Source 4 or Acclaim?

[TomHoward]

I didn't realise the Acclaim fresnels were that cheap! We have around 18 of them which get some moderate stick for an in-house rig as opposed to touring, and I can't speak for the Profiles (as we have Pacific profiles) but the fresnels build quality is good enough - the only parts we've had come off have been the back handles when they've been dropped on them.

[GridGirl]

We're almost completely a Selecon house (kinda goes with the territory, being in New Zealand!) and our Acclaim profiles and fresnels get heavy use; they tend to go up for stints of about five weeks at a time then get taken down and re-rigged for the next show. They're great little units - we very rarely have any issues with them at all except that some of the older fresnels (we've got about 30 which have been bought in five or six batches over the last ten years) do get sticky lamp carriages if we're not careful, but with decent maintenance it's not really a problem. I'm interested in billy jim's comment that the Strand Quartet fresnel beats the Acclaim fresnels as I've never found this to be true - I've always found the Acclaims to have superior optics and much better light output. The profiles are solid little workhorses, nice for specials.

 

We don't have the newer axial zoom profiles, but I've used them in other venues and they're much brighter than the old base-down units - but I think I'd probably have to agree that the S4 Junior is probably a superior unit. Still prefer a Pacific over a full-size S4 any day though!

[JDLX]

Hi Guys, yes it is a school, but they won't be being moved, only focused. (96 channels, hardwired)

 

I was looking to use strands, and I have a little story to go with this,

 

the strand harmony profiles were designed in the early 1980's, I have no idea when or how many my school bought, all I do know is, I have 4 that are still working perfectly. :-)

 

the strand prelude pcs were designed in the mid 1980's, again, I have no idea when they were bought or how many were bought, all I know is I still have 10 working perfectly, I have some fresnels aswell somewhere.

 

Anyway, strand have stopped making lights! It just passes you over to selecon when you click on the lanterns link on their site!!!

 

Numbers!

18 Fresnels

18 PCs

16 Profiles

20 floods

24 pars

 

what shall I get? Ideally I need to keep the cost for all of it as low as possible.

 

Thanks

Joe

 

I will keep my post simple:

 

Fresnels/PCs - Selecon Acclaims

Profiles - Source Four zooms or junior zooms

Pars - Normal Par 64s or Source 4 pars if your budget stretches

Floods - depends on application - if for cycs/cloths you could try the selecon hui floods, but I have no experience of these.

[TomHoward]

We have the Source Four Pars, and to be honest I can't justify the expense of them over a PAR64 - the lamps aren't even that much cheaper, not more than 20% from our suppliers.

[mac.calder]

We have the Source Four Pars, and to be honest I can't justify the expense of them over a PAR64 - the lamps aren't even that much cheaper, not more than 20% from our suppliers.

 

Yeah, but you do only need one lamp instead of 3 (if you work in a venue where you commonly change between beam angles on your pars)

[Louis sullivan NLS]

My opininion is S4s, mainly because of light output, size and quality,

 

BUT....

 

S4s are a pain to clean the lenses and are fixed angle and the zooms are considerably bigger than the fixed angle ones which lose the whole 'size thing'.

 

Selecon is cheaply made, over priced, but ok for schools. Have you considered strand Quartets/ SLs?

 

Hope this helps

[themadhippy]

Selecon is cheaply made, over priced, but ok for schools. Have you considered strand Quartets/ SLs

And you base this on what? Quartets an absolute pain to do any sort of maintenance on,I'd rather take a prelude thank you,the SL, looks a bit like a S4,until bits break /fall off.Ive used and spec'ed a number of selecon units over quit a few years,yes we did have a few dodgy lenses on a batch of acclaims we purchased,but this was soon rectified with a modified lens bracket,apart from that no problems in 15'ish years of using selceon.

[Just Some Bloke]

If you are going for Pars {snip} if you can spare it go for S4 Pars. They are VERY good.

 

You can tell the difference between a technician and a designer! Any LD will tell you that a Par64 and a Source Four Par are a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT light! The "texture" of the light coming out is a different beast altogether. Source Four pars don't have the punch that a Par 64 has but they do mix together better (IMO). It's horses for courses really: if I was lighting a band and wanted punchy lights I wouldn't dream of using S4 Pars unless there was no other substitute around at the time, but if if I was sidelighting a dance show I would definitely consider putting them on my booms above the S4 profile shins.

