Active PA Cabs, What have you got and are they any good?

[Chienmortbb]

Before I start, I am not talking about flown line arrays here,

 

I was once involved in pro audio at a Manufacturer however, even with a good understanding of Electronics and an enthusiastic amateur's knowledge of speakers, active speakers are puzzling.

 

A good name 12 could cost you upwards of £1000 (RCF, QSC etc) yet you can get some equipped with DSP for £150. The stick on a sub are quite popular and seem good value, BUT the sound of most lacks a lot in the mids and many are Bose sorry Bass heavy.

 

There are some good sounding cheap ones, but reliability lets them down. Take the Music Group offerings, the higher end Behringers seem fairly good but seem to have poor reliability. From the sma group you have the mid-priced Turbosound Milan series, but has this name been compromised since Herr Uli gained control? Has Samsung's acquisition of Harman affected JBL?

 

Two other brands, Engineered in the UK, HH and Wharfedale Pro seem to get little attention both the Titans and the HH Tensors have given a good account of themselves when I have heard them but are not available everywhere. The uprated Typhon from Wharfedale are hard to find.

 

So no rules here, but just tell us what you have and why you like them, or not.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Chienmortbb

[Acebassmusic]

I depped for a local band last weekend who used some QSC active tops (10") and a single daisychained powered sub. Both volume, clarity and tone were good. I'll try and check on the models as I know they are at least 12 years old. 12+ years of regular use with no issues indicates good design and value.

[Acebassmusic]

OK, found out the tops are early versions of the new QSC Audio K10.2 which are about £750 each at the moment. Not cheap but work that over the number of gigs you could do in 12+ years and (for me) they would pay for themselves.

[Chienmortbb]

2 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

OK, found out the tops are early versions of the new QSC Audio K10.2 which are about £750 each at the moment. Not cheap but work that over the number of gigs you could do in 12+ years and (for me) they would pay for themselves.

Good info. Thanks.

[Chienmortbb]

Just out of interest, I have Wharfedale Titan 12 Actives as my active cabs.

[warwickhunt]

If it is current/present use then I've just moved from RCF 310s to QSC K10s (mk I).  They are used singly as my personal monitor in a loud band and/or as a single/pair in a much quieter 'acoustic' duo (vocals and guitar through them).  The RCFs were great little cabs that punched above their weight and were drafted in a few times to supplement a larger PA with RCF 15s.  The move to QSC was as a result of the potential that they would be my only reference for bass + band mix.  Despite the wattage difference being 350w (RCF) up to 1000w (QSC), there was very little real world difference in perceived volume but the QSCs were all round a more 'musical' tone, especially if you put the 2 side by side and played prog music through them.  

 

 

[Chienmortbb]

1 hour ago, warwickhunt said:

played prog music through them.

Yes rather than Rush hopefully? Seriously though in my experience, the right music tracks tell as much about a speaker as anything else. Mind you it should be music produced before everything was compressed to funk.  I find Sade classics reveal a lot and I know @stevie puts various sources through his cabs before finalising a design of his LFsys bass cabs. 

[lemmywinks]

We're still using Alto at the moment, 2 x Alto TS210 and a single (I think) TS15S, we downgraded from a full RCF735 setup (with two massive RCF subs) and the Alto stuff was meant to be a stopgap but they perform really well so we haven't upgraded yet. Crazy cheap for what you get and can handle a full band in decent rooms.

[itu]

JBL PRX 735.

Big with big amps in. Very nice sound, but clumsy in size. Not super heavy. Have to have stands, but there aren't stand supports!

 

Band didn't like them in the first phase, but there's no need for an external bass box / sub. Now everybody loves the sound.

 

 

I fixed the stand issue by assembling K&M mounts to them with some silicone and screws. I found the centerline by using a thin stripe of wood. Moving the speaker on top of the stripe revealed the centre of mass. This was very important, because the speaker is somewhat heavy and bulky.

 

Drilling opens the box and reduces bass response, so it was crucial to use silicone to seal the hole under the mount as well as screws.

[Norris]

We've used a pair of Mackie SRM 450's for quite a few years. We only have vocals going through them and the occasional hint of kick drum, but they have been great. Around £300ish each second hand - bargain. Ideal for the pubs and clubs we play in

[Jack]

13 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

If it is current/present use then I've just moved from RCF 310s to QSC K10s (mk I).  They are used singly as my personal monitor in a loud band and/or as a single/pair in a much quieter 'acoustic' duo (vocals and guitar through them).  The RCFs were great little cabs that punched above their weight and were drafted in a few times to supplement a larger PA with RCF 15s.  The move to QSC was as a result of the potential that they would be my only reference for bass + band mix.  Despite the wattage difference being 350w (RCF) up to 1000w (QSC), there was very little real world difference in perceived volume but the QSCs were all round a more 'musical' tone, especially if you put the 2 side by side and played prog music through them.  

 

 

Update the firmware. 👍

[warwickhunt]

8 hours ago, Jack said:

Update the firmware. 👍

 

K10 not K10.2 so 'luckily' no firmware required.    

[Jack]

22 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

K10 not K10.2 so 'luckily' no firmware required.    

