Mackie Srm 450 or Eon g2 ?

[djw1981]

I would have to say that in my experience, the Mackie SRM450's are a fantastic speaker. My experience with JBL is not as great, but I have had problems getting a 'nice' sound out of them. I find the mackies to be a warm sound, and very user friendly, from their 'lightweight' construction to their coverage. They are less processed than more upmarket speakers, but for small scale events where a lot of Sub is not needed, they are ideal.

[Rob_Beech]

THis won't help anybody . JBL = junk but loud , buy Mackie . But if working to a budget but Behringer .

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I do hope you are only refering to the eon's here. I wouldn't class Vertec as junk......

I'd class it as loud....

I wouldn't class JBL as junk at all...... I'm not a fan of the eons.... actually I hate them with a passion due to bad experiences with them. I feel overall alot of the products are a little over priced, but I woudln't call it junk.

 

 

 

Rob

[Scouse Dave]

THis won't help anybody . JBL = junk but loud , buy Mackie . But if working to a budget but Behringer .

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Alternatively:

 

M id

A ttack

C ould

K ill

I nnocent

E ars

? ??

 

(DISCLAIMER - FOR HUMOUR ONLY)

 

The Vertec seems to be pulling JBL out of thehole they seem to have gotten themselves into in the past, but the stigma of products gone by still clings like old gaffa to a mic lead...

 

Dave M

[Simon Lewis]

THis won't help anybody . JBL = junk but loud , buy Mackie . But if working to a budget but Behringer .

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mmmmmmmmmmm.............

 

JBL make a wide range of products, covering car audio to high end professional sound reinforcement.

 

Whereas many may have their own opinion about specific products or market areas, to give the blanket statement given above isn't too helpful.

 

If your comment refers to the specific discussion here, I have found the JBL box to be reliable with a a bright horn voicing. The low frequencies are somewhat pronounced, and need attenuating for voice reproduction. Unsuprisingly, the EON works fine for music reproduction (it has its own "disco smile" EQ curve!).

 

The Mackie does sound different - although I must admit I;ve used them only with teh companion 18" powered sub. Again, mid - highs were articulate and bright.

 

From an aesthetic and offered features viewpoint, I favour the Mackie, but I'm happy to use EONs if that's what is available.

 

Simon

[BlueShift]

I think the mackies sound nicer - they have a smoother low end, although they dont go quite as low as the JBL's. I also think they are better balanced speakers - their whole response is flatter, unlike the JBL's which tend to be a bit spikey, particularly in the mids.

 

I also think the mackie's are built better, and their cab design lends them to be more unobtrusive both on stands and as wedges

 

So id be buying the mackies

 

Cheeers

[J Pearce]

I have used the JBL EONS at college and have had a brief experience with the mackie SRM450s, (when my mate was engineering for a gig and I was a punter).

 

The EONS make a pleasant sound, but I found their response very spikey which caused some feedback problems. Their bass is also very disco-ey, fine until 120Hz big boom around 80-90Hz and nothing below that. We use them mainly for vocals and sound effects at college, using external gear for bands etc.

 

The mackies make a very good sound but if they are laid on their side their heatsinks seem to give up, and the thermal cut kicks in a lot earlier than if they were upright.

[mal421]

:) It seems that some of you like JBL's why ? Yes they do make a whole range of products but what mental goliath thought moulding the drivers into the cabinet was a good idea ? Also I have replaced a lot of blown JBL drivers with eminence units because they sound better and cost less and eminence give rms ratings which is more than JBL do !!! But hey each to his or her own . Personally I am no fan of plastic cabs give me 18mm of ply anyday but , the Mackie SRM450 is the best of the bunch . Just to get the juices flowing has anybody tried the Alto PL4 H's almost as good as a Mackie and £300 cheaper ?

[Bad_Rock]

Hey guys thanks for your help. I bought a couple of Mackies and I compared them with the Eons. The Jbl's were a bit louder to me but they have a 15" woofer rather than a 12" of the macks

[Simon Lewis]

eminence give rms ratings which is more than JBL do !!!

