Al's Yorkville Parasource PS-12P active speaker review

[Al Poulin]

Hey guys,

 

as promised, here is a link to my Yorkville PS-12P speaker review. The video pretty much says it all, but basically I would have to say the PS-12Ps could be described as a new and extremely improved versions of the NX55P. Much more output, excellent and musical processing, surprisingly DEEP low frequency response and a very nice, clean look. I was impressed with everything about this speaker since Yorkville seems to have fixed everything I had issues with on the NX55P to create this new line. Note the 3 carry handles, RCA inputs on the mixer, USER SELECTABLE bass boost. :-) Simply a terrific active speaker that sounds fantastic.

 

 

 

[nchangin]

Nice review Al. Would love to see some live action gig footage! Nice to have the RCA's, and the grill looks pleasing, except those 6 screws seem to stick out? As you stated probably different experience seeing them in person.

[Pro Sound Guy]

Putting a bass boost on a 12" two way is squeezing blood out of a turnip.

[JV90]

Good review, but? 4400 watts (peak)? My God.... Yorkville is the king at the moment for using the top numbers on any powered speaker, as you are saying, the rms at the moment is not the figure that anyone would like to see in, so, time would come that will be able to see a 12.000 watts speaker, the Samsung subs would be a reality then

[nchangin]

Good review' date=' but? 4400 watts (peak)? My God.... Yorkville is the king at the moment for using the top numbers on any powered speaker, as you are saying, the rms at the moment is not the figure that anyone would like to see in, so, time would come that will be able to see a 12.000 watts speaker, the Samsung subs would be a reality then [/quote']

 

Kinda ironic in car audio I always shy'd away from specs like that as the equip out for a quick sell yet you would have an amp like fosgate punch 45 that would blow away the amps claiming 1000's of watts in the showroom. I look up to Yorkville to be in the upper category, especially for warranty on them. No one has 10 years on anything in pro audio that I know of, that alone would be the main selling point. hey 4 boxes of these you could advertise a 17,000 watt power house lol.

[Randyman]

So I guess the obvious question is- now that you've tested and owned so many different 12" speakers, would you pay the premium price to own these, and in what situations would you use these compared to what you know.

[Shaster]

This looks promising. Oddly enough, I was just talking to someone yesterday about Paraline versus Parasource. He was quite impressed with Parasource. I've also talked to a PA head at one of my local L&M's and he was raving about the Parasource 12's.

 

Could Yorkville finally have a real 12" powered speaker contender? My back is excited by the prospect, even if my wallet is not.

 

Thanks for the thoughtful review Al. Nice job.

[agedhorse]

. hey 4 boxes of these you could advertise a 17,000 watt power house lol.

... and those who know better would just read between the lines and know you are full of crap. This is why you see "no this and no that" on riders, to try to weed out the crap (and crap providers)

[Pro Sound Guy]

The loudspeaker system shall consist of...........quality gear.

In a nutshell low budge MI gear will not cut it.

[abzurd]

Yorkville had a long history of using good EFFICIENT drivers and not overstating their numbers. I guess you gotta keep up with the Jones's and unfortunately nobody cared. The power handling numbers just weren't impressive enough for the populous. It's sad the wattage wars have come to this. The numbers game has moved away from the driver to what the amp "could produce" and not necessarily what the speaker will ever see. Driver specs are completely irrelevant, and the amp specs are completely meaningless.

[lonotes]

Driver specs are completely irrelevant' date=' and the amp specs are completely meaningless.[/quote']

 

But under certain conditions (packed in a truck), they can legitimately claim that they will go 70-80 mph.

[Al Poulin]

So I guess the obvious question is- now that you've tested and owned so many different 12" speakers' date=' would you pay the premium price to own these, and in what situations would you use these compared to what you know.[/quote']

 

I would say the PS-12Ps are some of the best "stand alone" compact choices for DJs or bands in smaller venues where sub reinforcement isn't wanted/possible/necessary. You would think most 12" actives are comparable for these purposes, but not when it comes to low frequency extension. The Yamaha DSR112 for example, while being the loudest active 12" I've tested and soundind terrificly crisp up top, sounded noticeably anemic in the lower frequencies even with the D-Contour activated and some EQ boost. It simply couldn't produce much below 70hz from what I could tell, so obviously I couldn't recommend it for stand alone use. The PS-12Ps OTOH (like my DXR15s) have enough extension to offer a nice and warm sound up to very high SPL levels if asked to. Of course any 12" or 15" has excursion limits, but the processing in these cabs will give you surprising low frequency energy that although gradually reduced as the overall level increases, still will impress most people and produce a warm, ear friendly overall sound.