That'll teach me read and post after midnight.

[Dan Dare]

Fohhn LX150 plus XS22 subs (which contain the power amps and software to drive them and the tops, so the whole rig is active although the tops aren't on their own). Like a big hi-fi - very clean, with great projection/coverage. Not the most powerful low end, but plenty for the size of jobs I use them for and I love the clarity. 

[subsidey]

Hi, I have 2 x Kv2 EX1.2 tops and 2 x EX 1.8 subs. Pretty weighty but great sound

[police squad]

ten years ago I ditched my Wharfedale stuff for 2 x QSC K12s and 2 x Ksub.

awesome they are and fantastically reliable.

I would always recommend them. I haven't tried or even seen the new updated versions

[tauzero]

Alto TS308s for monitors and TS408s for FOH. Vocals only, except when one guitarist CBA to bring his cab and I run his pedalboard amp through the PA. Good sound and plenty loud enough, and less than 10kg apiece.

[Baloney Balderdash]

The budget The Box PA 502, 1 x 15" + 1 x 1.7", sounds no short of amazing, and that is regardless of price.

 

Very clear and well balanced tone, with an impressive, but tight and punchy, low end response, better than most other, even quite high end, PA speakers, heck even a lot of dedicated bass cabs.

 

This is a passive PA speaker though, but it does come in an active version as well, the The Box PA 502 A, which is powered by 2 (bi-amping system) real transistor based SS poweramps (not Class-D).

 

Now it does weight about a ton, and it can "only" respectively handle 300W for the 15" low frequency woofer/mids driver and 100W for the 1.7" high mids driver/high frequency tweeter, but with a quite decent sensitivity of 96dB @ 1m/1W, rated to being capable of delivering 300W RMS.

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa502a_aktives_fullrangesystem.htm

 

If the relatively limited power handling and the quite heavy weight is no issue this is THE PA speaker to get for FRFR bass cab duties, as said simply amazing sounding, regardless of its budget price point.

 

Simply can't recommend this enough.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Happy Jack]

After a huge amount of research time and money spent, my opinion is that the best compromise between sound and weight is currently the QSC CP12. It's neither as loud nor as 'hefty' as the QSC K series, the RCF ART 712, or the Mackie SRM450, but it's easily enough for most venues and it weighs 13.7Kg which is about a third less than the others I just mentioned. When it's time to put them on or take them off a pair of shoulder-height poles you really notice that missing weight.

 

Where I need more oomph than that for whatever reason, I just combine them with a couple of sub-woofers sitting on the floor, so no lifting onto poles involved. They also make superb floor monitors.

[police squad]

59 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

After a huge amount of research time and money spent, my opinion is that the best compromise between sound and weight is currently the QSC CP12. It's neither as loud nor as 'hefty' as the QSC K series, the RCF ART 712, or the Mackie SRM450, but it's easily enough for most venues and it weighs 13.7Kg which is about a third less than the others I just mentioned. When it's time to put them on or take them off a pair of shoulder-height poles you really notice that missing weight.

 

Where I need more oomph than that for whatever reason, I just combine them with a couple of sub-woofers sitting on the floor, so no lifting onto poles involved. They also make superb floor monitors.

they look good those QSC speakers

[Chienmortbb]

OK two questions. Brands like Yamaha, RCF and more recently QSC have speakers i their ranges that cater for different price points. Has anyone compared the mid-priced speakers with the higher end offerings from these brands?

 

Taking about some of the other brands, do their top end speakers compete with the lower priced offerings from the market leaders? I would love to hear an HH TRE against a Yamaha DBR. A Wharfedale Typhon against an RCF ART 7 series. Of course, not all brands have the same sizes, IN some the smallest is a 10 whereas in another it is an 8.

[Downunderwonder]

My band has a set of active Alto plastic fantastics that seem to handle a bit of electric piano and vocals ok. If you're on a budget I'd say you could do a lot worse.

[Jack]

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

OK two questions. Brands like Yamaha, RCF and more recently QSC have speakers i their ranges that cater for different price points. Has anyone compared the mid-priced speakers with the higher end offerings from these brands?

 

Taking about some of the other brands, do their top end speakers compete with the lower priced offerings from the market leaders? I would love to hear an HH TRE against a Yamaha DBR. A Wharfedale Typhon against an RCF ART 7 series. Of course, not all brands have the same sizes, IN some the smallest is a 10 whereas in another it is an 8.

I'm not sure it's quite what you're asking but our drummer owns the RCF 712 and as a band we own the 732. As pa cabs they're not too different in sound (maybe I'm deaf) but the 732 are louder. As a bass stage amp they're a world apart, much more usable bass in the 732.

[NHM]

My band uses two Line 6 stage source powered speakers. Only lead vocal and the bass drum go through it, so it isn't over stretched, and the internal two channel mixer is sufficient which is a bonus. Does the job.

[DGBass]

A pair of Electrovoice ELX115P's. Probably a bit overkill for pub gigs but nice to have the available headroom. They only handle 3 x mics for vocals, some kick drum which they cope well with, and some occasional amplified acoustic guitar. Do their job very well and so far very reliable.