dickiefunk Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Hi, I'm posting this thread out of curiosity as to what would be the next step up from my current speakers. At the moment I have a pair of Yamaha DXR15 tops and EV ELX 118P subs. Is there a set of tops and subs that will sound even better whilst being BOTH lighter and louder!?? I am not interested in hearing about anything that would be heavier or quieter so please don't list anything that is!! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 There's plenty out there that's better, but I've got to say I've no complaints over the DXR range, I've put a few pairs in to local high schools and have mixed a good few smaller shows on them too. The small, lightweight, powered tops that absolutely blew me away last time I used them were the L'acoustics 112p cabinets. I wanted to sell every speaker I owned after I mixed on them, which would have been a good job as I'd have had to have traded in everything to afford a pair! As ever, what are your requirements? My personal preferences now are coaxial, in a yoke and passive, which is why I own Tannoy V12's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickiefunk Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 The small, lightweight, powered tops that absolutely blew me away last time I used them were the L'acoustics 112p cabinets. I wanted to sell every speaker I owned after I mixed on them, which would have been a good job as I'd have had to have traded in everything to afford a pair! The L'acoustics weigh 32kg each which is more than my subs weigh! These are not lighter than my 21.5kg DXR15 tops. I have to agree though that the DXR15's are great speakers. I don't really have any complaints about them and have not run out of power with them. I'm only really posting this thread out of curiousity for a bit of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 They're also in a completely different league to the Yamaha's, as are D&B's offerings. Whether the difference in performance is worth the extra few grand is entirely a personal decision! The Yamaha's are some of the lightest "decent" cabinets I've come across, so I suspect you might be struggling. There are lots of these small so-called line source systems from the likes of Bose and HK audio, which may well be lighter and sound pretty nice, but they may not be suitable at all for your needs, we just don't know. Doubt they'll beat the DXR's for SPL. I don't think louder & lighter are two criterea that are necessarily going to play well together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Siddons Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Just a comment as we don't know what your using them for but also have a look at your sources, quite a significant improvement to the sound of a system can be gained by upgrading things like mics and desks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S&L Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 a significant improvement to the sound of a system can be gained by upgrading things like mics and desks. +1 for this - AND replace one and you may be able to perceive more quality with the other. the first time I put a red5 rvd30 mic (a budget mic by any standard) up on the fader of an x32, I fell backwards, almost literally, with the extra clarity experienced vs the same mic used with a range of analogue desks (soundcraft, peavey etc). I had a similar experience when I applied that digital desk to my standard small rig (adlib tops, HK subs) - much more so than I could expect by changing the speaker boxes for something slightly more expensive. It's always worth reviewing the signal chain of your shows regularly and trying a few changes 'just to see' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickiefunk Posted September 17, 2013 Author Share Posted September 17, 2013 Thanks for the replies guys. I use my rig for live band work. I tend to put everything through the pa including drums and bass in venues for up to 200-300. In terms of desk, I'm currently waiting for an Allen & Heath QU-16 to arrive. I mainly use a mixture of Sennheiser E935, E838, Shure SM58 beta and AKG D5 vocal mics with an MXL A55 Kicker on Kick, SM57 (soon to be audix i5) on snare and Sennheiser E604's on toms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneEng Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 Hi, I'm posting this thread out of curiosity as to what would be the next step up from my current speakers. At the moment I have a pair of Yamaha DXR15 tops and EV ELX 118P subs. Is there a set of tops and subs that will sound even better whilst being BOTH lighter and louder!?? I am not interested in hearing about anything that would be heavier or quieter so please don't list anything that is!! ThanksI think that your tops are fine. The JBL PRX718XLF's would be a big improvement over the EV subs in both quality of sound, and output. I A/B'd these (and quite a few others) when I was looking for subs. The XLF's are really in a league of their own at this price point. They are literally about 2 times the output of the ELX sub and sound better (don't believe the specs). The XLF's also have a relatively low HF output (90Hz) which would work nicely with your DXR15 tops by letting them do more of the low mid lifting IMHO. The sound quality of the DXR15's are pretty darned good. To get a noticeable upgrade in sound quality, you would have to spend lots more money. You can get quite a bit more output by going to the DSR115's (again, don't believe the specs). So when you say "next step up", do you mean output, or sound quality .... or both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneEng Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 To clarify, I auditioned the 618S-XLF not the 718XLF ;) I have heard that the 718 sounds pretty close if not exactly the same (from someone that owns both). