series of events where we tend to have a couple of speakers, talking to crowds of 50 - 100 people. As this has always been charity we have never had much of a budget and so for the last year we have been more than happy with the results of using a pair of 150w Carlsbro Alpha AT10/150S on stands (Very cheap and low end - cost <£300 including amp) but had produced the vocal reinforcement that we needed and we have been more than happy. It is only really important that they can be heard clearly.

However a few weeks ago, the PA system was borrowed by someone in the charity for a party, and as a result have destroyed the bass component in each cabinet. I am guessing that for such a cheap cabinet it is now worth trying to replace the drivers?

We therefore are looking at buying a new PA system and as I know very little about these things was looking for advice. We have a budget of about £1000. I would ideally like to end up with a slightly more powerful system, which could also be used for music at parties. Could anyone suggest any products that would be worth looking at? I would be happy with either a passive / active system. I am also not sure whether to buy just two reasonable cabinets that is just suitable for the vocal reinforcement events, or look at buying a low end, modular system where just part of the system could be used for vocal reinforcement, or the whole system could be used at party events.

I welcome your thoughts!

although not popular on these forums, id say Mackie SRM 350's, you can get V1's for approx £700 a pair powered, they go pretty loud, good for speech and you can even plug a mic straight into the back of one if you want a quick and easy setup

Thanks - I will have a look at them! I have a feeling that I am looking for replies that are not going to be popular on these forums ;-)

Being an active system, I am guessing that it will be a lot more difficult for someone who doesn't know what they are doing to damage them, if they borrow them and tried to push them too far?

Nothing's indestructible - if you get an idiot using it then powered or unpowered, something can and will break if it's put under too much pressure!

I'd have a look at the Behringer B1220 - they're good value and for what they are they sound pretty nice.

You could look at a pair of active 12" cabinets for speech etc with an added 15" active sub or two that can be rolled out for music playback - this would give you the best of both worlds.

Coming in at just under your budget would be this set from our German friends



http://www.thomann.de/gb/mackiec_300_z_power_bundle.htm



The Mackie’s can be used separately of the subs and would hold their own for speech tasks. The subs are a cheep own brand but are surprisingly good and would take the load off the tops when used with music.



There are also a few bundles a few hundred less and a few hundred more that would suit the job so take a look

Just my .o2p but think its definitely worth having a look at replacing the bass drivers; then at how the whole system can be improved with what cash is left over.

A pair of Behringer Eurolive B212A would only cost £400 and would work fine.

If you really want to spend the full budget, RCF ART312A are good.

Josh

I know others may disagree with me on this but if you want the flexibility and reliability, go for unpowered speakers (ie with a separate amplifier, NOT an active/powered system. You'll be able to use the speakers etc... outdoors, and if an amplifier goes wrong, you don't end up with a completely useless system, you can just power both speakers off one amplifier channel.

You can also pick up some ridiculously good deals of good ex-hire kit at the moment as so many rental companies are down-sizing.

I wonder how much more flexibility a passive system offers - I think there's a lot to be said of the flexibility of an active system; you can add additional subs without the need for re-jigging your amp rack, you can downgrade SRM350s to foldback wedges if you upgrade the FOH boxes, and have dedicated mixes for each, as you're not limited by the number of amp channels - I know you could do most of this with a passive system and I'm not trying to disagree (rather promote discussion) but I wonder whether for a portable PA system for use by less technically experienced people (I'm not suggesting the OP is - rather the community groups who might want to borrow it) an active system might not be more appropriate.

I wish we had active sometimes, for all the times they want to put a PA in a location outside of our main venue - as we try to keep our amp racks installed so it's a nightmare. It would mean we could provide scalable solutions across multiple spaces as well, rather than having to pull amps out of the rack and send two wedge monitors over to be pole mounted every time someone wants a PA for a speech.

The other argument against powered/active is that you'll need to run power to each speaker as well as XLR. With unpowered, it's just speakon to each speaker...

But for audio you only need XLR cables across the board, there's no need for speakon at all, which is a lot simplier. You also do away with the whole area of impedance mismatching, amplifier choice, and all the other issues which pop up from inexperienced use of more complex / distributed systems.

Personally I'd suggest that it doesn't matter too much, there's advantages / disadvantages both ways but for this sort of a situation it doesn't sound like it's critical what sort you go for. I usually prefer unpowered stuff but that's probably more habit than anything else...

If the original Carlsbro speakers met your needs, then a recone or even replacement drivers won't cost that much, and will certainly be much cheaper than a new system. Furthermore, your existing boxes (from memory) are pretty light. Some of the boxes being suggested whilst not heavy as such will certainly be more difficult to put on stands and to carry about.

If you feel that you need to add quality to your sound system, consider spending the money - otherwise, use the £1000 (less the repair bill) for your charity work.

Oh - don't lend them out again ;-)

Simon

I've quite happily used a pair of mackie SRM450 in a similar situation for a couple of years (they should come in at just under a grand), as for adding extra subs or upgrading this has proved more problematic than it would be with a passive system as IMO the mackie subs aren't that good (see my post of about a week ago). but for an easy to use portable system they have served us well!

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for your replies. I have been looking into them all. One thing that bothers me a little is that although the Mackies sound perfect I am not a fan of the way they look (in my opinion they look quite cheap and plasticy).

I have therefore also been looking at the DB Technologies Arena 10's as they look much nicer. Has anyone had any experience with these and does it sound like a pair of these would do what I am looking for (with the right amp obviously!!)

Many thanks,

Chris

Well they're not bad, but certainly not "perfect". For their price, there are other speakers that IMHO sound a bit better, and if you spend more you can get much better.

Hahah! Sorry bad wording - I meant that they sounded like a perfect solution to me! I wasn't referring to the sound quality!

Chris