Crossovers

[Bryson]

So, I'm in the market for a new crossover/speaker management system for our PA. It's a simple EAW Mid/High and Subs arrangement, nothing exciting, although the subs are a long way behind the Mid/highs, so we would like the ability to do alignment delay.

 

I've been looking at the Ashly 3:24 or the dbx Driverack 260. Any comments on their relative worth in my situation? Any alternatives I should look at? I'm replacing an Ashly XR1001. Is it worth the upgrade?

 

Please bear in mind that I'm not the engineer here, I'm just the guy who pushes the money and the staff around until the event happens....

 

EDIT: The Ashly site seems to be down for me, so if you're looking it up, good luck!

[Bobbsy]

Well, the good news is that the Ashley site appears to be working again, at least for me. The bad news is that I've never used their LMS so I won't try to comment on that!

 

What I can say is that a venue I worked in fairly regularly used the Driverack 260 so I've used one on and off for a number of years. It seemed reliable and "did what it said on the box". It DID sound better than the ubiquitous Behringer DCX2496, though whether it was enough better to justify the cost difference is a debate that will never be resolved. I have to say that it took me a good bit of time with the manual to get my head around the front panel adjustments but once I got there it was okay. As they say, YMMV--controls can be a personal thing.

 

I don't know the requirements of your new venue, but the place I'm doing most of my work now uses a BSS Soundweb with some of their expansion boxes. This might be overkill for your application but I must say I'm fairly impressed. There are few, front panel adjustments (you need to connect a PC for any setup) but once connected I find the software very intuitive. Being a network device, it's also easy to have the Soundweb in a locked-away rack and take your comp where you need to be to perform adjustments. I've quite enjoyed the ease with which I can route signals for extra speakers for spot effects or whatever then just restore everything to the normal state at the touch of a mouse. It also makes the whole thing fairly "touring engineer proof".

 

Bob

[Shez]

I've had a driverack 260 in my rack for a couple of years now. I've found it to be a really good bit of kit. As Bobbsy said, programming it from the front panel is not the easiest of tasks but there's a software package that you can apparently hook up to it to program it from winblows.

I've only ever had one incident with it, which fortunately has never been repeated... Upon powering up, it had a checksum issue and wiped all my programs. This was in the middle of a musical run, with only about 90 minutes before curtain up. I was able to reprogram what I needed from memory but was a bit worrying at the time. It has a little fan on the back which (to me) is a little noisier than necessary but that's a minor gripe. No issue at all if it's going in an amp rack but when at FOH it's noticable to me.

It has loads of functionality so if you need to add extra delays with their own graphics, for example, it's easy to do. Thumbs up from me ;) . If you've got any specific questions, feel free to ask.

[Ken Hughes]

Hi Bryson

 

OK, with you being in Vancouver and me in the UK nobody could believe I was trying to get a sale at this time.

 

I've been selling (and using) the Ashly Protea 3:24 and 4:24 digi' crossovers for a while and I've found them to be great bits of gear.

 

Not knowing the DBX unit too well I wouldn't offer a judgement but I do know that A-B comparisons between other products at double the price have raised eyebrows.

 

Never had a failure, they sound great and they're easy to operate.

 

For ultimate control I'd recommend the 4:24 but then, I do understand budget constraints.

 

As always, would still recommend that you try before you buy.

 

Ken

[themadhippy]

I suppose the Lake procsesor is out of your price range,but it does sound rather nice with EAW boxes and lab gruppen amps,as for dbx ,the 480 and 4800 also work well with EAW,but again suppose there too expensive

[Matt Riley]

I've used the 260 and like it. I think the fact that, alongside the BSS minidrive they are one of the most ubiquitous LMSs out there can only be a good thing in terms of engineer familiarity and resale value.

 

Also, if your system is one of the bigger eaw rigs then consider the EAW UX 8800 which gives gunness focussing to the boxes and apparently makes a massive difference to KF850 and 650 rigs and the like.

 

M

[Bryson]

So, in the end, we got the Ashly 3:24. And very nice it is, too.