DBX Driverack PA

Eboy87

Well-Known Member
Has anyone used this before? I'm thinking of buying one to replace my EQ and comp., relegating them to monitor duties. Is it worth the $500 I'd spend on it? I do like the idea of having that mic to plug into it to set it, our home stereo has that, and it is nice.
 
The driverack is a super nice unit. Keep in mind that you will need to have a laptop handy to program it.
 
Our school got a bigger version of the Drive Rack and it worked out really nicely. When the company installed it they did not leave the cable to connect it to a computer so I had to set it up via the control pannel on the front which wasnt the end of the world. I actaully never got arround to plugging it into my comptuer when they finally brought back a cable so I dont really know if you get access to more settings or what. It certainy has alot of features all rolled into one nice little package!
 
We have a drive rack, and we don't need a laptop to program it. Sounds good and compression is fairly invisible...
 
Make sure you think before you buy though. The Driverack units are very nice and do a great job but make sure you can justify the cost of them. No use in investing in something that won't give you that much of an advantage. If you are having feedback issues by all means go for it though, because an EQ on the monitors can help. Ohh yeah, the Driverack has a feedback destroyer too, but I've never heard it and I doubt you really should use it. Most aren't good.
 
I know it has a built in parametric EQ in it, but can you store EQ's for different rooms (you know what I mean) or is it like an analoge one that you must reset every time
 
most programmable effects and eq's have the ability to save profiles, I can not say conclusively that the Driverack does or does not as I have never used one.
 
That's what I wnated to know. But, does using the Mic automaticlly EQ the room? Like I said, our home stero does that
 
Eboy87, keep in mind some of these responses are about the driverack series, rather than the driverack PA. There is a huge difference between the DRPA and the DR260, even more so with the DP480. Most processors are priced well over a thousand dollars. The DRPA goes for about 500 bucks. So, if you're a believer in the "you get what you pay for" theory, that's 500 dollars directly proportional to cheap processing.

Justifying your use of this thing really depends on your system and what you do with it. Secondly, do you use anything besides EQ and compression? You're certainly aren't going to use the crossover if you're running full ranges. You're not going to be touching the delay if you don't own delays, much less own other speakers. And while the room mic tuning may sound cool, you'll still have to buy an expensive flat frequency (or close. the flatter, the more accurate) microphone designed for tuning/analyzation.

I'd sugguest you go out an demo one of these units to see if it's worth it. In my opinion, it's that big of a gain in your traditional full range "PA". However I do think it'd be a good purchase for a basic theater or soundman who needs or wants to experiment with a little more than basic FOH processing. It'd be great to have around for if you wanted to delay and effect speaker, you're renting subs, etc. This thing will work as a basic set it and forget it digital crossover/eq. But if you need to tune to a new room on the fly. It's not the most user friendly right of the bat. Sure you can get familar with the unit, but you aren't going to have the speed like you would with a regular outboard eq.

One thing I should mention that the Driverack PA makes a loud awful sound when it powers up and down. It's such an awful sound, some have reported a few damaged drivers. However, the other driverack products (260, 480, etc) don't make the sound. But, make sure you power up correctly or you'll scare everyone, or even possibly cause some damage.
 
I've been planning on buying subs, as well as using the hi and low inputs on my speakers.

I know I may sound rash in this topic, but I've been putting a lot of thought into it. Besides, a live sound engineer I know and I were talking about it, and he thought it was a good idea for what I'm doing. So, for future posts, I know what I'm doing, I'm just getting some better info before I go out and buy more gear for moitors and other things such as that.
 
I would probably go for it then. I'm not sure about the mic thing, we don't have one for ours. And, it's only 1 rack space, so that reqally cuts down on the size of your rig.
 
AVGuyAndy said:
The driverack is a super nice unit. Keep in mind that you will need to have a laptop handy to program it.

Not all of them. Some units are completely standalone, and I believe most have some presets for JBL speakers. You can choose one of them for your speakers and you'll get decent results, even if you're not using JBL speakers.
 
I know this thread is getting old but wanted to throw in a word for the Behringer DEQ2496 and DCX2496. The former being a digital EQ with graph, para, dynamics and feedback destroyer and the latter being a loudspeaker management system similar to the Driverack.

A lot of pros, including myself, would tell you to drop any suspicions you have of the Behringer name and plant themselves solidly behind these two pieces of their gear. To go up a notch from these you'd have to spend over two grand.
 

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