psy Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 ive taken my speakers back and am going to go about getting something proper for my needs, which are I play dance music for 4 hrs per gig in a venue that holds about 300 when packed. im thinking id be better getting something with bins so that I can get the bass I need instead of having to try and get it from regular speakers as its never going to be good enough. assuming I get the refund on the gear and the loan im hoping for this week I will have about £900 to spend. is this enough to get anything half decent for my not too challenging purpose or am I going to need to keep saving and what can any of you recommend to do what I need at a non extortionate price bearing in mind im only doing this every 2 or 3 weeks. sorry if this is a stupid question but as somebody trying to learn ive already made one bad mistake in choosing gear and I want to try and avoid a repeat thanks in advance Moderation: Title edited - please try to give your posts a meaningful title rather than just "recommendations" - it helps others when searching for information, or when scanning the forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Beesley Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 What amps have you got? Or does your budget need to include amps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ83 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 ...is this enough to get anything half decentProbably not but if you can push it a little it will get you started.You have found out the hard way what happens when you buy cheap and I'm sure you don't want to do that again. The next question is do you want a system where you have to closely monitor each piece of equipment during a gig or one that has enough overhead that you can enjoy what you are doing and know you are not running everything near its limits? I would personally recommend the looking at Crown XTi amps as an investment. The inbuilt DSP will offer you limiters to help protect the speakers and you can configure whatever EQ or crossover frequencies you wish without needing extra equipment. One of my XTi4000's will happily power 4x RCF Art300's playing dance music all night without the cooling fans even kicking in. With some help from Google you should be able to get an XTi2000 for about £550 inc.VAT but this doesn't leave you much for cabs especially if you are wanting subs. That said, it's worth having a look around Thomann, you could probably find a couple of full range cabs for £100 each and then buy a powered (active) sub for about £250 and only be £100 over budget (assuming you already have speaker cables and XLRs etc?) There are a number of threads on the Thomann Box's so have a read at those. The ones I've used sounded good and for the price I would even say pretty amazing (worth spending 10min per box when they arrive though to check everything is secure inside). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndenim Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Were in the world are you David?A little tip it will help if you add to your profile a little more. A p.a retailer near me in Mansfield called class d do some reasonable sounding kit.If it's just playback then I think these would do the job, but unless you want to go second hand your budget TBH is not very high. I'd advise a listen if you are close enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Frankly, for that mix of budget and application I'd definitely be looking on the second hand market. You'll definitely get more "bang for the buck" and almost certainly get more reliability and longevity. ...and that's about as far as I can take this for now. Being outside the UK my ear in no longer quite so well "to the ground" for second hand deals, but I'd think the usual suspects with knowledge of that market will be along a bit later! Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Ditto for 2nd Hand. It will be a much better investment. As has been said to you in other threads. If a speaker has lasted 10 years and is still going strong, it will probably last another 10 years. The same applies to amps. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sound In Gloucestershire Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 if you insist on going for new, then perhaps active/powered cabs might be an option? You save money by not needing to get crossovers etc W Audio PSR 12A £400 A PairDo a search for reviews on these, youll be impressed for the price W Audio Active 15" Sub £380 EachThis is the matching Bass cab for the tops, they are quite heavy (49kg) but include a free trolley board You could start off with 1 sub and get a 2nd at a later date, especially as phase one do free delivery on them if you could stretch your budget, theres a guy with 5k of Class D on ebay, its 4 x 18" subs, 4 x Dual 12" Subs and 4 x 10" Mid/Highs with amps. Hes asking £1800, but you CAN knock him down from there as hes got no chance of getting there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinvegas Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 SSE are selling a load of 2nd hand stuff at the moment. They are one of the top PA hire companies and do a large number of big tours and festivalshttp://www.sseaudiogroup.com/category.asp?...5§ion=6 Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 2nd hand would be my recommendation aswell. It's lost its new value so when you come to sell it again you'll not lose that initial lump. The same as buying a car or van. I'd avoid the class D boxes. Not necessarily in general, but those boxes. There are a few reasons for this. We have to look at efficiency always no matter what we are planning on spending. But efficiency goes alot further than alot of people think. The main point about efficiency is the boxes sensitivity, and power handling, and power compression all bundled into one to give us a maximum and thus an average spl per box. Power handling isn't too important if the sensitivity is high, but if power handling is high then you do need larger amps to power them. What people FORGET about efficiency is that positioning and control play key parts aswell. If we take the box john links to, it's got a sensitivity of 98dB 1w/m. for a larger box like this it is quite low but not TOO bad. However, we have to look at how practical this box is. We can't put it on a stick, so how do we get it up in the air. We can't cheat the inverse square law with it by putting it up in the air and pointing it down. We have to have it stood on a table (not good) or on the floor (unacceptable) or on a stage( not ideal ) to get at least the HF above heads. We're going to deafen the front and not even wake up people at the back. If we are trying to push sound through people then we are going to need 10 times as much of the mid and 100 times as much of the Highs to get the same results at the back. By this point the people at the front are on fire. So a smaller box, up in the air, pointing down to cover the audience and a pair of subs on the floor will do a much better job. There are gigs I'll do with a TQ445 per side where people will take in 3 stacks per side of something groundstacked. I'll get better more even results as I place the boxes in the right place and point them in the right place. Less is more. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolley1466 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 I agree with the second hand/ex-hire.If you go for ex-hire it will be easier to get them serviced if need be.I suggest you look at SSE's ex-hire inventory like Chris suggested. I've just bought a pair of Martin tops off them for next to nothing and they would of cost me a lot more new. I believe Rob has some F12's up to sale too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChazHS Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Ooooh at £380 a pop those PS-8s from SSE look tempting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Owen Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 You might try Bob Kellys website here . He tends to have some good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndenim Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 You might try Bob Kellys website here . He tends to have some good stuff. That site is down for me Gareth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psy Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 cheers guys I was thinking it may have to be second hand as well but I was stuck for where to start looking so cheers for the links. im just in from work so I'll check them out in the morning but just while im here I thought I'd ask.there was a new htfr catalogue here when I got home today so I thought id check it out just in case. I saw these that caught my eye and were just within my budget but I was wondering if they are that price are they crap as well? the speakers and the recommended amp are both quite well known brands but the price makes me suspect, so what do you think? speakers http://www.htfr.com/more-info/?catno=268440 recommended amp for themhttp://www.htfr.com/more-info/?catno=215785 cheers again and I'll get those links for second hand stuff checked out in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Well, there are 15" drivers in both cabs. This is a bit pointless as the only advantage to having a 15 over a 12 in a mid/top is for extra bass. You wont be using the 15s in the mid/tops to their full potential and the sound will lack clarity in the mid ranges (vocal/guitar) This system from Thomann looks very good on paper 12" + 18" on each side, stands included. It also has built in amps so you don't have to carry around heavy speaker cables just a couple of XLR signal cables. It is 200 over budget though. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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