Simple system for rehearsals

[madorangepanda]

Hello, a group of Dancers have asked me to source them a system for rehearsals.

 

Budget is £250 max

 

Input only needs to be a 3.5mm minijack as they will only be playing from iPods or laptops.

 

I was thinking of just a full range active box and the appropriate cable to go into it.

 

If so, what speaker would people recommend?

 

That or two smaller speakers that may make transport easier?

 

For the cable, if going stereo minjack to XLR, does someone have a circuit diagram of what resistors I need to include, I'm sure there is a site with this somewhere but I just can't find it.

 

Cheers

Tom

[tomrbland]

How loud does it need to be? Do they want good bass response etc?

 

I have used these in the past: Yamaha Stagepas 300

 

They did the job fine. They had a mic and a CD player.

[boswell]

Over the OP price range

[tomrbland]

Oh sorry! I just took the assumption it was about right!!

[lx2010]

We have an small dance group that comes into our gym and we simply gove them one of these 550 Watt active speakers

http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighti...-PA-Speaker/DE8

 

And just supply them with a simple stereo jack

http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Co...,u1_aa4f1,fuqq7

 

This seems to fill the room no problem and the bass is quite supprising using the ipods inbuilt eq hope this helps

 

Oli

[Bobbsy]

One thing to consider...

 

I went through a phase of providing rehearsal playback for a group and originally did it with a single powered speaker. I started getting complaints that, on some tracks, the music sounded "different". After a bit of checking, it turned out that that some of the mixes they were using hadn't been checked for mono compatibility and they were getting phase issues when the lead I made up did the combining. Some instruments were being more or less nulled because they were opposite polarity in the mix. After that, I provided two smaller speakers (with no combining) and all was fine.

 

It didn't happen often but it was enough that I'd probably go the "two small speakers" route.

 

Bob

[timtheenchanteruk]

Carlsbro Traveller

 

seems to come in around £250, there are other badges on this too, same system different badge (I think peavy do one)

 

I have had one for 7 years for my drama group, all been fine so far.

 

the samson XPL300 also looks good, but over budget (£385 for Bgrade), but does have an ipod dock built in and a 4 channel mixer with the ability to integrate a wireless mic into it.

[jamesperrett]

Carlsbro Traveller

 

seems to come in around £250, there are other badges on this too, same system different badge (I think peavy do one)

 

I'm sorry but these are absolute rubbish in my opinion. There is no clarity at all to the sound and the Yamaha Stagepas sounds so much better.

 

Personally I would go for a secondhand or ex-demo system. Something like a pair of Studiospares Fortissimo 10A's or dB Technologies Basic 100's should be within your price range and will accept a laptop/ipod output directly.

 

James.

[Albatross]

How loud does it need to be? Do they want good bass response etc?

 

Having worked with many dance groups, I would suggest that they want it ear bleedingly loud with an insane amount of bass.

Quality of the sound is never part of their request, and as they're playing from Ipods with Mp3 sound file sources, they will never get great quality anyway.

 

They like to 'feel' the music, as that helps their performance, and are blissfully unaware and really dont care about the hazards of loud noise.

 

[madorangepanda]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

As was suggested above, they would like it loud and with lots of bass. Quality isn't the biggest of concerns.

 

Will look for a pair of speakers as that means they will complain less about carrying them as well.