bonzodog Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 In previous bands and my solo career i have always used passive systems. Mixer into power amp into passive speakers. Current band is now doing rather well and up to now we have either played venues with an in house PA or hired one with a sound engineer. We are now taking on a few smaller pub gigs so need to invest in a PA. I am considering going active as i like the thought of just a small mixer and a pair of powered speakers probably about 500w each. The benefit we will probably buy three and use one as a monitor and then also becomes a spare if one dies. Has anyone got any views on active or passive pros and cons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Passive, always passive. I play almost entirely in pubs where issues like power, cables and space are important. Three powered cabs is three more things needing power sockets, three more cables trailing across a tight space, and a huge increase in weight to be lifted onto PA poles. I have a rack containing a power distribution board (so a single 13A plug does everything) feeding the mixer, a feedback destroyer, and a power amp. XLRs go in, speaker cables come out. Simples. It's all modular so each component can be upgraded as needed. The power amp is a 4-channel unit with independent volume controls. Two channels for the tops, one for the drummer's foldback, and one spare for me to use in emergency should my bass rig die on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger2611 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Passive, I totally agree with the above post regarding power cables and weight on speaker poles, I am also not overly convinced with the sound and quality of active speakers, I see loads of faulty ones for sale on Evilbay and I have yet to hear active speakers that have impressed me. My brother uses an active Opera speaker set up with his band, it was the best part of £1200 and the sound really doesn't impress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crez5150 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 To give you a bit of insight into whats popular.... I work for EV/Dynacord here in the UK. I'd say at least 75% of the sales we have are for Active/Powered speakers. Passive generally is still used for bigger set ups (club systems/small tour type system) but we are seeing more and more more powerful boxes in the Active market. With regards to the above posts.... Active speakers today weigh little more than their passive twins... You may see more faulty units around than Passive as there are more things to go wrong in an active cabinet..... you see plenty of of faulty amplifiers up for sale if you look. There is little difference between sound quality between the two types as most use the same components... Generally with Passive systems there are other things that cause a difference in sound... be that the type of cable used between the amp and cab, the type of amplifier and gain staging between all these different stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 We use active and they work very well. Rated 1000w per box and they put the sound out there and we can load them with keys.... which are a pretty meaty signal, gtr bleed and maybe a kicj and O/H. Handle it all and we always sound good until we cook the mix when we get to the end of the second set.. Glad we went active as our c-audio amps weighed a ton and we had nowhere near the 2000w ( potentially, ) two QSC cabs say they put out. Since all our gear travels in cars, this is our best compromise set up, but the only thing we used that was comparable sound-wise was Martin tops (410's) and the heavy grunting power amps. So, active for me as just so practical...for the buck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkpegasus4001 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 I use passive, basically a Yamaha 1000w powered mixer and two Wharfedale passive speakers plus a Wharfedale powered monitor running from the front of the mixer. It works fine for pubs and clubs with more than enough power for a rock band. My mate uses Active speakers for his solo work and he swears by them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monckyman Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 hybrid for me though I would prefer all passive. if you blow either an amp or cone during a show, you're stuck with half an active system,with passive you can always carry another amp and spare top. I have active mackie 15" tops at 500w per side and passive PD 15" loaded/turbosound copy subs at 600 powered by a QSC amp. it all goes through a DBX Driverack P.A speaker management/crossover box and is all limited and balanced in there. I have 4 passive Beyma 12" speakers currently in use as stage monitors that id like to stick in top boxes as they sound great as tops. Ill run them from a 500watt pulse amp or swap for the QSC, whatever works. Point being all passive will let me run the 4 boxes via 2 NL4 speakons with link outs to the tops so less cables, tidier, two sockets on the back of the amp rack and done. the Beymas will be considerably lighter also but Ill have another rack amp. in an emergency, I can run a passive system in mono,2x tops(8ohms) into 4ohms on one side of one amp, or run the subs in mono also,so one good stereo amp will power the tops and subs if I lose an amp. Passive is just a little more flexible. Active is just a little bit more convenient but less versatile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzodog Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 [quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1392468283' post='2369079'] To give you a bit of insight into whats popular.... I work for EV/Dynacord here in the UK. I'd say at least 75% of the sales we have are for Active/Powered speakers. Passive generally is still used for bigger set ups (club systems/small tour type system) but we are seeing more and more more powerful boxes in the Active market. With regards to the above posts.... Active speakers today weigh little more than their passive twins... You may see more faulty units around than Passive as there are more things to go wrong in an active cabinet..... you see plenty of of faulty amplifiers up for sale if you look. There is little difference between sound quality between the two types as most use the same components... Generally with Passive systems there are other things that cause a difference in sound... be that the type of cable used between the amp and cab, the type of amplifier and gain staging between all these different stages. [/quote] My last passive PA was EV speakers and i loved the sound. Had the sx tops and sb122 bottoms so if i did go active i would look at EVs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr zed Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 [quote name='bonzodog' timestamp='1392501162' post='2369540'] My last passive PA was EV speakers and i loved the sound. Had the sx tops and sb122 bottoms so if i did go active i would look at EVs [/quote] We invested heavily in a quality active set-up about 10 years ago. EV SXA 360 tops & SBA 760 subs. Bought covers for them. They still look, sound and perform as they did when new. Perfect. Our monitors are passive with 3 x EV SX100+ and a ships anchor of a power amp in the rack. If I could justify the extra outlay, these would also be active. Actually, scratch that, I'd get rid of the monitors all together and equip everyone with in-ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 For the pub gigs my bands are doing, an active system suits me. Tiny Behringer Xenyx 