Cheap, Loud, and Awesome Speakers
Just moved to a college town. Most bars/“clubs” here do not have adequate sound systems. Need to invest in some cheap speakers. Any suggestions out there?
Watch craigslist like a hawk. I just landed two TP1200 for 1/2 price.
mackie tapco thumps.
I have nothing but praise for QSC powered speakers. I have the HPR’s and get nonstop compliments on them. There’s only a few complaints, but they tend to come from the apartments behind the lounge I play at. =)
cheap - loud - awesome
pick any two!
QSCs are amazing, but far from cheap :0).
I hear a lot about Mackie Thumps.
http://www.alesis.com/monitoronemkii
10/10. Had them for a while now, they are really cheap, fucking loud and sound very very good. They have an amazing balance to them.
Seriously reccomend them!
Good stuff guys. Appreciate it.
I hear a lot about the thumps as well. What model is it?
+1
In general, you will get better results with dedicated subs and tops. I recommend that you begin with a 2:1 ratio of subs:tops. By that, I mean that the cabinet volume (e.g. size) of the subs is at least 2x the size of the tops. That ratio will help provide a balanced sound for most “Top 40” style music. If you are into DnB or similar EDM genres, you may want to consider a 4:1 ratio.
For tops, 10" or 12" woofers are preferred. This will give better mid range response, better clarity, and better horizontal dispersion than a 15" top. In addition, once you have subs, a 15" loaded top is 50% larger and heavier than needed to produce >100Hz content. For subs, 15" direct radiators are a good compromise for mobile setups.
I’m just assuming that you mean PA speakers rather than desktop monitors.
I’d definitely get something powered or active (they mean the same thing if you didn’t know). If you go the route of powering all of your speakers with amps, there’s more research involved, more parts and pieces that can crap out, and generally more money and headaches. Active speakers are an all-in-one solution that you can run a single XLR from the board and get great balanced sound.
how big is the bar? if it’s a 200-person joint, I’d say three 12" speakers at 300-500 watts mounted in the corners will be plenty. if we’re talking about a 1000 person club with a dance floor, you might want to get 15" 1000W speakers and a couple sub-woofers.
biggest thing i can stress is that you don’t want to be TOO cheap. if you do, you’ll spend more replacing these speakers along the way than you would have by spending a few extra $$ from the get go.
+1
these things rock and they are made by the same engineers as mackie. about $700 a pair for 15". perfect
By the time you have $700…wait until you have $800 and get a B52 Matrix 1000 v2 system. That has a dedicated sub and two tops…and for the $ can’t be beaten in terms of boom / $.
I’ll prolly get famed for this tho. . all opinionated as it may be. . . .
Behringers (higher end models). I have a fairly basic pair, Eurolive B215A, but they have not failed me in ANY situation. Pretty well priced.
I’ve had mine for 2+ years, and nothing wrong with em. Crispy highs, good bottom end. If you want more of a bottom end, I’d say go with the Mackies or Tapco.
If you got the loot though, JBL EON’s or Cerwin Vegas.
“let the flames consume me”
+1 . . Tried these babies out over the summer. . .great system!
I’ve seen the Eon’s on sale recently.
ive used jbl eon 15’s a few times and they PUMP.. great for a medium sized room.. go the 12’s for a smaller room.
I’ve got the first gen EON 15s and they have some serious problems getting those really low frequencies, you really need a separate sub with them. Other than that they work fine and you can probably find them for cheapish if you look around long enough.
So would you guys say the thumps will work for a 100 people room?
for 100ppl don’t think you’d want ANY pair of tops doing a party for 100ppl, although I have the mackie thumps and they can do 100, the amount you need to push em to be loud enough, really makes the highs over power the lows, and then you end up with too much of an imbalance between highs and lows. If you’re going to do over 80 ppl rent a subwoofer to help with the low end.