Speakers? A very interesting topic

Hey eveyone i am in the stage of looking for a new set of speakers for my auditorium. Looking for a nice set that are good for everything from plays to rock concerts. ive got about 2,000-30,00 to spend any ideas? or just any favorites out there. looking at a theatre with about 550 seats.
 
Speakers - lots of good ones out there. Which would be best on your budget depends a lot on the actual dimensions of the room, wall surfaces, height of the ceiling, etc. I'm assuming you're planning on upgrading just the speakers, not the whole system, in which case what you need is something that will work well with what you've already got - how many amplifiers of what kind and power, active crossovers and type, other electronics available such as delays to allow speakers placed further into the room to be phased with speakers near the stage, etc.

The last theatrical production I was involved in was Kismet, at Crown H.S. - in 1968. There are others here, though, especially Wolf, Ship, Cruiser and Jo-Jo,
who could write an encyclopaedia of theatrical sound. lights and general theater tech stuff.

On a tight budget myself, I kind-of lean toward Peavey for my speakers... but I do sound for low-budget rock concerts. There are other speakers that sound better, or are more efficient, but my gear gets set up in a different venue every night, sometimes with pretty flakey power, often with volunteer "help" that's none-too-gentle. Peavey speakers and amps are generally pretty reasonably priced, sound pretty good when set up properly, take an awful lot of abuse and are fairly easy to repair on the rare occasion when they do break.

John
 
I would go with Electro- Voice. They are a good all around speaker that can handle anything from spoken word to rock concerts. You will see EV speakers being used alot on national concert tours along with JBL. I would not use Peavy unless it's not going to be an install. Just my 2 cents.
 
Agreed, for a permanent install you don't need as much "rugged." Problem I have with EV and JBL is that a big part of the pricetag is the nametag. If price is no object, go for the slight (and highly subjective) improvement of one of the bigger names. Or, like a friend of mine did, get some blown JBL speakers and put Peavey drivers in them. The JBL nametags impress people, while the Peavey ruggedness let's him relax when he has to turn the board over to the touring band's sound guy.

John
 
I agree that the price is part of the name EV & JBL have but I'm basing my answer on the quality of the speaker. EV are not priced to bad. As in all equipment you buy, you get what you pay for. :D
 
fishyswishy said:
Hey eveyone i am in the stage of looking for a new set of speakers for my auditorium. Looking for a nice set that are good for everything from plays to rock concerts. ive got about 2,000-30,00 to spend any ideas? or just any favorites out there. looking at a theatre with about 550 seats.

Hi Fishy,
As DMX said--there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing new speakers for a perm instal in a venue. I would like to add to his great questions for you to consider the following as well: Are these speakers flown or hung, what are the dimensions to your space and Will these speakers need to meet Tech and Tour riders in quality or db level ability and what are your amps--or willyou get new amps?? What do you have currently in your system(amps--x-overs & DSP's etc) and what will you be replacing or keeping out of that equipment? Do you want passive or part-passive and part active system processing--like subs on a separate feed from a x-over and mid-highs are passive? You want 3 way plus subs or 2 way plus subs? What are the main programs you do in your space and the application they are going to be under? Are you looking for mains and delay fills or just mains--is it Left and Right or Left Center and Right? Down fills or front fills? Balcony or under-balcony stuff in this as well?? How about subs--where are your subs placed--and what kind of subs are you interestded in or are replacing--i.e. horn or reflex? and the final MOST important question---What is it about your system that requires you to look into purchase of a new one? What ISN'T it doing for your needs?

If you can provide a bit more info, I'm sure the folks on here can add a bit more to their already great suggestions and maybe give you some models to check out for your consideration.

My personal favorite speakers are Martin Audio...wave-8's and so forth. LOVE those on tours and so forth..absolutely my favorites. The Blackline series is also very nice. EAW is fairly standard stuff too..but a bit overprocessed to compensate IMO. As was listed by DMX and digitaltec--EV and JBL are good choices as well for speakers. Drop us some more info and I'm sure you will get a lot of good suggestions and maybe a few model suggestions to check out...

-wolf
 
EV would be the best choice I believe, you should check out stuff such as coverage as well. EV is not that expensive and they're good speakers.
 
Inaki2 said:
EV would be the best choice I believe, you should check out stuff such as coverage as well. EV is not that expensive and they're good speakers.

Our sister school is in the market for replacing their entire sound system. I met up with GBN's Facilities Manager at LDI while he was shopping. I tagged along on the Live Tour Stages and was privy to the conversations with the sales reps and professional engineers and designers. Our conclusion was the Meyer System was simply the best sounding, with JBL coming in second. The EV stuff sounded like crap to us. At GBS we have an Apogee speaker system that we love, with a few JBL's for our portable system. We have a few EV and Bose speakers that we use for monitors or with the portable system when needed.

I like the Meyer, JBL, and Apogee products. I hear great things about them and you seem to get your money out of them.

I hear bad things about Bose in large formats, such as how they are non-directional, issues with phase coherent and time allowances.

Not my cup of tea, but I am always interested in learning.
 
Yeah I agree, personaly I'd put other stuff prior to both Meyer and JBL, such as Nexo and the KF760 from EAW. Admason is great as well. But then again, all these brands are terribly expensive for what they're looking for. I agree EV is not "the" brand, but they have some nice products, I'm actually quite impressed wih the SX300. Really cool for what it is, I'm using them a lot for vocals since the have a wonderfull mid-range. It may be the exception to the rule I agree, but as a budget oriented speaker, I think it i the brand to go for.
For a good system that isn't very well know check out Bag End...have you considered Mach speakers? They are the speaker brand from Martin, they're more club oiented but they are quite good.
 
I have used Bose alot, specially the 802 series, and totally agree.
I have found that they are very very directional, and often have to use a cluster on each side of the stage pointed in different angles to get the whole audience. SO basically we were doubling our speakers to get the same sound as what we could do with 4JBL's.

At school we have Yamaha's and a Yammie amp, which sounds really flat, never ever been happy with the Yamaha stuff, although i dont mind their new amps. We ahve a few Jbls, and about 6 Mackie powered speakers that we use as foldback or satellites at outside concerts with horns....
 
Thanks guys for the help. I'm still in the market for speakers and as far as i know i think im gonna stay with the speakers i typically stand behind with a set of jbls i think i still have about another month so i am keeping my eyes open everywhere. keep on posting
 
Basically our setup is pretty generic: JBL main mixes, yamaha DT2 and DT1 side fills (which sound REALLY bad) all on a bunch of dying yamaha amps. I certianly wouldn't recommend Yamaha equipment, it has a tendency just to sound very flat, and have low tolerance (both DT-1's blown within 2 years....)

I haven't really looked into prices for anything....
 

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