Small speakers

[J Pearce]

I'm looking to replace an ageing set of Bose 101s that are used as spot effects and fill speakers. What's around at the budget but half decent end of the market?

 

I've got JBL Control 1s and Thomann's Achat 104 and 204 boxes on my list, who else should I be looking at? Passive is preferred, as they often end up built into set, and we already have the amp channels.

[Ynot]

We invested in a pair of EM Acoustics EMS51- solid little boxes and very nice bang for the buck.

 

 

 

 

[James]

For my market I'm a big fan of EV S40s - very flexible - Much easier to rig than Control 1s. Have used them for front fill, balcony fill, spot SFX and as main speakers in studio space with suitable sub.

 

Probably a bit old now and I'm sure there are now better products out there but I still like them.

 

James.

[J Pearce]

The EMS51 boxes look great, but I can't find a price anywhere; whats the rough cost? (Feel free to PM me if more appropriate).

[cedd]

I'm a huge fan of the Thomann Achat ones you've mentioned. Only thing to watch is that the 204's are 2 drivers in parallel, so they're only 4 ohm per cabinet straight away. Bit of a pain when pairing them up to do a stage edge fill. Series is obviously an option but complicates the wiring a little. Otherwise they're great!

[sandall]

Only thing to watch is that the 204's are 2 drivers in parallel, so they're only 4 ohm per cabinet ................. Series is obviously an option but complicates the wiring a little.

 

The great little Martin EM15s came as either 16R or 4R, with the two 5" drivers (bass & mid/top) connected in series or parallel.

 

 

 

 

 

[revbobuk]

I'm a huge fan of the LD systems SAT62A and others in the range. Much more power than the same size Control-1. I tend to use the active versions, and the auto power-on is brilliant.

[Ynot]

The EMS51 boxes look great, but I can't find a price anywhere; whats the rough cost? (Feel free to PM me if more appropriate).

I believe the deal we got was around £240 each plus VAT & carriage a little over 12 months ago.

[Bobbsy]

It's many years since I used them but Canford used to do an "own brand" equivalent to JBL Control 1 speakers that sold a lot cheaper and, if anything, sounded better. We had tons of them in a TV facility I used to work at.

[sunray]

It's many years since I used them but Canford used to do an own brand equivalent to JBL Control 1 speakers that sold a lot cheaper and, if anything, sounded better.  We had tons of them in a TV facility I used to work at.

We definately preferred the Canford for for speech in hard rooms and of course were cheaper. They did withdraw them at one point but they must have come back as I've seen them a few times in recent installations.

[Doug Siddons]

HZ sound systems Sigma 100's are worth a look at as good Bose alternative

[J Pearce]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. As it happens, following some significant investment another end of the university have some Ci80s and epacs that aren't being used often, so the issue seems to have solved itself in a rather higher end way than I might have otherwise managed. Might still get something like the achat 104s as a smaller backup for building into set, as the Ci80s are a little bigger and heavier than I'd like for that purpose.

[Malcolm Gordon]

It's many years since I used them but Canford used to do an own brand equivalent to JBL Control 1 speakers that sold a lot cheaper and, if anything, sounded better.  We had tons of them in a TV facility I used to work at.

We definately preferred the Canford for for speech in hard rooms and of course were cheaper. They did withdraw them at one point but they must have come back as I've seen them a few times in recent installations.

You may be thinking of their "Diecast" speaker range, BA100 and BA400. These are available now only as powered speakers, the passive range having been discontinued ("no longer manufactured"), although I was very pleased to obtain a replacement LF driver for a BA400 recently. The speaker had dropped from a height and the weight of the magnet was sufficient to distort the basket, leading to very scratchy output, but the casing was undamaged.

[sunray]

It's many years since I used them but Canford used to do an own brand equivalent to JBL Control 1 speakers that sold a lot cheaper and, if anything, sounded better.  We had tons of them in a TV facility I used to work at.

We definately preferred the Canford for for speech in hard rooms and of course were cheaper. They did withdraw them at one point but they must have come back as I've seen them a few times in recent installations.

You may be thinking of their "Diecast" speaker range, BA100 and BA400. These are available now only as powered speakers, the passive range having been discontinued , although I was very pleased to obtain a replacement LF driver for a BA400 recently. The speaker had dropped from a height and the weight of the magnet was sufficient to distort the basket, leading to very scratchy output, but the casing was undamaged.

Yeah I know the lovely passive diecast BA100's have gone, they were really handy in some situations. I don't think I have ever been aware of the 400 being used but I think they are the same size and look so who knows?

The drivers are available as spares from canford but I think we used to source them elsewhere.

I'm guessing it was around the turn of the century we quoted to supply and fit loads [order of 40 to 50] of the Canford version of the Control 1's on a job and ended up taking a hit on the price as they were 'no longer available', worse bit was getting the change past the a***h**e of a consultant. I have seen them used in more recent installations and assume they are back in circulation.