PA Opinions - Anybody own/use EV Force i cabs?

[mike257]

Afternoon all!

Having finally convinced the function band I play with that it's time to replace their creaky and underpowered PA, I'm shopping around for the new rig. Have been offered what looks like a decent deal on a set of EV Force i tops and subs which I'm leaning towards taking.

The one thing with PA shopping is there's very little in the way of real-world reviews out there, even on gear forums, so it's hard to pick up first hand feedback. I'm aware they're entry level by EV standards, but they're a considerable step up from our current comedy rig and on paper should be great for us.

I'm wondering if any of BC's finest have used these cabs and want to share their thoughts....

Cheers!

Mike

[crez5150]

Mike Whats your budget? The Force series is now obsolete so think about that when buying a rig

[mike257]

Cheers mate,

I'm aware the Force is discontinued - we're buying used so we can get a bit more bang for our buck. Need cabs and amps for a 5 piece (Drums, Bass, Keys, 2x Guitars, 2x Vox) function band - we find ourselves in venues of various sizes so ideally I'd like something that can grow to fill the space we need and take the whole band miked up, but without carting the whole lot out for a smaller room - the 2x15 tops in the Force rig seem like they'd be ok on their own for smaller rooms where they'd just carry vocals and keys.

I've been offered a pair of the Force i25, four Force i subs and the amps and crossover to run it all for a little over a grand, which seems reasonable to me. With buying used, I'm tied to what's on the market at the time and we need something sooner rather than later.

Any alternative suggestions you think will do the job will be gratefully accepted though!

Edited April 15, 2013 by mike257

[bertbass]

We use a pair of EV Force 1x12 + horn cabs for foldback. Work well and reasonably light, but quite directional and I think one of the horns might be on the way out. I don't think you'll far wrong with that setup.

[mike257]

Cheers Bert!

Think we're going to go for it - I can't find any negative feedback on this gear anywhere and at worst I should be able to move it on again without any significant loss.

Time to put my haggling hat on!

[JTUK]

Can you hear it first.....?

That is a lot of cabs..literally...for the money.
Depends on what you have to put through it.
If you are going to put the kit through it, you'll need subs, IMO but there are subs and subs...as with anything else.
If that rig sounds decent then it could be a good buy...but I'd certainly want to hear it working loud..

[mike257]

I'm going to hear it, although not until I've driven a couple of hours. It's not local which is I why I was keen for feedback online first.

There's four subs and some seriously chunky power amps involved so it should certainly have the grunt for putting kit through it.

Part of the appeal to me is that its a lot of cabs - I can scale the system up or down to suit the room as we won't always need to mic everything.

I'm off to see it/pick it up next weekend anyway so I'll let you know soon enough!

[mike257]

Well, had our first gig out with the new rig tonight. Took the tops and one pair of subs. Stuck two vocals, keyboard, bass and kick drum in there. The difference in power and clarity was stunning and we were barely pushing half way into what its capable of. It'll take a few more gigs and some tweaking to get the measure of it but on first impressions I'm made up!

[mike257]

Quick update to this in case anybody is ever searching for feedback on this gear. Been used for 20-30 gigs since my last post and on the whole I'm really happy with it. Ended up getting a Yamaha 01V mixer for an absurdly low price too - it's old tech now, and not the greatest sounding but for under £200 it was head and shoulders above anything else I could get hold of cheaply and I've got a preset mix stored that now only takes the bare minimum of tweaking to suit the room we're in at soundcheck.

The EV Force cabs are still working reliably and sound great. I do feel like the subs are lacking in a little 'oomph' but I only take two out for space/practicality reasons. If I was putting a big rock gig on I'd run all four but in reality it's probably plenty for most wedding/function venues with the two. Came with a pair of Cerwin Vega CV-2800 power amps and a cheap'n'cheerful active crossover. I'm running the 2x15 tops in stereo with one amp, and the second amp split to feed a mono-sum sub signal (crossed over at 100Hz) from one side and a wedge for the drummer from the other. I think the amps will be the first thing to be upgraded as they're back-breakingly heavy and our 12u rack is a monster lift because of them.

Really pleased with what we got - the whole system (cabs, amps, mixer & case, rack, cables, bits to make patch panel etc) came in at around £1500 so think it's proof that you can achieve really good results on a tight budget. We regularly mic the whole band (kit, bass, 2x guitar, keys, 3x vocals) and the sound is great, especially when we've got a big room to put it to work in. The amp rack connections are all on a patch panel and everything is labelled with all cables stored in a rack drawer so I can have the whole rig up and making noise in around five mins flat, and the none-techy band members can do it almost as quick too!

[Handwired]

The subs are running a little low on power as you have it, the general rule is to double the rms wattage, the subs are 350w rms each, ran in parallel makes 700w rms at 4ohms which means the amp needs to deliver 1400w rms into them to give enough clean headroom, the CV-2800 delivers 900w rms per channel into 4 ohms. Oh and make sure the amps are wound fully up.