Does size really matter? What's two inches between friends?

[Excalibur]

OK, whimsy over. You may have seen loads of speakers for sale from me, I'm trying to cut down the range, and ease setup a bit. I had my new PA all worked out, and then the recent supply woes bit me in the posterior. What was I planning to purchase?

A brace of these Then I find out that they were due here in August, and now aren't likely to arrive before mid November at best. Since one of the main reasons for these is a Christmas Hotel residency helping Mr Western ( Matty DJ50 to his friends ) any possibility of selling what I currently use there, and not having the replacement would be a disaster. Matthew has recently ( past few years. Everything's yesterday at my age ) gone over to Maui 28s, and the Polar 12s allegedly just shade these for performance. Matthew makes a hell of a racket with his Mauis. The 10s, well they may be on a par with them, maybe a tad less.

So, off go I yesterday to a local emporium, and amazingly get a knowledgeable and helpful assistant. We ran up its little sister, the Polar 10, and it was just awesome. Blew me away. They've got stock, so has a dealer I rate highly in the west Riding, and then a certain Cumbrian dealer found some in a warehouse. Hopefully, next week will see me using them in anger, and I'll give a full report.

[Excalibur]

Well, nothing's ever easy, is it? I received four boxes from Andy, and opened the first two. I got the sub out of one box, and started to put the tops into it. Except I couldn't. The tops are a spacer and a speaker. The spacer fitted the sub, the speaker fitted the sub, but the top didn't fit the spacer, despite lots of " encouragement". Well that's a good start. Out of curiosity, I tried Bluetooth on it. I pressed the button to start the process, and it exited the program without starting the process. Despite reading the manual, it seemed it was determined not to offer Bluetooth. Not that I'd expect to use it a lot, but I want everything to work.

So, two boxes went back to the supplier, and because we knew they couldn't supply a replacement, I headed off to a supplier near me who had what appears now to be 97% of the stock left in this country ( about five units). After testing it in the shop, I headed home with it, and now appear to have two fully functional units.

So, first time out last night, and I only needed/could only use one for reasons of space and layout. I still have so much to learn about it, and could really do with arriving at Forest pines half a day early, and playing with them to see what they can do. So far, I'm beyond impressed. I haven't had such a lovely microphone sound in years, and it's glorious. The only thing I would say, and again, it's very early to say, but it seems to really show up deficiencies in the source material. I played " Congratulations " for the birthday girl, and it sounded cack. Might have been a poor copy, but anything without a lot of production on it, sounds very " thin ". Still learning, but very happy so far. the bass is very adequate, and not strained, and whether that turns out to be a blessing ( as 90% of my gigs don't need to make the earth move) or a curse if it can't cause the seismic tremors required in the other 10%, well we shall see.

[Excalibur]

Well so far, so good. My but there's a lot of learning to do. I had a DJ helicoptered in the other week to play stuff I'd never heard of ( and from what I heard, before he turned up, I was doing a very creditable job ) who wasn't a member of the Billy Ocean* school of Live Sound.

* Red Light Spells Danger.


The Polars appear to have a limiter, which cuts the input when overdriven. Thank the Lord! Every gig I appear to be tweaking the tone settings, but not by huge amounts.

[Excalibur]

Regular readers will know that Polar base 3 died on Saturday, annihilating the fuse. Testing later with the spare fuse confirmed a " catastrophic failure " ( to use my tester's words ) of the power supply.

A phone call first thing Monday morning seemed promising, until the generic email I received shortly after was a declaration of war! Cue second phone call, and rising blood pressure. Tuesday morning sees me camped outside the shop doors, to the bafflement of the staff inside.

I now know why. I wasn't ringing the shop. The contact number given is the office. Once the shop staff realised why I was there, they immediately began the in depth testing and fault finding procedure.
1) Plug it in.
2) Does it work? No.
3) Give the customer a new one. Simples.

The shop staff could not have been nicer, or more helpful. Their attitude gained them a further £100 sale, rather than me bringing hundreds of pounds worth of week old kit back for a refund as a protest. So, we're now up to Polar base 4 and counting. Dear Lord, please let these two live a long and happy life, I've sold almost* every other speaker to buy these.