 

Al

[Bobby1Note]

Putting a bass boost on a 12" two way is squeezing blood out of a turnip.

 

I agree,,,,,, well,,,,,for the most part. Depends on the application,,, and how the so-called "bass-boost" is applied and controlled.

 

On a K-series box for example, activating the "DEEP" function, has an immediately noticeable (glaring) negative impact on vocal clarity. The function is essentially useless.

 

The Yorkie on the other hand, has multi-band limiting(as do the ParaLine series boxes), and this feature is worth consideration. I've heard the ParaLines with this feature, and at first (medium volume) I was unimpressed. When pushed HARD however, it was a totally different ball-of-wax. To be honest, it caught me totally by surprise. Very impressive. The multi-band limiting is a hand-me-down from Yorkvilles' hi-end VTC series boxes. NEXO and d&B AudioTechnik also use multi-band limiting btw.

 

Personally, I would never use a bass-boost function when working with subs (rock music, etc), but for an acoustic-guitar based solo/duo act (no subs), you definitely want "some" low-end extension, as long as the vocal range remains uncluttered. (acoustic-guitar range is essentially the same as vocal range, roughly 80Hz-1kHz)

[hammondman]

Hi,

I currently own a pair of Yamaha DXR15's and I'm wondering how these Yorkville PS12-P hold up? Which has the highest output, best clarity and deepest bass response?

[Vito Corleone]

Yorkville had a long history of using good EFFICIENT drivers and not overstating their numbers. I guess you gotta keep up with the Jones's and unfortunately nobody cared.

Which Joneses? Seems to me all the major brands advertise their similar speakers to be in the 1000W - 1500W range. Those may be exaggerations, but nothing compared to 4400W. That just makes Yorkville look stupid and cheesy, IMO.

[WynnD]

I just got my calculator out and 4400 watts is 36 amps at 120 volts. If you consider that the RMS value might be half of that, that's still 18 amps out of what is frequently a 15 amp circuit in the USA. You might not be able to put two on the same circuit in situations where you're pushing them without tripping the circuit breaker. I'm guessing that in real world use, you might rarely get anywhere near that kind of current draw. Still, I'd be pretty hesitant to tax them in typical clubs. (I really hate it when the circuit breakers trip. It's rare when someone who works at a club knows where it's located.)

[OneEng]

I just got my calculator out and 4400 watts is 36 amps at 120 volts. If you consider that the RMS value might be half of that' date=' that's still 18 amps out of what is frequently a 15 amp circuit in the USA. You might not be able to put two on the same circuit in situations where you're pushing them without tripping the circuit breaker. I'm guessing that in real world use, you might rarely get anywhere near that kind of current draw. Still, I'd be pretty hesitant to tax them in typical clubs. (I really hate it when the circuit breakers trip. It's rare when someone who works at a club knows where it's located.) [/quote']

Wynn,

 

I seriously doubt these speakers draw any different current from the wall than do their direct competition (DSR, KW, PRX, etc).

 

I can run my entire band off of a single circuit very easily (2 DSR112's, 2 PRX6182-XLF, X32 Rack, VHT pittbull, Rockstar 2x12, bass head, TD-10 vDrums.

 

If you added up all the speakers wattage "ratings" it would add up to 4600W.... which is still BS IMHO. It doesn't draw anything like this. It is all marketing numbers.

[agedhorse]

Wynn, your calculations are based on 2 incorrect assumptions.

 

1. Peak power versus average power, that would bring it down to 2200 watts, but they don't state if this is continuous or burst time frame.

 

2. The typical powered speaker's AC power draw is most accurately reflected by it's 1/8-power rating (I wouldn't even derate this like I do for some applications since they already claim more than possible on the HF section) so the AC draw is measured at 275 watts RMS and this would be divided by the AC voltage and efficiency to yield around 3 amps (assuming ~80% efficiency). The power supply averages out the peak audio draw which is why we don't need stupid big branch circuits to opoerate successfuylly.

