Recommend Small Active Speakers

[mwoke]

As title suggests I am after some recommendations for some small active speakers for use in a village hall (approx 15m x 10m). We are a church (so for use with vocals and some music) that use the hall so therefore need to set up/take down each week. Ideally they need to be small because of storage space. I cannot find anything suitable at present, and hence am thinking we may just have to get standard sized speakers. We currently have some fostex (I think) ones that are about 14" x 7" x 7" which have served us well but could do with replacing.

Intending that they will be used with an Allen & Heath Zed 14 (any opinions on this also gratefully accepted).

Price range say £700 - £1000 for the pair. Obviously if a good pair can be bought for less then recommend that too.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Currently we run just two mics, one lapel mic for speech and one for worship leader through the PA along with keyboards. In the near future we will also use it to play video through, and potentially putting a guitar through the PA.

[Andrew Edwards]

How about these?

 

A little bit bigger than your current. There is also version 2 but these are bigger still.

 

Both well within your budget.

 

Drew.

[Bobbsy]

The HK LUCAS "SMART" system is slightly over your budget (though careful shopping may find it for cheaper than this site). However, the sound quality will blow you away--people won't believe the boxes are generating the sound you hear. Also, the price includes stands and cables--and the size makes storage, set up and tear down a breeze.

 

I'd suggest a listen if you can arrange one.

 

Bob

[chelgrian]

A little bit bigger than your current. There is also version 2 but these are bigger still.

Personally I'd stay away from anything that says Mackie on it. As far as I am aware the SRM series came out of their purchase of RCF and they cut corners on the RCF designs to drop the price. RCF has since been spun back out of Mackie but I don't know if their current designs are as good as the RCF of old before they went through Mackie ownership. Alternatives for a smallish room (in no particular order) may be pairs of JBL EON10, RCF Art 3xx-A or 4xx-A. The next step up from that would be RCF 7xx series then probably QSC K series boxes both of which would either be on the top end or blowing your budget. After that there is the RCF TT+ series however they are way out of your price range. You should note that the smallest boxes with 8" drivers are designed to respond well down to ~60Hz or so. They will be OK as a PA for vocals etc. without a sub but at some point you'd probably want to think about augmenting them with a sub. You may get away without needing this with 10 or 12" models but it depends on your specific use case and room.

[KidRay]

I can recommend the RCF Art 310A. We use a pair for a vocal/acoustic guitar duo, going through an Allen & Heath Zed12FX, and they sound fabulous. The mixing desk is easy to use and we usually manage to get a good overall sound without external EQ, but this will depend on the acoustics of your venue.

For our bigger band we use an RCF TT+ set up, which is over your budget and probably overkill for your requirements. Nice though!

[jodat2]

The Eon10 G2's work well as a compact FOH PA loudspeaker for small applications. Ive used them many times to amplify vocals, keyboards and the occasional guitar in rooms of similar size.

 

I agree with chelgrian about the mackies.

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

if the jbl/rcf offerings are too big. consider the small range by Mcgregor, they have a new range where you get two satellites and two dual 10" subs, small footprint and a pretty big sound (for the budget and size of venue) as always, get a demo!

[ben-collins]

Active RCT Art 10" or 12". We have four of the 12" version and they are fantastic! They sound great, gush out sound, and we have never had a problem with them! :P

[Robin Pratt]

We recently had some of these http://www.electro-voice.com/product.php?id=1004 demonstrated to us and we were very impressed. A pair (ex-vat) would be £1000 from us.

[SRead]

Would second the RCF ART310-A as we use 6 of them and also some of the larger cabs and they are great, do a lot more than you expect and would give most 12" cabs a good run for the money.

 

Might also be worth looking into the new little 8" ART's that were at Frankfurt dont know much about them but I bet they will be amazing too. RCF can't do anything wrong at the moment and just keep raising the bar.

 

IMO anyway

 

SR

[Dolomite]

Would second the RCF ART310-A as we use 6 of them and also some of the larger cabs and they are great, do a lot more than you expect and would give most 12" cabs a good run for the money.

 

Might also be worth looking into the new little 8" ART's that were at Frankfurt dont know much about them but I bet they will be amazing too. RCF can't do anything wrong at the moment and just keep raising the bar.

 

IMO anyway

 

SR

 

Oh, yeah. The Art 310A's are by far your best option. You won't regret it..

[Shaggy]

I've personally wouldn't recommend RCF. I own some RCF Art312a. They sound ok, in my opinion better than the srm450 but with some midrange (200-400hz ish) crapness. However, they are very hard to get to an acceptable non-ringing volume with an sm58 through them, even with a decent eq and plenty of time. I have also sent back 4 with warranty repairs so far, and they get fairly lightly used and well treated. Getting them back from repairs hasn't exactly been lightning speed and has interfered with jobs for them as well which has been a pain.

[SRead]

Hi all

 

Shaggy do you deal direct with RCF or through a dealer, because we have had an issue with a new ART722-A where the grill was dented and it was sorted in no time the turn around was superb, just wondered if it was the dealer that was slow or RCF themselves? We also find them very easy to work with and get good results from ours, perhaps its something else in the signal path?

 

SR

[Shaggy]

Hi all

 

Shaggy do you deal direct with RCF or through a dealer, because we have had an issue with a new ART722-A where the grill was dented and it was sorted in no time the turn around was superb, just wondered if it was the dealer that was slow or RCF themselves? We also find them very easy to work with and get good results from ours, perhaps its something else in the signal path?

 

SR

 

I go through a dealer who is localish and I (and some others on this forum I have seen) am happy with the service. When it has been a case of swapping stuff out it has been quick, but warranty repairs have been slow.