Plastic speakers.

[Dolomite]

ART 300 Series are the best plastic boxes by-far. Out doing the EV, Mackie & JBL etc. A lot of people quite rate the new K Series QSC's as well.

 

I do a mixture of work and for one of the things I'm working on I just brought a pair of the Studiospares 10" active and am very impressed, incredible for the money. They're not comparable with things like The Box, LD, Behringer - far-superior soundwise and with a simple bit of LX tape over the garish blue LED on the front, they're pretty non-offensive aestheticly. Love the fact you can get all the spares from them too..

[KidRay]

On a tight budget the Studiospares Fortissimo range give you plenty of bang for your buck, however the RCF 300, 400 & 700 series are superb.

Having used some 310As and 710As for various applications in various bands, as well as the TT series which we use for the Tina tribute band, I've recently replaced my Studiospares 15" fortissimos with a pair of RCF 408As and a single 902 sub, and it is a lovely sounding very compact PA for small venues.

[TonyMitchell]

I am looking to replace my current 15" speakers with some 12" ones. They will be used for mobile discoing both on their own and with a pair of 15" reflex bass bins. At the moment I have narrowed it down to:

- EV SX200 (2nd hand)

- FBT Maxx4 (2nd hand)

- W-Audio PSR12 (new)

 

They all seem to be quite similar (300W-1200W) but with varying sensitivities. I was wondering if you guys could offer any advice on the matter, or suggest anything else I should look out for. My budget is around £300

 

 

From that list, the SX200 would win by a mile in my book. They don't sound bad at all and are twice as efficient as the FBT boxes, and who knows as many times efficient as the W-Audios, (as the manufac, oops, I mean iimporter, conveniently leaves the most meaningful piece of data off their web specs, opting to quote an aspirational "calculated" max SPL instead.)

 

As far as other brands go, I would avoid JBL's plastic offerings like the plague, EONs are not very nice. Mackie SRMs are slightly better and can be made to sound acceptable for non mission-critical applications with EQing, they are a sort of industry standard within the "mobile dj powered box" category, but for the wrong reasons (IMHO)

 

Moving up the ladder to the ARTs that Dan mentions, now you're talking nice sounding plastic boxes, but with a price tag to match.

 

Moving up further still, you've got E series, which are pretty incredible and I would challenge anyone that says they can hear the difference between a wooden and a plastic box to do a blind test.

[ojc123]

I'm working in a school.

We have recently acquired a pair of RCF 712A for the main speakers. They are really good but outside your budget.

 

We also use the W-Audio PSR12A. I chose them following the recommendation of Sound in Gloucestershire on this forum. They are not the sound quality (or quantity) of the RCF but they are extremely good value. They are loud enough for 16 year old heavy metal bands and I use the speakers for discos, monitor speakers etc. They are a bit heavy but seem fairly bombproof (and educationproof). It has a built in limiter which helps protect it from the worst of the daftness.

 

I also like the facility to mix in a couple of microphones. In education I get a lot of "Can you just..." the PSR is quite versatile. Ipod/Discman + Microphone + PSR = Instant disco, Karaoke, language speaking test, whatever.

[Pete McCrea]

We had the Shure rep in to demo a the QSC K series. Bloody powerful boxes which sound really good, and a fairly sensible price tag, though above the OP's £300 by about twice per 12" box. As others have said though you know what your getting with the EV boxes.

[elvisdoo]

every one needs to look at the D&B E12 and the QSC K. in my opinion both these boxes are are worth a look. ow and the ZX stuff is worth looking at over SX EV stuff.

[Gareth Owen]

d&b T-Series and many of their newer boxes are made from plastic composites.

[bruce]

every one needs to look at the D&B E12 and the QSC K. in my opinion both these boxes are are worth a look. ow and the ZX stuff is worth looking at over SX EV stuff.

 

However, the person who asked the question did indicate that his budget was around the £300 mark....

[stevendrums24]

We have EV SX300, ZX5 and ZXA5. All of these are plastic cabinets.

 

The ZX5s we use on monitor duty alot and they are very good. They pack a punch and can be made to sound really poky. The top end is typical EV, needs abit EQing to make them flat but its nice to have the bite for theslighty deaf artists! We used them for From The Jam on monitors a few years ago and their technician wasnt very happy about them until he heard them. He was amazed by them and went out and bought a few pairs!!!

The ZXA5 are bi-amped with a 1K amp over the 15" driver and a 250 watt amp over the 2" compression driver. These do go loud!!! They sound warmer than the passive ZX5's and seem to have alot more in the 8-10K area even tho they are the same driver... I would reconmend them over any of the RCF/Mackie stuff if you can afford them! They are expensive but well worth the money. If you are after a pair contact Ian at Mercury-av.com, he allways does us a good deal!

 

In my opinion the HZ tops are bad, subs are pretty decent for plastic. W Audio are very good for the money! A good mate of mine has a load that he uses at local festivals, they have suffered a few years worth of beating kick drums through them!

 

Ive just re-read your post and saw your £300 budget. If it was my £300 I would be buying W Audio all the way!

 

 

Steve

[Dan Gruner]

Worth also looking out for a used pair of EV SX500's. These are sadly a lot less popular than the SX300, probably due to their size, however they are great speakers and pack a lot of punch! Also biampable.

 

Dan

[Pete McCrea]

.....used pair of EV SX500's...

 

And they look like Washing Machines....

[SRead]

Hi all,

 

Another for the RCF ARTS, all the series are superb, and the new ART312-A's are on the money and a real budget buy but not a budget speaker.

 

We have had some of the old Mackies and some of the new, the old ones are going strong although getting a bit tired now but the new ones failed on the first outing and we still have not had them repaired, it seems like most dont want to touch them now. We are going to replace them all soon with the ART312-A.

 

Just my opinion.

[palmerb]

anyone else dislike the mackie active stuff?

 

 

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. dont talk about makie here peaple will get offendened ** laughs out loud **

[ojc123]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. dont talk about makie here peaple will get offendened ** laughs out loud **

They may also be offended by netspeak and poor spelling, punctuation and grammar.

[Dan Gruner]

Currently a pair of EV SX 500's on eBay:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EV-SX500-SPEAKERS-/1...=item1c171e9a72

 

Dan