Hi guys,

Was hoping to get some advice, I need to get a set of powered speakers for djing 21st's and other similar functions. I'm thinking around 350 watts.I've been looking at:


"The box" 350 watt speakers

behringer euro live 450 watts

Martin Mach M-flex

I was looking for some opinions as to which would be the most suitable / best value of these or anyothers which any of you might recommend.

Thanks in advance

I would also look at some of the Alto speaker cabs:

Alto Loudspeakers Webpages

We use the PS4HA loudspeakers in hire stock, and they are exceptional value for money.

Id be looking at mackie active kit if you are on a medium sized budget - its very good and has excellent internal protection and such like.

If you have a somewhat larger budget an HK audio Actor system would be the business.

behringer speakers are fairly nasty - and ive never heard good things about the box or the smaller mach stuff. If your budget is really tight then maybe look at alto stuff

Cheers

I am a little confused with this comment. They are not up to the mackie active or HK actor speakers as anyone knows, just as they are not up to Martin W8C's but I personally think in the price bracket they are a very good cabinet.

This was one of the suggested cabinets, this gives some indication as to a budget, I would therefore guess that mackie and hk are out of budget.
I've not been impressed with the alto stuff.

I would have a look at DAP audio (the models with compression drivers of course)
The Box are also very good fo the money.

I use 16 of their 10 inch and horn cabs (pa110) as wedges on my A rig (8 mixes) along with a 12 inch and 15 inch sub from that range as a drum fill. Great value for money.

Powered with 4 channel powersoft amps.


Rob

just because they are decent for the money doesnt make them any less nasty sounding!

if your on a budget then ok - but the smaller mackie stuff really isn't hugely expensive and you may find your better off with quality than quantity

my 0.02

Joe Public walks in to a venue, turns to his friend and says "my god the sound is a bit nasty"

Erm........ Not too sure that would happen. I think it would be.

Joe Public walks in to a venue, turns to his friend and says "fancy a pint"



The general public don't know didly squat, it's only us guys who only know the differance.

I personally have a few pairs of B300's and I think when the system is set up correctly, you can't fault them.

Yea Ive Used Some B300's If U Get 3 Pairs Then Use One Set For Bass , One For Mid One For Mid Tweeter, Dat Works Very Well. One Bar In West London Uses This Same Set Up..

It could be cos its 5.30am, and I got to bed at 2am, but that last message is unreadable due to overuse of capitalisation and text speak! I am only 23 but this is starting to remove the urine out of this forum. People have posted about the need to make yourself clearly understood etc but some people don't seem to want to know.

If I was to build a system that could afford mid, low and high cabs, I would most certainly not use the same sort of speakers for each level of frequency. I think I would prefer to blow money on 1 pair of good all rounder cabs.

A quick look at the spec sheets will show that the cabinets contain a crossover at 2kHz. That means that your bass cabs will not use the tweeters at all, and the tweeter cab will not use the horn at all, and your mid may use both. That means that you are really wasting a lot of the power that the unit has. Splitting between high, mid and low is optimal when you have 3 different cabinets, one suited for the lows, one for mids and one for highs.

The b300's have a frequency responce of 50Hz-18kHz. As a general rule, the human ear hears from about 20Hz to 20kHz, so they are all purpose cabinets, the frequencies about 18kHz and below 50Hz will not be missed overly much.

I would certainly agree that I wouldn't use this approach, you'd be much better getting a pair of dedicated subs a d a dedicated mid top box, spending a little extra maybe and getting a more efficient way of doing it.

I'm not saying you wont get a perfectly useable sound from that setup, I'm sure you do. Its just that it isn't very efficient in comparison to a selection of cabs that are designed for this job.

Rob

Joe public will only notice if it doesnt sound too great - if the sound is good - he wont notice at all...

I've done that too many times...

But, if the sound is reasonable the public won't notice, if it is really harsh around 5kHz to 15kHz they will moan. And so they should because many systems suffer from this and it is this that kills your hearing.
Subtle use of an eq can normally sort this. I have heard the behringer cabs in a system working alongside a mackie set up. The behringer cabs sounded a bit shouty, but more than useable.

I agree 100% in what blueshift said in his previous posts. Even when you didn't' ask about the mackies the Mach's are not very far from them in price. I had to buy a couple of Behringer speakers since they were the only one with a low price that wouldn't be rejected by the owner of a club and it's musicians but I can assure you that I bought them only as a "matter of budget". I believe that only it's mother can love them and that they are "nasty" specially when you push the spl you will notice that it refuses to give you low frequencies.

Sorry about that, I was tired

Thanks everyone, I definitely decided against the beringer and box speakers thanks to your opinions.

I hadn't even heard of mackie before you guys mentioned them, so now my decision is down to the Martin Mflex 15's of the Mackie SRM 450.

Here's the specs for anyone who'd be kind enough to look and make a comment since I'm quite ignorant when it comes to the technical stuff

Mackie SRM 450

Martin Mflex

See I've used the Mach Mflex's before and thought they were quite good, but I've never met anyone whos used the Mackie's. They wont be used with sub's are anything, just decks and the speakers - making it as simple for me as possible to set up and leave. Prices here in Ireland are 1250 for Mach Mflex's and 1350 for Mackies so I can Live with either budget wise. So I ask, which is better, can anyone be specific about bad points of the Mach Mflex range (cause I'm slowly swinging that way as the guarantee will be in the country if I go with them, otherwise I'm shipping them off for repairs which takes forever and a day).

Thanks to everyone whos helped with my decision so far!

The SRM450's are a good cab. personally I would go for those with that choice. I wouldn't have originally been so up on the behringers if I had known your budget could stretch to that. The mackie's are a superior cab.


As I mention alot.. let us know what you buy. and how you get on with them


Rob

Kurt...

I posted something similar a few days ago. I finally bought the Mackies SRM 450. I suggest you to buy this one. Sounds great and it's very road friendly ( between plastic speakers might be the standard ).

A bit heavy maybe to be a 12".

Regards

It will be simple, but what type of music are you playing? Subs will give you the bottom end you really need for some types of music. Jbl Eon speakers are pretty decent, and about your price range, I think - you can get a pair of active ones (no amps to lug about!) for about £1000 a pair.

And surely this is the whole point of all light and sound, that people can see and hearand get the atmosphere without noticing that we are doing anything. If they notice us then we detract from the event.

I agree with you when you are in a gig with limited resources and therefore you don't want nothing bad to happen.
But when you instal a top system you will be noticed for the good of your job. Otherwise would be pointless to spend so many k's on top gear.

OT, but here goes:

IMO the opinion of sound reinforcement is not to be noticed. The idea is to exactly replicate the source but louder, that should be the only difference, unless effects are needed for some artistic reason.

Lighting is slightly different, there is lighting for purpose ie so that we can see the stage or lighting for art, ie sweeping movers, chasing PAR cans, moody colours to enhance the mood of a scene in a play.

Thanks everyone for your help, I ended up going the the Mach M-flex 15's. Used them the other night and they sound great. I'm not technical enough to compare them against the other options I had but I'm happy.

Cheers everyone.