Loudspeakers Black Box Theatre Speaker recommendations

mrb604

Member
I am interested in purchasing new speakers for our Black Box Theatre, I use box loosely since it is very oddly shaped. Attached is a diagram with measurements showing the space. Half of our performances are musicals with recorded music and mics, half plays with sfx and/or ambiance sounds. Speakers would be hung from grid at 19'. What would you recommend? Active? Passive? We don't own but have access to two Crown LXS 1002 amps. Most musicals are staged in the proscenium style shown, but many plays are staged in a thrust or in the round configuration. Looking for good sound reinforcement coupled with being flexible enough to adapt to different staging arrangements. I would appreciate your opinions.
 

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For budget stuff QSC K.2 line. But with the upper end of your budget you might be able to get into some of the Meyer or EAW lines. Contract a local audio company for more info.
 
Do you have room for front fill?
What kind of audio content. Playback or band or hanging or body mics?

I've had great luck with the Presonus 328ai. Designed by Dave Guiness of fulcrum acoustic and previously eaw, its very smooth in response and pattern, incredibly well powered, has a rotating horn so you can mount horizontally and internally network controlled DSP. Very gusty for full range playback but also delicate and not harsh for vocals, overall they don't impart their color onto your sound source.
It's an oddity in the industry, probably because Presonus barely sells anything compared to JBL or the other big guys but after hearing this 4 way box, its a total blow away compared to any other $1000 box I've heard and personally they replaced Meyer UPJs.
 
Do you have room for front fill?
What kind of audio content. Playback or band or hanging or body mics?

I've had great luck with the Presonus 328ai. Designed by Dave Guiness of fulcrum acoustic and previously eaw, its very smooth in response and pattern, incredibly well powered, has a rotating horn so you can mount horizontally and internally network controlled DSP. Very gusty for full range playback but also delicate and not harsh for vocals, overall they don't impart their color onto your sound source.
It's an oddity in the industry, probably because Presonus barely sells anything compared to JBL or the other big guys but after hearing this 4 way box, its a total blow away compared to any other $1000 box I've heard and personally they replaced Meyer UPJs.
Don’t really have room for front fill. Audio content is mostly recorded music and body mics.
 
My Octagonal Blackbox has four Fulcrum CX1295 speakers powered by QSC amps and a Symetrix DSP.
We've also added some Fulcrum Rx669 speakers and a subwoofer. Not to mention some QSC KW122 speakers.

I've been extremely happy with the system and do from 3 to 12 musicals a season, along with "concert-style" "revue" musicals. My catwalk is 17' high, 20' Grid height.

I reconfigure the room often between standard theatre "tiered" seating, and various other configurations such as "thrust", "in the round" and "cabaret".
In the spring I did a production of the musical Cabaret with NO STAGE that went off extremely well with careful speaker placement. Of course I could only push the mics so hard in that configuration, but it turned out I had plenty of headroom.
 

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