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickiefunk Posted October 9, 2014 Author Share Posted October 9, 2014 Thought I'd revive this thread as I'm still considering upgrading my system at some point. I've been looking around a little more and the RCF745a's could be an option. I've spoken to quite a few dealers and they all recommend RCF's stuff. One dealer said that even the RCF 715 would be quite a step up from the DXR15's!!?? There is also the RCF HD32a. Apparently these go quite a bit louder than the DXR15's despite what the specs say!?? As for subs, it looks like it's between the JBL PRX718XLF or QSC KW181's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.spoons Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 We used 4xPRX718s and 4xPRX512s (which we think sound better than the PRX712s and PRX615s we have) for FOH at Hayfest 2014 this weekend and even with 1200-1500 in the audience the ground stacked subs were more than up to the job. In fact the whole rig worked very well indeed with plenty of headroom and we received many compliments on the sound quality both on stage (PRX712s and 615s) and off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickiefunk Posted October 9, 2014 Author Share Posted October 9, 2014 Those JBL's are looking more and more tempting http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif I'd need to do quite a lot of saving though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickiefunk Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 I've been doing quite a lot of research online and there seems to be a general consensus that the QSC KW181 has a fraction more output than the JBL PRX718XLF but no built in HPF to the tops. Apparently the JBL has the edge regarding tone (clarity, depth etc) aswell has having a built in HPF to the tops? The lack of the HPF on the QSC's puts me off as I don't want to be limited to only being able to use tops with HPF filters built into them. The JBL PRX718XLF is looking to be the best option within my budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickiefunk Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Hi guys. After quite a lot of research I've found some systems that would offer more real world output and be a significant step up in audio quality. However as we knew, the budget is quite a lot more (over £8000 per system)!The first system I was able to go and have a preview launch demo of the new EAW Redline series.http://eaw.com/products/rl-series/This system has a serious amount of output and stunning clarity! The RL12 active tops are lighter than the DXR15's and whilst the subs were a fraction heavier (37kg), they were still manageable for one person. The EAW system stayed beautifully balanced, full and detailed at all volumes (from barely being on to absolutely pumping it out)!The other systems are by two companies I'd not heard of.Lambda Labshttp://lambda-labs.com/en/tx-2a.htmlhttp://lambda-labs.com/en/mf-15a.htmlBrooklyn Audiohttp://www.brooklyn-audio.com/productsHowever, all of these systems are out of my budget now as we have had our second baby and naturally my priorities have changed ?RCF have launched some newer speakers in their 7series range which are the 732, 735 and 745 which supposedly have a higher output, clarity and lower weight than the DXR's so possibly an option but I've used the 710a's and whilst they sounded very good, they had a lot of hiss compared to the DXR's which makes me wonder if their higher output speakers will have even more hiss!?Getting one of the QU (QU-PAC) mixers from Allen and Heath made quite a difference to tweaking my system and I've changed some of my mics which have also improved things (Sennheiser E945's, Audio a Technica ATM710 condensers).I am still planning on changing my subs and am very keen to hear the QSC KW181, JBL PRX718XLF and the new EV EKX18sp. From user reports the EKX18sp's don't quite match the QSC and JBL subs in terms of output but are not that far off. They are also lighter, smaller and cheaper and may be enough to match my DXR15's. Am going to be trying some of these out over the next couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.spoons Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Richard, you are incorrigible :) congrats on Penrose jnr. #2 BTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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