A tale of speaker woes. ( And good luck )

[CRAZY K]

Smugness is most unbecoming, Wayne.

Were this rig intended to be the main/sole one, then the Yamahas would indeed be in the frame. However, as many folk know, my gigs vary wildly, from Young Farmers in vast sheds ( though I must admit, I'm not getting as many of those recently ) to the smallest room I've ever worked in. I barely had sufficient room for the Micromax!
I try to tailor the kit used to the function and venue. Believe me, if I had a grand to spare, I'd soon be the proud owner of a Maui 5 system for smaller events. But I haven't, so I must cut my coat according to my cloth.

As you have realised, on paper, and when actually making a noise, those Phonics were superb. I loved them, they did exactly what I wanted, but sadly intermittently.

My next move is either to fork out more cash for something more expensive, or simply take the refund and take stock of the situation. Trouble is, I've identified a need/niche/use for some 10" cabs, and now I crave some.
In all seriousness, I do have a few gigs imminent where something of that style would be weapon of choice.

The trouble is Peter, Wayne thinks there are money trees growing in Yorkshire near your home

They are only found in the streets of London of course

Let us know how you get on with the dealer.

Is there nothing tempting from our German friends or I guess there is the risk of a fault involving sending back heavy items.

Hope something turns up.

Plastic can be fantastic unless you accidentally drop a cabinet and the plastic cracks--has happened here, looks very naff and the unit stopped working

[TONYTIGER]

Peter,i am surprised you are having trouble with Phonic as they are part of HW international and are the same people that market Shure products so quite a reputable company hopefully it is just a bad batch hope you get sorted out.

[Excalibur]

Peter,i am surprised you are having trouble with Phonic as they are part of HW international and are the same people that market Shure products so quite a reputable company hopefully it is just a bad batch hope you get sorted out.

Tony, while I didn't have that information before I went, I was working on the fact that I've had good experiences of Phonic kit in the past. Ah well.

[CRAZY K]

Tony, while I didn't have that information before I went, I was working on the fact that I've had good experiences of Phonic kit in the past. Ah well.

Whilst I am a Phonic fan myself it does rather ask some awkward questions about how much quality control there is now for this organisation?

You would think the products would be allowed to "soak" as electricians call it-- for new products -- for a few hours to pick up this very problem.

Unless we are missing something.

Next instalment awaited !!!!!

[djdj]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-Of-Ya...oAAOSwp5JWZ0bJ

Make a cheeky offer, I love these speakers!!!

[Excalibur]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-Of-Ya...oAAOSwp5JWZ0bJ

Make a cheeky offer, I love these speakers!!!

Dave, you're not with the program. Not only is the owner likely to accept a bid of £150.00, even if he did, they're 12", and thus disbarred. I'm looking for 10".

OK, here's the next ( final??? ) instalment. Grab a coffee and a choccy biccy.

I went back to York this afternoon, wheeling in my beloved Phonics on my own truck. Luckily for me, the two staff I'd dealt with were the first two I saw. I explained why I was here, and asked if before we did anything rash, I could demo some alternative speakers. I also told them that every Phonic speaker in the shop would have the same fault, and forecast what the demo speaker would do. Bold words, eh?

Good News
I was right. The Phonic on demo was asleep. I explained how to wake it up, and it did exactly as I had forecast. So far, so good. I asked them to demo the Alto TS 210, and couldn't see it. " There it is " said the lad, thinking I was blind. He was indeed pointing to an Alto, but it was the 12" Black, over £300 more expensive!! Having been shown the error, off he went to bring the correct one out of storage. He opened the box, and I took it out one handed and lifted it above my head!! It was very very light.We placed it on the shelf, and plugged it in to demo.

Bad News.
For a speaker priced £40 dearer, it was very very disappointing. Having woken the Phonic up, we ran them A-B, and the difference was immense. Oh dear. I was now officially heartbroken at having found a cab which was perfect for my needs, at a brilliant price, and finding out it had a severe design fault which rendered it useless.
At this point I was despondent, because the cab I'd hoped would be an alternative was falling well short of expectations.The young assistant agreed that there was a huge gulf between them sound wise.

Good News
Although the Alto has no tone control, it does have a " contour " button. Pressing seems to simply add bass, which is what was lacking. It still wasn't in the same league as the Phonic, but it was now vaguely acceptable. The lad was surprised when I said I'd consider the Altos. As long as the price was right. I had a fallback position of some Db Opera available across in the West Riding, but they were more money than I wanted to spend, and involved more driving. So, I asked the lad what the figures would pan out to, and off he went to find out. He made out a quote, printed it off, and went to show it to his boss.