 

Now when calculating power draw under real world conditions for sizing AC branch circuits, I will double this to 6 amps per speaker assuming it's being driven into limitinbg somewhat hard. If not, it could be anything between 3 and 6 amps.

 

Hope this helps.

[BlueGreene]

Hey Al, what power draw spec does the label provide?

[OneEng]

My DSR112 tops are "rated" at 1300W while my PRX6182-XLF subs are rated at 1000W. Which one do you suppose draws more current from the wall

[Shaster]

This is a 1400 watt or around 700 watt continuous speaker. Specs http://yorkville.com/loudspeakers/paraline_parasource/product/ps12p/

 

Power consumption is 2.4 yo 3 amps, as AH suggested. You could run a bunch of these on one circuit no problem.

 

Again, this is NOT a 4400 watt speaker!

[Al Poulin]

The 4400 watt spec is ridiculous and is obviously straight from the marketing dept. This is a high quality active 12" + 1" active speaker, and you could have 10000 watts available to the transducers just for the sake of being able to publish the numbers, but just like the 8" woofer + 1" horn in Mackie's DLM8 aren't going to see 2000 watts applied to them, the PS-12P is not going to see anywhere near 4400 watts either.

[Al Poulin]

Hi,

I currently own a pair of Yamaha DXR15's and I'm wondering how these Yorkville PS12-P hold up? Which has the highest output, best clarity and deepest bass response?

 

I've only tested the PS-12P for a few hours, but did compare to my DXR15s. The DXR15s are crisper/sweeter up top, while the PS-12Ps go a little deeper and have stronger overall low frequency response with the "Club" mode activated (vs the DXR 15 with D-Contour). That said, the PS-12P has tons of low end boost from the get go in Club mode and this boost is gradually reduced in both level and boost frequency. Both cabs are smooth and easy on the ears (no apparent harshness - even at high volumes). Both also have a flexible mixer section and are made by very reputable companies. The finish on the Yorkville is more durable and the cabinet does have a slightly more solid feel - the Yorkville is 10lbs heavier than the Yamaha, all the while being slightly more compact. I didn't have a chance to test the PS-12P with subs unfortunately, but feel they would do very well. The HF driver remains nice sounding up to the levels I was able to test it at in my studio. The 12" woofer in these cabs is very impressive although I did get them to their excursion limits - which was easy to tell simply by feeling the mount of air they were moving through the ports. They moved substantial mounts even at low volumes, which proves how hard the 12" woofers will be worked in those speakers where users are using the "Club" mode setting. As I raised the masters on my mixer the amount of air remained the same, but the "boost" frequency, which was likely around 45hz at lower volumes seems to be shifted upwards gradually - maybe uo to 60 hz - likely to reduce excursion demands while providing more SPL and remaining full sounding. Eventually, the mids and highs from the horn were the frequencies that were noticeably increasing in volume, which basically proves that ANY 12" woofer can only move so much air. The overall sound remained very nice and musical however (contrary to my older NX55Ps that sounded like ass once into limiting). The multiband limiting does make a big difference sonically. I really loved the PS-12Ps, but am not sure if I would trade my DXR15s for them. Given their price, it would cost me quite a bit to do so. Had I known they would be so good, however, I might have waited for them before purcahsing the DXR15s. I honestly think I'd be very happy with both.

 

Al

[agedhorse]

Comoaring high velocity air in a port is silly. In fact, high velocity is not an indicator of a high quality driver, it's an indicator of a poor design. Good loudspeaker designers address this and the non-linearities it brings within the design of the speaker as a system.

[Al Poulin]

The similar amounts of air the woofers moved going from lower to high volumes (in club mode) was simply an interesting observation which I felt indicated the amounts of low end boost applied in the processing from the get go were pretty significant. It is not something I usually check. I found the speakers impressive because of how low they were able to go for a 12" box comparatively to anything else I've tested in the past. Of course this is done through processing, but it was done much better than in the NX55Ps. The fact that the user can choose to have this boost on or off is also a big plus.