Impressions from Coalville.

[Excalibur]

First up, let me say what a great day out it is, what a wonderful atmosphere prevailed, with absolutely no "willy waving". No competitive behaviour, but plenty of help and advice offered. After the structured part of the day, there was a "pick'n'mix" where bits were taken from various systems and mixed up, with some interesting results. Right, let's see if I can remember what was there.
Nexo. Small tops, and quite big subs. Passive. Sounded lovely as long as the processor was use to contour the sound. ( Mind you, it wasn't too shabby without. )A very nice rig.
Peavey. Prizewinner in the Most Battle Scarred category. 1XT's over UL15's, driven by a 2600 and a 1500. More than adequate, if aesthetically challenged.
Mackie/RCF. V2's over 705's. The V2's didn't inpress me, and I m beginning to come to the conclusion that I personally don't like the sound of RCF subs. I didn't rate this rig highly.
RCF/RCF. 310A's again over 705's. A much more balanced sound. Worked well. I liked this one.
Db410's over subs. I liked this one a lot. Very nice. The 10" cabs were replaced with 8" ones after, and in my opinion, didn't work at alll well.
HK Actor. two 12" tops over four 15" subs. Impressive. Shook the dancefloor, and had a rounded sound, with plenty of bass, but not an overpowering amount. Later on, it was run with four boxes, and if pushed, I'd say I prefered it with two less subs.
EV 12" EVLPX active tops. Not cheap, but very very impressive. Especially considering they followed the HK rig. They would have won the prize for best two box rig, except for:
W Audio PSR15A's. Probably the warmest sound of anything displayed. Did exactly what it said on the tin, not in any way exciting, but beautifully fit for purpose. As long as you could lift them. Heavy blighters.
DAP (Soundmate? ) Very powerful, but not as warm as others, and a little strident on the tops.
OHM Big subs, small tops. A big Lab Gruppen and something else impressive driving them. Again, a powerful sound, probably a touch nicer than the DAP.

BOSE A pair of singing drainpipes. I liked them, and thought they weren't unduly outclassed by the bigger rigs.


My choices:

Versatile rig-W Audio. Take 'em anywhere. Except if you had to climb a lot of stairs, the EV's would win.
Most impressive rig. HK. Not designed for climbing stairs though. The Nexo was close though, and a lot more portable.
Best premium rig. Db. By a nose from the all RCF. Except that in the pick'n'mix bit, we put RCF705's under the EV's. Probably the most impressive rig out of everything we heard. The EV's weren't overpowered by the subs, they matched them beautifully.

There you go, that's my thoughts on it. If you were there, what did you think? And please feel free to fill in any blanks or details I missed.

All in all, I can recommend the day wholeheartedly, thanks to JamesH for his sponsorship which helped to keep the day free, and I'm definitely going to try to take some of my gear there next year.

[flatliners]

Good review peter. It was a great day out thanks to all who organised the event. my Ev's impressed a few people there including Andy Neen and you know how hard it is to impress Andy.

[djdj]

Fantastic day,
Just happy my DAP Soundmate 2 system perfomed ok, as it is up for sale soon
I thought the OHM & Nexo and EV system were the best with the HK in close second.

[Excalibur]

Fantastic day,
Just happy my DAP Soundmate 2 system perfomed ok, as it is up for sale soon
I thought the OHM & Nexo and EV system were the best with the HK in close second.

I felt there was little to choose between the DAP and the OHM. Fine rigs both, but just shaded by the Nexo and the cut down ( one sub only ) HK.

I was just soooooooo impressed with the W Audio cabs performance against stiff competition, but the rig of the day by a mile for me was undoubtedly Shaun's EV tops over someone else's RCF bins.

Despite wishing to go on previous occasions, this was my first visit. I cannot recommend it highly enough, I've never experienced such a wonderful atmosphere, no bitchiness, no backbiting, just an honest wish to listen to, compare, improve and test out PA rigs. Magic. I'm aiming to go next year, and take a few boxes.

[CRAZY K]

I felt there was little to choose between the DAP and the OHM. Fine rigs both, but just shaded by the Nexo and the cut down ( one sub only ) HK.

I was just soooooooo impressed with the W Audio cabs performance against stiff competition, but the rig of the day by a mile for me was undoubtedly Shaun's EV tops over someone else's RCF bins.

Despite wishing to go on previous occasions, this was my first visit. I cannot recommend it highly enough, I've never experienced such a wonderful atmosphere, no bitchiness, no backbiting, just an honest wish to listen to, compare, improve and test out PA rigs. Magic. I'm aiming to go next year, and take a few boxes.

Having heard the EVs at my Disco shops show last year---where I won the star prize--EV Radio mike:beer1: not surprising.;)

I was a tad disappointed at reading the Peavey entry though:confused:

XT speakers are ancient.

Perhaps UL15 OVER not under would be better--they are not bass speakers.

Pro Sub underneath with independent amps maybe ?

