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Ignorant question on makeshift basment PA--will it work?


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Hey lads,

 

Skip over this if your blood boils when you here Behringer and you have the urge to advise me to get $800 speakers. Just want to know if this will work and be healthy for the mixer and the speakers.

 

This is what I can slap together for just a basement PA right now. Needs to be heard over drums and loud amps (noisy, screaming, not very subtle band). Will it blow either the mixer or these found home stereo speakers:

 

Behringer PMX2000 (stereo 250w per side)

Infinity Seires Monitor 150 (12in woofer, 4in woofer, tweeter at 8ohms, 300watts max)

Acoustic DJP Series (75w 12in speaker, with teeter--not sure of the resistance).

 

Don't need you to tell me how it will sound (I know, don't care); need you to tell me if it will work.

 

Appreciated,

 

Billy

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The tweeters in home stereo speakers cannot handle the signal you will be putting into them. They will pop and crackle. After a while they will stop doing that, of course they will stop doing anything at all. I have used home stereo speakers effectively in lower volume applications but they are not going to get above loud drums and guitars without blowing up.

 

I learned the hard way that this does not work. It was not until years latter when I started working in Live Sound that I learned why this does not work.

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Typical home speaker sensitivity is in the range 88 -92 dB per watt. Even cheap PA speakers will be more like 98 dB per watt. Which means the home speaker can require up to 10 times more power to produce the same sound pressure level. Except thaey can't handle that much power (and you probably don't have that much powere anyway). So they go up inflames trying to compete with guitars and drums.

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Now, if you want to consider perhaps spending $ 700 or $800 on a good powered speaker, you might be able to do what you want to do, but... I actually have some good $ 750 powered speakers, and I am not really sure that one of them would get on top of a loud drummer and a couple of half stacks cranked. (Not that I would want to be in a basement with a loud drummer and a couple of half stacks cranked of course.)

 

Sorry, I just had to say this.

 

Honestly, you should think about the possibility of actually injuring your ears, and actually damaging your hearing. I men I know that it is just your hearing, but then on the other hand, it IS your hearing.

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Stereo speakers can get loud enough to drive me out of a basement. If you are determined to go this route then find a volume the speakers can handle with room for error. Once you find that make everyone else turn down until you have a nice mix. If you are lucky it won't blow up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nah. It is still going to blow up. Oh well.

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Yeah, stereo speakers will not do what you want, and they'll most likely die in the process.

 

Now if you don't want to spend $800, I bet you could find some old Peavey stuff in the local pawnshop or music store fairly cheap. Those speakers are *hard* to kill, and usually get fairly loud. Nothing fancy, but workhorse stuff.

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No, it won't work well. Home stereo speakers are typically inefficient, and with only two powered by a dubious source, you're not likely to get much volume to get over drums and amps.

 

 

It's amazing how this happens over and over again. How about trading the amps for a good PA and use this crap for the guitars?

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Home speakers will not get nearly as loud as pro speakers at all. When my buddy and I had the idea to start a DJ company, we tried to pool all of our home audio stuff together in my basement a couple years ago in hopes of putting together a system worthy of gigging:

 

Originally posted by DJ Swydez


My buddy and I, when we originally started DJing, each had quite a bit of "home audio" speakers that we thought we could use. Our system was something like you described, only a bit more powerful with more speakers. We had 4 KLH 12" speakers, 2 Dual 10" Panasonic speakers, 2 Acoustic Research 8" Speakers, 2 12" Powered Subs, 1 8" JBL powered sub, 2 8" Yamaha Speakers, 2 5.25" Sony Speakers, 2 4" Polks, and a couple other smaller speakers. We powered all this through 4 Home Audio Receivers (2 Kenwood, 1 Pioneer, and 1 TEAC). We also had 2 Home Audio Amps that we used for the bigger speakers. We had 2 5-Disc CD Players (No computers then) and a 101-Disc Player which we ran through an Optimus Mixer from Radioshack. Man did that system sound frickin' awesome in my basement! OMG we thought we had it made (this was the end of like 8th grade)! We thought we had plenty of sound to do a small gig in a local school gym, so we brought our dads down there and blew them away too. Like you said, this system looked awesome and monstrous too. However it posed a slight problem that it took 2 Yukon XL trucks to transport all of it.


