Best PA system for Begineer DJ doing small house partys
Hey
Ive just started Djing recently and have a Traktor Kontrol s4. At the moment im just using computer speakers which sounds terrible. Im looking to get a PA system which i could use when mixing at home but also at house partys. I have a budget of about £200. What ones would u guys recommend?
Cheers
That’s a very low budget. You need to look around your local Craiglist (or eBay) or something similar for someone selling their older gear cheaply. Now, house parties seldom need more than 300W, could even get by without a sub-woofer, so you could look at some intro level PA offerings.
I have a Samson Expedition 308i that I purchased for a bargain as a setup for garage practices with bands, that would work well. However, I doubt you could get one for <$400. So look for 2x150W or so PA deals.
Do not purchase a KRK or similar self-powered reference monitors as your PA. They might work for a while but reference monitors are not designed for constant moving around and constantly playing at full blast. Plus they are very delicate so they could get destroyed by someone poking in a beer bottle into them or something similar.
Guitar amps, even keyboard amps, don’t really sound that good for DJ purposes. They have an in-built eq either suppressing or pushing mid-range so things don’t sound nice for wide spectrum sound playback. And most likely you won’t even have any low-end.
Home stereo systems are OK but they are neither designed for carrying around, setup/teardown situations. Something will break at some point.
Just pointing out why PA gear is designed in a certain way.
PS: Borrow or rent someone’s nice PA for the first gigs and put out a box with a sign ‘please donate for a PA.’ If you do a nice night you might easily get a down payment for a nice system.
PSS: Long term, unless you want to become a mobile DJ, there’s really no need to invest a lot of money in a DJ PA system…
Go for a set of Active PA Speakers. We do some 12" 200w RMS/400w Peak each in a pair for £219, also some smaller 1’s that’s a little too big.
Active DJ Speakers
Apologies mods if you can post links (not sure if it’s allowed).
Mackie thumps, amazing speakers, good budget price.
Thanks for your advice guys. Ive scalled it down to a few options. And wonder what everyone thinks would be best?
http://www.djs-only.co.uk/product/qtxsound-qr8a-active-abs-speakers
As I said, you will just destroy a nice set of reference monitors if you drag them around.
You can’t really compare those 2 models. The QR8A are PA Speakers and will probably do around a medium sized hall of around 80 people, where as the Alesis are Studio Monitors and whilst the clarity will be amazing comapred to the others, the volume won’t compete at all.
Note some of those are passive speakers so you would have to buy an amplifier as well.
None of those.
I recommend this:
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A) If you play electro you are going to want some sort of sub. Otherwise it will sound like shit.
B) Anything “pro” in your price range (and by pro I mean, they call it pro but it’s not and it sucks) is shit. Get those, use them, your party will be happy, everything will sound clear. Then, save up your money and build a proper sound system for gigging if you are doing parties any bigger than 50 people in a space bigger than 10x20ft (3.5x6.5 meters, roughly for you guys across the pond) and like to play at full war levels. Anything else is just throwing money away.
c) Studio monitors will not get anywhere near loud enough unless you had KRKRockit 6/8’s and a sub, and that will run you close to a grand. Plus studio monitors have way to flat of frequency response for any casual listener.
Harbinger HA60s - $200 US, and loud + sound great for what they are/price
sold those when i needed an upgrade to my new speakers – Behringer B215Ds (550w peak active speakers – paid $700ish for both) and i love em 
I’m glad someone thinks HA60 60W PA is loud. Means there’s hope for the younger generation not to drown in massive wall of dBs…
You think spl of under 90db at 1m is “loud”?
No. I put a Rajun Cajun into my 15W tube Fender guitar amp, 10", 105SPL! That’s loud.
But yes, you are right, the SPL values are more interesting than raw wattage. Especially as the loudspeakers will do most of the work, if they are very efficient (like the Ragin Cajun ones), you get more loudness.
for an intro PA system (small houseparties/bedroom mixing). Yes they are loud in that context. Enough for what the OP was asking for.
loud but they probably sound like rusty farts. Gemini equipment is best used for an expensive paperweight.
I’d honestly say keep using a computer sound system, a 2.1 or more with a sub for as long as you need until you can save up for a decent starting system. A B-52 Matrix 1000 v2 or Mackie Thumps are generally thrown around as the best beginner sets of speakers to go with (the b-52’s having a sub from the start, the thumps you can add later, and both are active speakers so you wouldn’t need an additional amp).
That being said, DJing as a whole IS NOT CHEAP. Really. Equipment is expensive.
DIY
http://billfitzmaurice.info/index.html
+http://www.parts-express.com/
i would suggest http://www.thomann.de/gb/ld_systems_dave_8_xs.htm - that will be enough for small house parties and can easily be extended. previous posters already mentioned the http://www.thomann.de/gb/mackie_thump_th_12a.htm - two of these would be a good start for larger audiences and you can add an active sub later on.