 

Please don't make the mistake of thinking the Par 64 and the S4 Par are interchangeable or you'll be most disappointed.

[GridGirl]

Have you considered strand Quartets/ SLs?

 

Why would you? Aside from the fact that they aren't being made any more so you can't buy them new, and spare parts are getting harder and harder to find, the Quartet profile is not a nice unit at all - ever tried to take one apart to clean it? Hideous job. And the SL is my least favourite profile ever - I would take almost anything else over and above it, the only thing it has going for it is the fact that you can sling it on a short yoke or a long yoke. I will admit that the Quartet fresnel is an OK little unit, but I'd still take an Acclaim over it any day.

 

As for Selecon being cheaply made, overpriced but OK for schools - what exactly are you basing that on? Like I said in an earlier post, we're almost entirely a Selecon house (except for some old Strand 803s which are still going strong, and some much beloved 743s) and we have almost no problems. Even the very early Selecon 1kw fresnels are still giving us sterling service, and they must be twenty years old at least.

[GregB]

My Aclaim stock is now in its eighth year and still working well. It works hard for me accros 2 spaces and occasional touring.

They are very easy to maintain, light out put is very reasonable for lamp power. Recomend.

 

I have recently invested in S4 PARNELs as a cross over PC/Parcan in a bid to cut down on lamp stock for the Pars to good effect. I now only keep CP60's for punch and CP95s for super xwide in the (low ceiling) studio.

 

The Parnels (750W version) came in at £300e (with trigger clamps and B/doors and lamp), they take up less room/power on the bar/racks and I like um.

 

I have a pair of Pacifics that get very little use, they are awkward and bulky in the small studio and out performed by S4 juniors in the bigger space.

[Smiffy]

Selecon is cheaply made, over priced, but ok for schools. Have you considered strand Quartets/ SLs

 

Sorry to drag up an old topic but I really have to take issue with that post. Ok, it's akin to a my god vs your god point but really. Putting Strand up agains Selecon, there's no match. Selecon win hands down every time. The Acclaim stuff, certainly is what you could probably put in the 'beginner' bracket, but lets look at the Strand Options here

 

Quartet, great fixture if you like cardboard colour frames, barndoors that are not big enough, focussing locks that either stick or dont work, and you enjoy being burned (that and they dont make it any more - thank god)

 

SL again, a great fixture if you like your shows dark and your fixtures falling apart mid focus.

 

Sorry, but as far as Strand are concerned, things rapidly started falling apart the day Fred Bentham left.

 

 

Selecon = young(ish) dynamic company of laid back new zealanders that are happy to help you out in any way that you can, with an R&D department that listen to LD's and the requests that we make, and even go so far as to make a flavour of their pacific in any conceivable configuration. I had some issues not so long ago with a load of locking knobs breaking on the beam angle adjuster on a Rama Fresnel. I firstly phoned the rental company to tell them, I then phoned Phil at Selecon in NZ. He couldn't get the replacement bits to the rental company fast enough. For free.

 

Now that's why you choose Selecon.

 

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Tomo]

Selecon is cheaply made, over priced, but ok for schools. Have you considered strand Quartets/ SLs

Sorry to drag up an old topic but I really have to take issue with that post. Ok, it's akin to a my god vs your god point but really. Putting Strand up agains Selecon, there's no match. Selecon win hands down every time. The Acclaim stuff, certainly is what you could probably put in the 'beginner' bracket, but lets look at the Strand Options here

The Strand option is in fact Selecon - Strand (now owned by Philips) bought them out last year, and rebranded them as "Strand Selecon".

 

The old Strand fixtures are no longer manufactured, so you cannot buy them new - although there are a lot of 2nd hand units knocking about.

[Smiffy]

Well, not to be picky, but it was Phillips that bought Strand, and then also bought Selecon.

 

I beleive that the general consenus was that the Selecon fixtures were outperforming the Strand fixtures. I'm hoping that we will see a lot of the old strand innovations start to make a comeback however, I've already asked Selecon to look at inclusion of the old sawtooth shutters from the Patt 264 (I think it was).

 

Cheers

 

Paul