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PA Upgrade Advice


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We played a private party last night and our wimpy PA (vocals only) just couldn't hang.

 

Band is a 4 piece cover band (vocal, guitar, bass, drums).

 

For larger gigs we rent out a sound man with his own equipment but for smaller gigs and "house" parties we like to provide our own. This will also be the rehearsal PA.

 

Current gear is:

Randall 150 watt power amp

2 10" 2-way mains

2 Carvin 722 12" wedges

Mixer - Carvin 1644

EQ - Behringer stereo EQ(31 bands)

 

Need to upgrade our power amp and FOH speakers. Power amps on the consideration list are QSC RMX 1450 or used PLX 1602 (for weight savings), Samson S1800, Carvin DCM1500 and the Peavey PV1500.

 

Speaker I'm at a loss. Want some thing good but Yorky U15's are probably out of our budget.

 

Appreciate any help and I know our current gear is crap but it was stuff I had lying around the house.

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Originally posted by ned911

We played a private party last night and our wimpy PA (vocals only) just couldn't hang.


Band is a 4 piece cover band (vocal, guitar, bass, drums).


For larger gigs we rent out a sound man with his own equipment but for smaller gigs and "house" parties we like to provide our own. This will also be the rehearsal PA.


Current gear is:

Randall 150 watt power amp

2 10" 2-way mains

2 Carvin 722 12" wedges

Mixer - Carvin 1644

EQ - Behringer stereo EQ(31 bands)


Need to upgrade our power amp and FOH speakers. Power amps on the consideration list are QSC RMX 1450 or used PLX 1602 (for weight savings), Samson S1800, Carvin DCM1500 and the Peavey PV1500.


Speaker I'm at a loss. Want some thing good but Yorky U15's are probably out of our budget.


Appreciate any help and I know our current gear is crap but it was stuff I had lying around the house.

Budget? Are you going to try running any instruments through the PA? PSSL was selling the Cerwin Vega PS153 for $270-299 each,which is a great deal. Add about 300-400 watts to each and you'd have something that sounded pretty nice.

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Trying to keep the speaker purchase under $1K for the pair. For the power amps I mentioned they run in the $300-400 range, I'm trying to find used as well.

 

I would like to run the whole band through the FOH (minus snare and cymbals/HH) if possible.

 

I'll check on the Cerwin Vega deal.

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Originally posted by ned911

Trying to keep the speaker purchase under $1K for the pair. For the power amps I mentioned they run in the $300-400 range, I'm trying to find used as well.


I would like to run the whole band through the FOH (minus snare and cymbals/HH) if possible.


I'll check on the Cerwin Vega deal.

If you start running kick drum and bass,you'll use up all your reserve on the speakers and the amp pretty quickly. That would mean wanting subs. But that is somewhat dependant on the genre and how much low end is required.

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Originally posted by ned911

Since this will be for smaller gigs and small private parties I'm hoping to stay away from subs. We rent out a sound man for bigger gigs.

I understand. I think the C-V's would be a good choice in the price range,especially at their special price. They have a separate horn-loaded midrange driver which helps clean up the mid tones a bit,especially if you have the woofer pumping pretty hard. I've heard them and they sound pretty nice. And they are plywood,not too heavy,and aren't carpeted.

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Check out the C-V deal mentioned above and also possibly for some used Sonic T12s or T15s or similar and get a used QSC RMX amp to match which will get you in well under $1,000 with some patience for 2 main speakers and an amp to power them.

 

 

Since this will be for smaller gigs and small private parties I'm hoping to stay away from subs. We rent out a sound man for bigger gigs.

 

 

Even for the little 50-75 gigs we play where we bring our own PA, we find that having one powered sub helps out our bottom end and cleans up our mains a ton. The difference in sound once we added our little powered sub was dramatic from the get go. At some point, you may find that a Yorkville ls700p (low profile, strong 700w, not too heavy) would markedly improve your sound for these small gigs.

 

Good Luck!

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Originally posted by Singin' Dave

Check out the C-V deal mentioned above and also possibly for some used Sonic T12s or T15s or similar and get a used QSC RMX amp to match which will get you in well under $1,000 with some patience for 2 main speakers and an amp to power them.




Even for the little 50-75 gigs we play where we bring our own PA, we find that having one powered sub helps out our bottom end and cleans up our mains a ton. The difference in sound once we added our little powered sub was dramatic from the get go. At some point, you may find that a Yorkville ls700p (low profile, strong 700w, not too heavy) would markedly improve your sound for these small gigs.


Good Luck!

Getting that bottom octave of the kick drum reinforced makes the difference between sounding like a beginning garage band and a finished product. Major difference.

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