However, when we went to the local store and described our system, they basically just laughed at us. They told us that yes it would look awesome, and sound great in my basement, but it would not stand up to the rigors of DJing and would sound like a boombox in that gym. He also said that it would look and sound a lot less professional, considering we would have to push that system to the max. And that is when the whole dream started...

 

Okay, so we cranked that system almost full in my basement and thought we had it made. Man and that system did look baddass... tons of speakers stacked together with tons of audio equipment powering them and lots of lights flashing. But think of how much stuff we had. And imagine how disappointed we were when after we had our first gig, we set up a pair of Yamaha S115v speakers we had rented from the local store on a QSC RMX-1450 and could not get that system any where near half before it started to hurt our ears. It just goes to show that 2 pro speakers and a good amp are a much better solution than a mess of home audio equipment and other components.

 

Anyway, Good Luck! :thu:

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No, it won't work well. Home stereo speakers are typically inefficient, and with only two powered by a dubious source, you're not likely to get much volume to get over drums and amps.



It's amazing how this happens over and over again. How about trading the amps for a good PA and use this crap for the guitars?

 

 

I had a pair of the Infinity SM150s for home speakers years ago. They're a very substantial and loud speaker. I believe they were rated at at least 100 dB sensitivity. Whereas they're not ideal, and I wouldn't take the chance if they were mine, they probably stand a better chance than a lot of other home stereo speakers would.

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Hey lads,


Skip over this if your blood boils when you here Behringer and you have the urge to advise me to get $800 speakers. Just want to know if this will work and be healthy for the mixer and the speakers.


This is what I can slap together for just a basement PA right now. Needs to be heard over drums and loud amps (noisy, screaming, not very subtle band). Will it blow either the mixer or these found home stereo speakers:


Behringer PMX2000 (stereo 250w per side)

Infinity Seires Monitor 150 (12in woofer, 4in woofer, tweeter at 8ohms, 300watts max)

Acoustic DJP Series (75w 12in speaker, with teeter--not sure of the resistance).


Don't need you to tell me how it will sound (I know, don't care); need you to tell me if it will work.


Appreciated,


Billy

 

 

Pretty much everyone else has made this point already.... but you're just going to blow up your speakers. I would suggest you get a couple of cheap monitor type speakers. Even Behringer's cheap monitors will work here.

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My favorite "really cheap" PA solution is common in the Pawn Shops around here. They sell car stereo speakers in big boxes containing two 12's or 10's or 15's. They also contain two tweeter horns. I have cobbled some old busted PA speakers back together with this stuff before. You can get these boxes for about $35. They sound like crap but I have yet to blow one of those crappy tweeters. No one can stand be be near them at full blast so you never drive them to the breaking point.

 

Can y'all tell I have had to do PA without any budget before?

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My favorite "really cheap" PA solution is common in the Pawn Shops around here. They sell car stereo speakers in big boxes containing two 12's or 10's or 15's. They also contain two tweeter horns. I have cobbled some old busted PA speakers back together with this stuff before. You can get these boxes for about $35.
They sound like crap
but I have yet to blow one of those crappy tweeters. No one can stand be be near them at full blast so you never drive them to the breaking point.


Can y'all tell I have had to do PA without any budget before?

 

Haha now that's funny! :lol:

 

I mean car speakers? Wow... that is pathetic... :rolleyes:

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Thank you, gents. Accomplished with almost no condescension.


Appreciated.

 

 

The hope is that you'll rethink this and not ruin some possibly decent home stereo gear. Even a single small powered speaker would work, and won't cost too much. Many have multiple inputs and some EQ. Check out a Peavey PR-10P, PR-12P, PR-15P.

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We do practice in a small basement, a power trio; with a loud drummer. bass player with a 300 watt Eden; and a Marshall 50 watt amp; with a set of RAMSA 12" speakers with horns. Had to use a Peavey Feedback Ferret to control the feedback. The DBX 33 band EQ couldn't reduce some of the resonant frequencies enough. Also, had to treat some sections of the walls and ceilings to lower resonant frequencies. Works fine now.

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