Electrovoice ZXA1

[Simon Lewis]

Can anyone share their experience of the powered 8" ZX1? Any idea how it stacks up against the equivalent Turbosound iQ box?

[J Pearce]

I had some at a previous job. Punchy, great vocal quality. Nicely packaged and easy to use. Wants a sub for any real sense of bass extension (we used the SBa760, but I think that's discontinued now).

Not heard the equivalent iQ so can't provide a comparison.

[Simon Lewis]

Thanks, Jon.... seems that there's something newer coming, so the ZXA1s are being sold at quite a reasonable price right now... 🙂

 

[J Pearce]

That would make sense. The sets I bought were purchased in 2010. For basic speakers-on-sticks deployment they're a good solution. I used them for playback, speeches, vocal amplification, stage foldback, and outfills to a larger system - and had no complaints or issues with them. They're not a d&b Y10 or an EM Acoustics R8, but they also cost a lot less and have the amps onboard.

[revbobuk]

I've used them (in the white finish) for Church installs, and I think they do that job really well. I like the choice of tweeter angles, and the good mounting options. Very first one I ordered arrived with a cracked horn - quite a lot of weight in the magnet assembly. And they look nice!

[Stuart91]

4 hours ago, revbobuk said:

Very first one I ordered arrived with a cracked horn - quite a lot of weight in the magnet assembly. 

We bought a batch of passive ZX1s when the model first came out, and the horns were cracked on most of them. They didn't seem to survive clumsy couriers. They were all replaced under warranty (and I was able to buy them back from a clearance sell-off a few weeks later, at a hefty discount!)

Our solution was to wrap fibreglass around the horn to strengthen it, and add some hard foam behind to provide a bit of support for the magnet. The cabinets survived quite happily for many years after that.

I think later revisions of the model were built a bit more sturdily from the get-go. 

 

[James]

Another fan of the (passive) ZX1 here - have a number and have used them over subs for FOH (either SB121 or the ZX1-sub) and by themselves for speech only conference, foldback, front fills etc..  

[Simon Lewis]

(belated) thanks for the responses to this question....

In the end, I didn't need extra speakers for a particular job, but good to know that the ZX1 would have been a good contender.