[Excalibur]

Perhaps UL15 OVER not under would be better--they are not bass speakers.

Blame an old man's failing memory Alan. :o :o :o :o :o Whatever 15" bass cab number fits is what they were. They had a HI out as well, so probably these kiddies. Except not quite as pretty. Did you not notice the "Battle scarred" bit in the description? My but these ones had seen some action. ;) They were still doing what they should though,and sounding perfectly acceptable.

[CRAZY K]

Did you not notice the "Battle scarred" bit in the description? My but these ones had seen some action. ;) They were still doing what they should though,and sounding perfectly acceptable.

Possibly not as acceptable as updated versions though as they disappeared off the radar after one line :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I still think UL15 over pro Sub will be better--which is being tested here shortly for my loudish gig in an Indian Tepee :daft: :daft: :daft:

[supersound]

They wont look like that soon Pete,Simon's coming up here to het them recoverd and revamped by yours truly.
:-)

[Excalibur]

They wont look like that soon Pete,Simon's coming up here to get them recoverd and revamped by yours truly.
:-)
Excellent. :thumbs_up:

[JohnnyLarge]

I was the chap with the W-Audio PSR15 A's. Yep, they are bloody heavy but they cope fine for most venues without the need for extra bass bins. They are a bit large and did look a bit obvious compared to some of the systems there. I think I dropped a bit of a bullock by not setting up the mixer and speakers so I could monitor if they were clipping. As a result I was erring on the side of caution and was seriously under-driving them. I'm sure they could have given a better performance if I had set them up properly.

To be perfectly honest, I think purely on a sound quality level, they held their own against some much more expensive competition but were not as loud due to being two cabs only. Considering my whole playout cost £600 second-hand, it didn't fare too badly as a representative of what can be achieved by a bit of astute buying.

Peter, It was really nice to meet you and some of the other guys and your comments about my 'performance' were very nice. I will be looking to upgrade at some time and would have really liked to listen to my speakers against a DAP ClubMate 15.

Regards

John :)

[djdj]

The W-Audios were ok nice sound for the money
I think they would have been even better with my Dap subs had we played around a little with the mixers
The one issue with my Dap is each sub only powers 1 top, I have been told you could alter them but I never got round to it.

[jamesh]

Well what a fantastic day.

Was shattered from a long few days before but it was great to catch up with everyone - I was impressed by a lot of the speakers on show and thought they all sounded pretty good and as always it's not always to more expensive cabs that sound the best or cause the surprises!

Was good to show of the deckstand booth v2 especially as there was the S&H to do side by side comparisons and nice to show off the Micro and Venue Magic as well.



All in all, I can recommend the day wholeheartedly, thanks to JamesH for his sponsorship which helped to keep the day free, and I'm definitely going to try to take some of my gear there next year.

No problem - it came out of the Advanced Event Designs bank account not mine :P The real thanks should go to Dave as he did all the organising for it - we just stumped up the cash to try and keep it a free event for all. I was a little worried about the turn out of the event at first to be truthful but i don't think attendance was too bad really - good to see some of the regular faces there as well as some newbies and it's always worth staying over!!! The night out never fails to disappoint :D

[Excalibur]

I was the chap with the W-Audio PSR15 A's. To be perfectly honest, I think purely on a sound quality level, they held their own against some much more expensive competition but were not as loud due to being two cabs only.
I think the only way you were going to get those cabs to sound as loud as some of the mighty rigs on offer, would have been if you'd found a three phase supply to connect them to!! Don't fret, I was pleasantly surprised by their output.


and as always it's not always to more expensive cabs that sound the best or cause the surprises!


Amen Brother. See above.



The night out never fails to disappoint :D
There was a night out? :eek: :eek: You swines, nobody told me! :( :( As soon as we'd unplugged Mr Neen's eighteen box HK rig, and loaded it into his dinky little van, I was bundled into the back of a motor, and driven up the M1 at high speed. :D :D

Seriously, many thanks to all concerned, and a big thank you to Andy Maughan for making the detour to pick me up, it's much appreciated. I look forward eagerly to next year, I have a cunning plan for a rig............................................... .....

[djdj]

There is talk of a lighting meet...
DMX etc etc
More details as soon as they are available..

[Excalibur]

There is talk of a lighting meet...
DMX etc etc
More details as soon as they are available..

A lighting meet, eh? Now who do we know with a low cost lighting effect that he's always prepared to extol the virtues of? :whistle:

[woody2]

they did a speaker test at plasa around 5 years ago, after hours. the different reps had set the systems up behind a thin black cloth (scrim) you had a mark sheet purely on the sound, even some of the reps could not guess which was there system

[funkymook]

they did a speaker test at plasa around 5 years ago, after hours. the different reps had set the systems up behind a thin black cloth (scrim) you had a mark sheet purely on the sound, even some of the reps could not guess which was there system

Wouldn't work with the lighting though!


What were the results? Any surprises?