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Small (school) stage fills: A alternative to JBL Control 1s?


DanSteely

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Hi Folks.

 

In a UK secondry school:

On larger shows we use a pair of JBL Control1's as down stage fills and at the end of our last night of a 4 night run we discovered the LF drivers were shot, with the rubber surround being torn - they were not open circuit though.

 

This was probably due to the fact they were very old as opposed to being over driven.

 

Anyway I'm looking to replace them and will probably pick up a pair from CPC, (http://cpc.farnell.com/jbl-james-bullough-lansing/control1-black/speakers-control-1-black-pair/dp/LS00997) but wondered if any members could recommend something better for a similar price.

 

Another thought: I'm sort of considering messing about making my own skinny down stage fill speakers with, say 6x, 4" drivers per box?

 

We tend to put only actor vox through them on a spare post aux or matrix send and roll off all the LF as the fills are just about intelligibility.

 

Any thoughts would be most welcome.

 

Cheers.

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Hi,

 

Primarily a lighting technician so don't feel that my opinion is the only right answer! However, I do have a fair amount of experience working in schools and at the under £50 per speaker price point I have rarely seen an alternative product to the JBL's. On the whole the Control 1's are reliable and have a good construction with a strong protective grill. I would say that more often than not I see the Control 1 Pro's, slightly higher RMS but is of course reflective in the price of about £120 / pair. Like yourself I would be interested to see if anyone else has recommendations for an alternative product.

 

Control 1 Pro's (CPC)

 

 

Jon

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Two suggestions....

 

1) you could try a (temporary) repair with rubber solution glue on the ripped surrounds.

 

2) You could consider the Studiospares copy of the control 1 if cost was an overriding factor. They sound reasonably similar but sell for just over £58 a pair. I suspect that they may be better than a home grown version?

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There are a few other things to bear in mind. The Control-1 Pro is a 4 ohm device - that affects the rest of the system - amps are often rated to deliver significantly more power into a lower impedance load. One of the alternatives is the LD systems Sat62 - but that is (if memory serves) a 16 ohm device, so it really isn't going to be a drop-in replacement. Although the rated power is quite high, I've had several Control-1 Pro fail - sometimes the HF goes, sometimes the LF goes. The one thing that I've not yet had is the protection blowing to protect the driver!
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Aren't those JBLs for the control room (near-field audio applications, JBL calls them) rather than for the stage / down-stage? I would definitely take something bigger for the job.

And, yes, I would also take off everything below 200Hz or so, if they are for vox only. What made your woofers plop, certainly were those LFs that may have come from wind into the mic etc.

 

Norbert

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Aren't those JBLs for the control room (near-field audio applications, JBL calls them) rather than for the stage / down-stage?

They're commonly used for theatre front fills and delays where you don't need a lot of volume or bass. Whilst it's not quite "near field" in the studio sense, they'd typically only cover a few rows so probably not much more than around five meters throw.

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Many thanks for all your thoughts.

 

Control 1's as fills are a bit old hat these days but they were all that was left in the store.

 

Theatrical tours these days seem to favor d&b boxes and I defiantly can't afford those...

 

For a simple and economic life I think I'll go C1 replacements.

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