Good News
He told me what the price was, and apologised that they couldn't make it better. I'm not saying what the price was, but suffice to say it was keen. Very keen.
I'm now the owner of a pair of Alto TS 210s, and I really really wish I had the Phonics. If they had been reliable, they were fantastic value. They obviously have a fault, whether it's quality control, sleep mode, or what, I don't know. I suspect there's going to be a lot of discussion between the buyer in Gear4music and the wholesaler.

So, I haven't got the speakers I wanted. It seems to me that the only way to do that would have been to spend a lot of money, and move up to HK, Yamaha, or RCF and the like. I can't justify that sort of expenditure for a system that isn't going to be the main one. Ah well, better keep checking those numbers.

[Imagine]

The trouble is Peter, Wayne thinks there are money trees growing in Yorkshire near your home

They are only found in the streets of London of course

Yorkshire's got a lot more money than the Cambridgeshire Fens (or anywhere else in East Anglia come to think of it as Mark will doubtless testify).

I mentioned the Yammy's in jest - they were a huge investment for me which took a lot of thinking about. But, having heard them I had to have them and now having DXR8's, DXR15's and DSR12's - I have everything I'm ever likely to need (I don't tend to do thumping young farmers gigs so the DSR18 was swapped for the 12's ).

Glad you've got some sort of solution in the end Peter. Even if they're not the ones you really wanted. At the end of the day....will the customer ever know any different? (I suspect not unless the Alto's are painful to listen to).

It could have been worse - you could have gone down the singing drainpipe route

[Excalibur]

It could have been worse - you could have gone down the singing drainpipe route

Funny you should say that. Everything about the Maui 5 has impressed from first viewing, and one stack of a Maui was mooted as a contender by a happy Maui user. I did consider it very carefully, but I would have disliked not having the second half, and I would have disliked buying the second one even more.

I really am struggling to come to terms with losing the Phonics. I've now got second ( third?) best, and for more money. I'm not ecstatic, but at least I should have something which will do the job I want reliably. I'll keep you posted as I use them more.

Edit:
I'm now running one in the living room, and it sounds better than in the shop. I'm sure I can get it where I want with a bit of EQ. For ages, I've basically run the EQ flat, except for some very minor tweaks.

[TONYTIGER]

Yorkshire's got a lot more money than the Cambridgeshire Fens (or anywhere else in East Anglia come to think of it as Mark will doubtless testify).

I mentioned the Yammy's in jest - they were a huge investment for me which took a lot of thinking about. But, having heard them I had to have them and now having DXR8's, DXR15's and DSR12's - I have everything I'm ever likely to need (I don't tend to do thumping young farmers gigs so the DSR18 was swapped for the 12's ).

Glad you've got some sort of solution in the end Peter. Even if they're not the ones you really wanted. At the end of the day....will the customer ever know any different? (I suspect not unless the Alto's are painful to listen to).

It could have been worse - you could have gone down the singing drainpipe route

No tall singing drain pipes are bad,i have a FBT Vertus system and also DXR 15s and DXR 12s the Vertus wins hands down.

[CRAZY K]

Funny you should say that. Everything about the Maui 5 has impressed from first viewing, and one stack of a Maui was mooted as a contender by a happy Maui user. I did consider it very carefully, but I would have disliked not having the second half, and I would have disliked buying the second one even more.

I really am struggling to come to terms with losing the Phonics. I've now got second ( third?) best, and for more money. I'm not ecstatic, but at least I should have something which will do the job I want reliably. I'll keep you posted as I use them more.

Edit:
I'm now running one in the living room, and it sounds better than in the shop. I'm sure I can get it where I want with a bit of EQ. For ages, I've basically run the EQ flat, except for some very minor tweaks.

Peter, dont all speakers sound better in a house with curtains, furniture, carpets and absorbent items because it improves the bass and general sound, rather than a rattly old hall with no absorbent surfaces?

On a positive note my sons Altos have NO EQ at all which is a bit scary and you rely on your mixer--- however they dont sound too bad actually even playing an ipod directly through the input. We even plugged a Microhone straight in when we were in the Guildhall Cambridge side room which sounded ok without mixing and thats some feat I can tell you. Very high ceiling.

Its hasnt cut out yet then