 

Probably because

 

a) Watts rms is actually a misnomer - you cannot have "rms" Watts

 

b) even if you accept the widespread use of the term, it describes the loudspeaker's ability to withstand the heating effect of the applied sine wave. This is not representative of the actual music signal (unless you listen to some very strange music!). Therefore the rating is not that useful.

 

c) the AES rating is a better indication of true power handling

 

d) power compression generally scuppers the rms ratings anyway :-)

[Rob_Beech]

c) the AES rating is a better indication of true power handling

 

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Agreed, its far more accurate. FANE always used to quote in AES, the Colossus 18xb was 600watts AES. Which reminds me I have one of those needing a recone.

 

The Jbl's were a bit louder to me but they have a 15" woofer rather than a 12" of the macks

 

You'll move more air that way but I've always been a fan of 12's for vocals as oposed to 15's. it all depends on your application.

Personally I'd say you've made the right choice. But thats just my opinion based on experience with both of the cabs. I may be biased, I work with a lot of vocal heavy program material (choirs, 4 and 5 part harmonies etc) so naturally favour a 12 above a 15). A 15 would really need something like a 6 with it before a 1 inch horn to get a clear vocal sound. although I'd still go with the 12 (with or without a mid range driver) My W8's are twin 12 6.5 and 1 configuration. But, a completly different setup to whats being discussed here.

 

Rob

[mal421]

I agree AES is a better . But until the whole world standardises I will continue with rms . As I understand amplifiers are non linear so most of the numbers apply to specific conditions only . So there must be an element of guesswork when deciding which drivers to put with which amplifier . Our big problem in live sound is getting plenty of headroom and when some moron of a vocalist decides to scream so loud that even the limiters give up it's bye bye compression drivers regardless of whether they are rated in rms or AES . Perhaps we should start a new thread regarding the power rating of loudspeakers especially when you get more than one power rating for the same driver e.g . rms , program and peak . Surely if you give a peak rating , which to me implies absolute maximum never to be exceded then one must give a duration ? Maybe I should have paid more attention at college ?

[Simon Lewis]

Maybe I should have paid more attention at college ?

 

 

Possibly ;-)

 

The reason it's hard to pin down power rating is that there are several failure modes, and these are different for cone drivers and HF drivers.

 

Failures occur due to physical damage (exceeding Xmax, jumping the gap, misalignment causing rubbing, glue failures, lead out wire failure etc.). and thermal damage (coil varnish boiled off, copper melted, VC former burnt etc.).

 

The LF driver can handle short term thermal stress better than a compression driver (so can therefore take brief overloads), whereas the comp driver voice coil would probably melt almost instantaneously.

 

Distortion (amongst other things) "increases the area under the curve" compared with a sine wave, thus the average power is much greater. A clipped signal is quite likely to take an HF unit out.

 

Given some of these factors, it's easy to see why deriving accurate power handling figures can be hard to achieve.

 

Simon

[Bad_Rock]

Hey sorry for bringing this back but yesterday I had my chance to compare my new Mackies with the Eon G2. And honestly the Eons are a lot better.

I feel a bit sad about it.

The difference in price wasn't much but there was a better financial plan with the Mackies. Also I found later that the Mackies were asian made.

 

Don't misunderstand me they are great boxes anyway but I shoulded pick the G2's.

I also shoulded listen to Ben when he suggested me to go Behringer when it was just for a simple task.

 

Ok just wanted to speak the truth openly even when I messed it up. The G2 got a lot more bass and are lot louder.

 

Thanks to everyone that helped me! I hope not to be so immature the next time when it comes to mix a financial with an emotional decision.

 

Cheers!

[BlueShift]

Your right, the eons are louder and do have more bass - but they dont sound as good. I mean the mackies are sonically better - they have a smoother, cleaner response despite not going as loud or as low.

 

quality before quantity...

[Bad_Rock]

Hey thanks for encouraging me. Probably next time I will pay more attention to that. Maybe I didn't make the wrong choice so.

:)