linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Where are you? Is it a one off event? When is it?
I might be able to help you.
What party speakers for 1K?
- Thread starter jonesi
- Start date
I might be able to help you.
A big thanks for all of the input so far, a lot to think about. It's a one off event. But I've often thought about hiring a small village hall or community centre and inviting friends to chill out and listen to music on a decent system. I've heard quite a few mobile DJs with PA speakers and mostly the sound quality has been poor. Sound quality is more important to me than high SPLs, I still want folks to be able to hold conversations in groups without shouting at each other! The room isn't huge and there will also be tables and chairs taking up a fair portion of it.
Keep the stories coming RE gear you've used / trashed at parties
I remember one New Years Eve many years ago when we though we'd trashed an amp (either NAD or CA) but luckily it just overheated and shut down.
Keep the stories coming RE gear you've used / trashed at parties
I remember one New Years Eve many years ago when we though we'd trashed an amp (either NAD or CA) but luckily it just overheated and shut down.
Operajulian
Julian
A big thanks for all of the input so far, a lot to think about. It's a one off event. But I've often thought about hiring a small village hall or community centre and inviting friends to chill out and listen to music on a decent system. I've heard quite a few mobile DJs with PA speakers and mostly the sound quality has been poor. Sound quality is more important to me than high SPLs, I still want folks to be able to hold conversations in groups without shouting at each other! The room isn't huge and there will also be tables and chairs taking up a fair portion of it.
Keep the stories coming RE gear you've used / trashed at parties
A man after our own heart
Or should I say "ears". For really really nice sound at parties we used a Meyer system - UPA1 for mid size and even UPA3 for bigger gigs. We were never stuck with general disco speaker cabinets of the eighties ! For my sisters 50th birthday I hired a really nice pa system for the village hall and set it up. Alas most of her friends and their kids turned up with the most dreadful sounding "tracks" that they wanted played from their mp3 players or worse. I was not upset at the songs themselves but at the quality they were now trained to listen to.
I am in Canada these days but would really like to listen to one of the Classic Album Sundays - https://classicalbumsundays.com/about/
Happy listening....
Julian
simon g
Older, wiser but no longer retired
A big thanks for all of the input so far, a lot to think about. It's a one off event. But I've often thought about hiring a small village hall or community centre and inviting friends to chill out and listen to music on a decent system. I've heard quite a few mobile DJs with PA speakers and mostly the sound quality has been poor. Sound quality is more important to me than high SPLs, I still want folks to be able to hold conversations in groups without shouting at each other! The room isn't huge and there will also be tables and chairs taking up a fair portion of it.
Keep the stories coming RE gear you've used / trashed at parties
Been there, done that!
My advice; do not use a domestic based system for an event like this. You'll be running your amp and 'speakers at sustained levels that may well prove problematic. Plus you need to get speakers to around head height. You may also not realise that bodies absorb sound, requiring more sustained power than you realise.
You'd be surprised at the quality available from active PAs. The poor sound you've heard will be because many mobile discos use cheap, under specced gear.
If you want to buy kit, then from experience I'd buy a pair of Yamaha DBR12s plus stands. Good quality with a surprisingly good sound.In fact, you may well be amazed at how good it is and how much more visceral it'll sound, compared to domestic kit.
Your best bet though is to hire a decent PA set for the evening. See what you make of that and then buy if you want to take it further.
Robert M
pfm Member
Very nice, but foam rot is a problem with them.Bose 802, even if just for the novelty of hearing the punch 8x 4.5” drivers can make!
They were still made until fairly recently, so that shouldn’t be a problem for many of them. I would probably enjoy re-foaming 16 drivers actually...
narabdela
who?
Lol. Well it would certainly be an interesting experiment on how long it would take to trash some Kans!
Tony L
Administrator
Seconded. Hire a PA!
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
I’ve repeated this advice time and time again on threads of this nature and often offered the loan of some decent PA kit... which as a sound technician and audiophile, I know is going to wipe the floor with any HIFI speaker in the same environment, it’s not just how loud they go either, it’s how the fill the space. I’ve ran an LP12 through a big JBL PA before now... sounded epic!
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
I would only buy 10 year old or older versions of any of them! All the latest ones are class D, SMPS and DSP and they are completely unreliable and can't be fixed.
I gave this advice to a mate when asked about the subject and he ignored me and bought the latest RCF's.... He only used them maybe 4 times but about 2 weeks after the guarantee ran out he needed them and one no longer worked. I lent him a 30 year old "Warrior" one (which had belonged to Lonny Donegan!) to make a pair. A few months later he tried to use the remaining working one as a stage monitor and guess what....
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
I’ve not personally had an issue with RCF... but then my newest RCF cabs (RCF ART 722) are 7 years old, those ones have been used for an average of 10 hours a week for all of those 7 years, and I’ll be servicing them shortly to ensure another 7 years of service from them... my oldest RCFs (ART 300a) and have done more hours than British Airways 747 fleet... and they still sound great.
Frizzy
Liberal anarchist
There always plenty of s/h pro pa kit around,but if it’s a single bash rent, or borrow a bands kit, couple of jbl pro head units and bass cab your away. I’d be very wary of destroying domestic hifi, as said earlier a room of people shouting over music quickly over stresses amps and speakers. And accidents happen!
I’ve partied to Cerwin vega as a student,not as crude as people think, Bose kit needs a sub badly, my local record store uses them, perched high they get basics right and will go screaming loud.
I’ve partied to Cerwin vega as a student,not as crude as people think, Bose kit needs a sub badly, my local record store uses them, perched high they get basics right and will go screaming loud.
moo-fi
pfm Member
One of my biggest money earners,are Bose L series with subs. They are fully booked out every weekend (8 sets) and are surprisingly good for what they are.
If it is a one of definitely hire, if it is regular, hunt down some Martin Audio passive cabs and subs. Choose a suitable amp, there is plenty of choice, such as Crown or Qsc and you would be sorted.
If it is a one of definitely hire, if it is regular, hunt down some Martin Audio passive cabs and subs. Choose a suitable amp, there is plenty of choice, such as Crown or Qsc and you would be sorted.
Quintessential Audio
Q it up!
It's got to be Cerwin Vega all the way. I did all the music for my own wedding as I wanted my music and that as chosen by the guests (wish list sent in advance of the wedding) then I just made a playlist. I bought a pair of Cerwin Vegas off gumtree, used an av amp and it played all night at serious volumes no problem. The Yammy av amp didn't even break sweat the load was that easy. Best bit though, I sold the speakers after the wedding for a small profit
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
TTs are fantastic cabs... I’m looking at some KV2 ES stuff next which is really fantastic, and great VFM (in my opinion anyway), but absolutely cannot be chucked in the back of a car, it’s a big system and needs a van... RCF TT stuff is more scalable, two top cabs on their own can fill a pretty big space with decent low end impact... add subs for bigger crowds... if anyone finds a pair of RCF TT-22A or 25A for £1k, please let me know, I’ll have cash waiting.
PS, for anyone who hasn’t used heard this kit, it’s like HIFI designed to play into big spaces and crowds... nothing like the stuff that “Sixty Quid Sid the DJ” uses.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
You speak my language, I’d love a VHD rig but I absolutely don’t have the use case for it, I’m a small one man band and I largely do it for the love of it these days (charity events and stuff). I have a JBL SR-X system which is years old and still sounds fabulous... but I really do like the KV2 stuff, an ES 1.0 and two ES 2.6 per side would be my system of choice, more than enough for any event I would ever take on... I’d still keep my old JBL stuff though, I can’t part with it.