* Slight use of poetic licence. The splendid white Maui 5 GO continue to amaze. They shouldn't do what I ask them to. Also, a battle scarred LD Stinger bins/tops combination lives in the shed. So, I've got dinky covered, and noisy but aesthetically challenged. The bit in the middle is Polar territory.

[rth_discos]

I'm assuming you're well versed with the Evox 8.

Out of interest, how did it compare - what led you to the HK Polar, over the Evox 8?

[Excalibur]

I'm assuming you're well versed with the Evox 8.

Out of interest, how did it compare - what led you to the HK Polar, over the Evox 8?

Aesthetics.

Mainly. I hate poles on stick rigs. The Maui 5 is nice, the 11 is the prettiest speaker I have ever seen. My wife says the Polar is very good looking ( and as she's not a DJ, that's a good recommendation ).

Mixer section. Simple but comprehensive. Does everything I want. No more, no less. ( Maui 11G2 the same ).

Price. ( Come on, you know where I live. A Yorkshireman is only a Scot with the generosity removed).

Recommendation. A colleague recommended it, so I went to audition one. Didn't need to try anything else, as nothing in its price range came close. I'm not suggesting that it's the best there is, of course. Now if I won the lottery, I'd struggle not to buy an EV50, or Db 1203 rig. That Db is a brute. Also effing heavy.

To be fair, I wanted the 12, but I don't think we'll see those here again this year. I wouldn't bet against me getting a pair of those though, when my " local" dealer gets his order in. From what he tells me ( I haven't handled 12s ) the 10s win hands down on portability. That's why it was an easy decision to go with 10s if they're going to do ( almost ) everything except weddings. I'm on record as saying that in stick rig territory, it's hard to get a bad one, and most of them will do most things. Over the years I've heard a lot of them, and only a handful I don't like.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

who wasn't a member of the Billy Ocean* school of Live Sound.

* Red Light Spells Danger.

I'm sorry but I'm totally nicking that one! Actual LOL.

[rth_discos]

Price. ( Come on, you know where I live. A Yorkshireman is only a Scot with the generosity removed).

To be fair, I wanted the 12, but I don't think we'll see those here again this year. I wouldn't bet against me getting a pair of those though, when my " local" dealer gets his order in.

I'd be interested to compare our total investment into speakers over the last 5 years.

I have purchased:

2 x Evox 8 Speakers and bags = £2,300
2 x RCF Art 310 = £700
2 x Maui 5 = £875

Sold the RCF Art 310 speakers for £500 (and then purchase the Maui 5s), so a total net spend of £3,375

I'm intrigued as I initially spent much more than I had budgeted for on my Evox 8, but the advice I was given by the dealer was to spend the money then, and I wouldn't, therefore, feel any need to upgrade in the future (which I haven't)...

Was wondering if my southern approach has worked out more cost-effective...

[Excalibur]

I'd be interested to compare our total investment into speakers over the last 5 years.

I have purchased:

Sold the RCF Art 310 speakers for £500 (and then purchase the Maui 5s), so a total net spend of £3,375



Was wondering if my southern approach has worked out more cost-effective...

Polars £1200
RCF 710 £ 800
DB 612 £ 400
Maui 5 GO £1200
Maui 11 £ 600
Total £4200
Sales £1000
Net £3200

Answer, no.

OK, to be serious, much of my expenditure is down to something we have discussed before. Changes in requirements. More All Day Weddings meant a need for the 5 GO. The Db/RCF were purchased for one venue in particular, where I was often upstairs, but needed to make a lot of noise. The Polars are intended to fill that gap, and doubtless an Evox would have done the same. If the Maui 11s had been G2, as opposed to the older Mix, I might easily have kept them, as they'd have been louder and more portable. Rather than upgrade to G2s,the Polars offered a bit more boom, and bigger bass drivers. When one blew on Saturday, I was questioning that decision.

You have said that most of your work is weddings of similar sizes in similar venues. Thus, a similar PA each time. In the past five years, my work has ranged from one Maui to the biggest PA I have. All human life is therein. I maintain there's no " one size fits all ", although modern stick rigs are trying hard. What you've done works well for you, but " different strokes for different folks".