EV TourX 15 and 12 wedge review

[Unalaska]

I play in a live band karaoke show around seattle. I'm at the muckleshoot casino every wed playing bass and they have an installed EAW rig powered by LabGruppen amps. FOH and monitor worlds are 2x M7CL-48, monitor world uses the onboard EQ's in the M7 then straight to a rack of PL3.4's passive to EAW SM15's, 8 mixes (we use 4) with no processing: M7 to amp to speaker. EQ is very basic, a few cuts around 250, 1K, 4K IIRC and HPF @ 60hz.

 

So EAW is having a very hard time getting replacement diaphrams and recone kits as well as a few other things since Loud screwed the import pooch. The local EV rep brought in 2 TourX monitors, a 12 and a 15.

 

I run direct, no amp, on this gig. My mix consists of my bass and my vocal, 25% guitar, 25% guitar voc and thats it.

 

I got the 15 first, the box itself was slightly more efficient and I had to have my vocals backed downa shade. It sounded more clear to me, the woofer was doing more work as the x-over seemed higher to me (2.2K?) but the 15 didn't get real beamy at all. Plenty of volume (I like a loud ass wedge) though I felt like I might be running out of speaker soon if I asked for too much more. The bass guitar didn't muddy up the vocal and I could get the guitar I needed too. Plenty of low end from this box, it was a little more aggressive sounding than the EAW.

 

I got to use the 12" on the last set, no changes in mix. The 12 handle bass guitar very well, didn't put out the bottom octave or more but that wasn't needed. The vocal detail was wonderful and was more plesant to listen to though there wasn't a huge difference between the two boxes. The stage is 30+ feet wide and 25ft deep, it's important to have plain volume on a stage that big, I woundn't put a 12 under the grating on stage (even in pairs) and expect it to have the overall volume needed for the loudest of bands.

 

Cosmetically I liked the box a lot. I don't know how the finish will hold up over time though there is no way to tell except wait. The box was very well made and looked very professional, inputs were on the backside of the box (facing away from performer) and recessed and angled to give the most relief on the cable (very cool idea). The grill was neat and I'm glad no one from the audience could see it since I think it kinda draws you eyes to it, how does the EV logo stay on (plastic behind logo glued to grill/logo).

 

Both boxes were very easy to move around, this is one case where the 4 way handles actually helped. It's relatively light too, a few lbs lighter than the SM15, the 12 looked kinda dwarfed by the size of the stage though.

 

Hope that helps, I did get to try the EAW microwedge, it was more aggressive sounding and didn't sound as good as the SM15 at more than 2x the money. Low profile for sure but also didn't have the LF the SM15 did.

 

I suggested for them to try the QRX112 for monitors or QRX115 since that would be more on par with their requirements. The orientation of the QRX may be a deal breaker though. I dunno, I have no say whatsoever in this but hopefully they can replace their beat up EAW wedges.

[gdawg55]

I have 4 of the EV TX12 monitors and really like them. They sound pretty good right out of the box and it doesn't take alot of eq to keep feedback at bay. They get loud and we never have trouble getting the vocals over the stage volume for our singers. They are relatively small and light weight for moving and do look very professional. My FOH rig is the EV Phoenix and the TX does not look out of place at all. I was using Yamaha Club wedges and the TX boxes definitely sound better, look better, and just work better for us.

 

Great wedges for the money IMHO.