1002B mixer, pair of Mackie SRM450s (which are lighter than some passive speakers I've lifted onto poles), Wharfedale active monitor and extension, and sufficient intelligence to be able to work out the best routing for the power leads (in fact, my intelligence is vastly over-specified for that). I wouldn't say that either active or passive offers a clear advantage, or, indeed, clear disadvantage. When I had a passive system with a mixer/amp, the mixer/amp power supply blew up. I would think that even the most passionate passive advocate wouldn't see this as a recoverable situation. With my current system, if the mixer fails, I can feed a mic straight into a Mackie, and if a Mackie fails, we just use the other one, so it's not an entirely unresilient system. I wouldn't actually object to a passive system with separate mixer and power amp, but it's more boxes to carry and store, and it's my PA, so it's my priorities that count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 One ancillary advantage of active speakers is that they're great to use outside at home in the summer. Just plug an iPod into a powered wedge or top and instant music without the need to set up mixers, amps etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandad Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Happy Jack makes a good point, i.e. cables. It was usually up to me to plug everything in correctly & route safely. If you include foldback monitors it can be a bit of a nightmare where space is limited. My preference was for our passive rig: Yamaha EMX powered mixer, (carried a spare but never needed it over several years) + EV SX300 speakers. I would put the powered Studiomaster PAX12 wedges on the left & right & the passive extensions centre-stage in an effort to keep the mains extension lead runs as short as possible. Cables were taped to the floor at vunerable points. I do use a pair of active EV SXA100+ for my step-daughters disco where the cable count is negligible. Bandwise, passive gets my vote for anything more than a trio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 we have just found the need for a new desk , so took the opportunity of having a good think of the set up we wanted , and have gone active , overall our kit is smaller, lighter, louder, with more sound options, we went with new EV tops and second hand powered monitors , I will grant that the extra cabling is an extra 5mins set up/breakdown , but not an issue really as we can daisy chain the power from the lights. Overall the sound has been recieved well as a noticeable improvement . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckstop Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I prefer passive purely because I don't like having extension leads and crap all over the place. Truckstop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I guess the crap is still there , you just have fewer extension leads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I prefer passive for the reasons above, PLUS... If the amp fails in an active speaker you lose the use of both speaker and amp. Its a lot easier and cheaper to carry around a spare amplifier than a spare active speaker. I have a class D Behringer iNuke as a spare. It serves a as a backup bass amp, backup PA amp (front and monitors) and, at a push a spare guitar amp (our guitarist brings a Line6 pod to gigs just in case). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adee Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Active all the way ! we use DB Opera 2 x Tops and 2 x Subs but was also have 2 more identical tops that we use as floor monitors, this is our insurance policy if a top fails then a monitor replaces it, if a Sub fails then we still have one, if both subs fail we still have tops so still OK it .... we would have to be very VERY unlucky to have enough speakers fail to stop us (fingers crossed) this setup is driven quite hard about 50 gigs a year for 3 years so far without problems - FYI we use 4 x DB Opera Live 405's and 2 x Sub 15D's thru a Yamaha MG16/6FX desk ...... works a treat ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) The biggest advantage of active cabs is the space saving when it comes to transporting racked up amps to make the passive cabs work. To be honest, the issues of plugs is a bit of a non issue in reality. Get some of these - [url="http://www.lindy.co.uk/cables-adapters-c1/power-c136/iec-mains-cables-c137/20m-mains-power-lead-uk-3-pin-plug-black-p4564"]http://www.lindy.co....lug-black-p4564[/url] and either zip tie an xlr to it or if you really want a pro job, cable braid the whole lot. Y cable off for any lights or other electrical items you need to power. All this talk of multiple mains leads everywhere is nonesense - it's all down to a bit of planning; right cables for the right jobs. For example, in my function bands, all the power is run off a line of plugs behind the band. Any power going forward is done from long leads. No power sockets for the audience to be near and all the power sockets are in one place, as you would expect with a passive setup. Simple... and you haven't got external amps to lug about. Active power cabs really are very useful - no worrying about minium loads on the amps, just keep on daisy chaining away... We also carry a stack of XLR cables. Having not to worry about dedicated speaker cables means that we have a load of redundancy against duff cables. Just a different view really - not saying there is a wrong or a right, but the power lead thing really isn't a reason to stop you using active. We've got two power lines going forward to the subs - everything is Yed of from there. Edited February 17, 2014 by EBS_freak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Had an active Mackie system for some years and would never use passive again. Had to sell it a few years ago after back problems basically finished my playing career, but would probably still have it today otherwise. Have to say I don't recognise the cabling issues some are talking about - mine was a doddle to set up, great sound and plenty of power. It went to a certain Mr. Flyfisher of this parish as I recall - how's it sounding these days mate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapbassSteve Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I've used the same pair of Mackie SRM450 V1 speakers since I got into the business four years ago. I would absolutely swear by the sound for the music/venues I play, compared to passive systems I've tried. They've never let me down in any way in all this time too, only damage they've ever incurred was when the previous owner(singer in my last band)'s cat pee'd on one of them between gigs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstriper Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Active Mackies for us - compact, lightweight, easy set up, reliable, versatile and they sound great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 So a clear picture has emerged. Some people like passive. And some people like active. I'm glad we got that cleared up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crez5150 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 There is no right or wrong..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1392649733' post='2371046'] So a clear picture has emerged. Some people like passive. And some people like active. I'm glad we got that cleared up. [/quote] ...or the other way round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Next up - Ps or Js ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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