12 inches to 15 inches - Benefit?

[Corabar Entertainment]

I can't help feeling when reading your posts Dave that you feel that just about everything that everyone else seems to use without problems is utter crap / rubbish, etc.

[yourdj]

well I've got the PSR15s currently -so the added weight of an amp must be 'challenging' - so I'm now looking RCF!

Good move. I was checking the newer RCF 10 inchers at BPM and could not believe the size and weight. 127 spl too.

I can't help feeling when reading your posts Dave that you feel that just about everything that everyone else seems to use without problems is utter crap / rubbish, etc.

Yes what do you use then? Probably something that will take 15 gigs to pay back I would imagine.
The 310's i bought for £500 have done me fine for a year now. In fact they are excellent (for my needs).
I could go and spend £3,000 on a Nexo system but i just do not need too for the gigs I do.

I had a bloke email me when selling a karaoke amp last year. He was very rude and was saying the same things.
Quite annoyed me actually. Wasn't you Dave was it?

Exact words were I wouldn't urinate on crown RCF etc. But he was looking at a complete rubbish Karaoke amp which did not make sense?

We are all entitled to our opinions however

[Megamix]

So as a PA engineer - in your professional opinion are you saying ALL active speakers are crap - or prone to high maintenance?

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

So as a PA engineer - in your professional opinion are you saying ALL active speakers are crap - or prone to high maintenance?

Hiya Megamix,
as im a yorkshireman and Hate wasting money in my opinion
For Disco/ Small PA USE (not concert / touring rigs)
Active speakers are VERY high maintenance.
Look at peoples experience on here with them
Probably because they are prone to abuse.
Thats why im not a user or a lover of them.
(plus the weight factor)
As an aside my present system (well the one i use most)
is RCF ITALIAN ART300 Loudspeakers (a Very loud box)
Amplifiers (under review since discovering Peavey IPR1600s)
are all Chevin
Most of my mixers are either
1 unit Mcgregors /Or 1 Unit Studiomaster c3Xs
With these components reliebility has been excellent
(yes i do alllways take a back up rack)
for bigger jobs i take 2 or 3 pairs of ART 300 tops /Monitors
and use Art bass bins (unpowered) but i do have 1 Hz powered sub)
which has proved utterly reliable.
cheers

Hello Toby
quote
I had a bloke email me when selling a karaoke amp last year. He was very rude and was saying the same things.
Quite annoyed me actually. Wasn't you Dave was it?
No it wasnt me
Im never rude ,its just that people "might" not like my personal opinion.
Cheers Dave

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Well I have been using Mackie, EV and RCF as well as other makes of powered cabinets and don't find them to be heavy or high maintenance.

If 18Kg is heavy for you Dave, I think it's time for to retire.

Apart from servicing, I have never had a single problem with any of my tops.

Funny that you say RCF active are crap and then are saying that you have a passive pair....

[dj keevers]

With any type of speaker, the 3 main weight components are the cabinet material, the speaker frame material, and the magnet material. Obviously, these weights rise proportionately in general as the main speaker size rises. So the trend towards smaller speaker cabinets to decrease weight has been seen.
However, if you have the money and/or technology on your side you bend the rules quite severely away from this bring true.
The quickest and easiest weigh saving, without changing the way a speaker sounds and looks is by changing the type of magnet on the speaker. If you haven't heard of NEO magnets then you must have been hiding in your 45 singles collection. Normally magnets are based on a iron or ferrous type material to provide the deflecting magnetic field for the voice coils in your speakers. The NEO magnets, or Neodymium rare earth magnets, to give them there proper name, allow the creation of speaker magnets to be 10 times or even fifty times smaller than the ferrous equivalent, and still give the same strength of magnetic field. This obviously, if your have ever separated the magnet from a speaker, ( i often did as a kid), gives a huge weight saving. However the "rare earth" portion of the material name, should give the game away, that these materals are hugely more expensive than even gold and platinum since they are ultra rare to find and very hard to refine. So, while and easy upgrade to visualise, only the cost and availability of such materials is the overall limiting factor.

Next the speaker frame weight can be reduced by the use of more space age materials, ultimately maybethe adoption of a carbon fibre type construction, however a cost versus percentage weight saving often wins this way before a design consideration is even made. If cost no object then good luck.

Finally and often the most talked about weight saving component of speaker construction, cabinet material. Traditionally speakers cabinets were made from wood. The type of wood, often beech, defined not only the weight but also the "type" or "feel" of the overall sound produced, often described as a "sound warmth" by sound engineers. This is due to how different types of woods deflect the sound back from the sound source and which part of the sound spectrum the material might absorb or effectively filter, creating that "feel or warmth effect". Cheaper manufacturers use the modern equivalent of wood, namely the much maligned, MDF, and whilst this can create a weight and cost saving, as well as a maybe justified environmental saving, many feel the sound produced is not the same. However that's why many times on the forum people say you should listen to a speaker before you take someone's opinion on them. The purists / traditionalists will never agree that an MDF sourced sound is as good as a real wood sound, but that is an area for another discussion.
The final speaker cabinet material is the modern alternative, the man made plastics, whether its a clear perspex or the more common moulded black polyurethane type. These materials are often lighter than the traditional materials, but due to the modern manufacturing can be pre-ordered as a constructed component, and just assembled at the final construction, providing huge savings in man power requirements, skills required, and cost of time required to build, while still providing the rigid structure needed for speaker cabinets. It also allows the creation of a more durable finished product and allow the use of more complex design to the internals to the speaker cabinets, thus allowing the use of sound modify fixtures to be included at a fixed lower cost.

So the difference between 8 inch to 15 inch, is just not a size issue. Its what is the actual speaker construction can be just as important. Ill try and do an active and a DSP sound construction info later. Both these items create issues which should be considered in speaker choice and sound creation

[DazzyD]

My speakers of choice are my Prolight Concepts E-115s although I have a number of 12" speakers of various makes (including EV and Mackie). Yes, the Prolights are bigger and heavier (much heavier than the EVs!) but I like the more rounded sound they provide and they seem to give a better bass sound.

But, in general, and this is evident on this very thread, sound is a very personal choice. The best advice is to find a set of speakers you like, regardless of the size, and go with them.

[Twinspin]

I like my RCF Actives they have never let me down. The amplifiers in them run extremely cool during a gig.

The other decent sound system i had was a HK Audio Lucas 1000 and that was a good system as well.

neither of them are high maintainence. As Darren mentioned 18kg isn't heavy thats how much my active RCF ART Tops weigh and they are more than managable. I carry both my tops in one in each hand.

My friend Martin has a pair of Peavey UL-15s and they are a lot heavier than mine.

The only active tops that i have had bother with was the Mackie SRM450 V1
possibly a dodgy batch. But i dont use Mackie now.

[Daryll]

DJ Keevers.

That was an excellent answer , un-baised and descriptive , and all very true

Daryll

[Tom]

What's the main benefit of 15" Active over 12" (or even 10" come to that)?

(apart from the obvious physical - weight and size)

Thanks

Cab depending, a 15" driver will play lower down in the frequency range.