ChadGrieser1979

hello ladies and gents, just have a couple of questions for you all. My church is using community cs70 speakers for mains. I have 2 pair, but only using one. The 2nd pair i need a crossover in one and a 12 woofer in the other, last i knew when i tested them a year ago if not longer. I am going to check them out again this week sometime to see if they need any other components. I have found a crossover on ebay, as well as multiple 12" speakers, but here is my question. does anyone know where i could find the information on what speaker gets used for the highs? i know what the midrange driver is, but cannot find anything on the high drivers, so if those need replaced i don't know what to do. My church is pretty tight on budget, and i am trying hard to stretch our current equipment until we can budget up enough money to get upgrades, so i would like to have both pair of speakers useable, and even potentially run them together and eliminate the junk speakers that are in stage from use as they sound nasty/likely blown tweeters. Any help would be very appreciated, and even if knowing where i could find the parts would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

Oh man, that stinks. What mixer do you have? depending on what it is, it is likely not worth repairing. hopefully someone more knowledgeable can help you more.

doing well here. Just doing weekly sunday church services as well as wed evening practices. seems early, but we are already starting to gear up to get ready for christmas service.

Good monday evening. Just an update for you all who have read this and assisted me in the past. I will try to get a picture of the set up we have stage wise, and I had recently run into an old friend who had another set of community cs70 speakers that he wasn't using, which coincidentally were the other set to the ones the church is still using now, that he and I had used 20 years ago when we ran sound. He let me have them as he isn't using them and hasn't for about 7 years. I have them sitting on stage, but have not had much time to look into them to see what shape they are in and if they even work. If they do work, or only need small work to get working, then i will add these to the ones already in use, and unhook those MTX's from under stage, and leave them there until we get time to find some actual subs to put in their place. The church is actually in the process of going digital with the audio gear and we are currently waiting for the rest of the equipment to get in so we can go full In ear monitors for the worship team, so the monitors on stage will all be gone! yay for me as it will make my FOH mixing so much easier as the keyboardists can never hear themselves but their instruments can be basically not in the house mix unless the band is in a big part of a praise song.... No, I don't have a crossover yet, but then again i don't have subs either. We have done a few movie nights with the current system, and people say it sounds nearly as good as in a movie theater so i think that i am heading in a good direction. We are looking to head towards doing city wide youth group praise and worship events in the near future as well(probably after the holidays) and with subs, and the community cabs above them (2 per side) this should make it pretty rocking for the young adults. speaking of subs, we are considering building our own, as we have access to a lot of wood to build the cabinets. Does anyone have a suggestion on a cabinet building program? I have seen decent reviews on the rockville stuff, and it seems to be priced decent (not dumpster cheap prices) I am looking to go 18" subs and 2 per side. or should I go 4 per side? If rockville stuff isnt good, please let me know and also give suggestions on decent once to use? Thanks again all and Have a great day.

glad it went well and you had a good time. looks like a good turnout as well!

looked like some fun! sounds like some good gel going on there too!

I do need to update my post for the church sound. Its slowly getting there

I'm doing well man! still doing sound for that church. things are getting better sound wise, at least until i get some funding from the church to get the band into in ear monitoring. don't have a crossover yet either, but will do that when the band goes in ears so that will free up an amp to do subs.

Thank you for your input heath! yes I have actually just got done building stands out of 4x4s and 2x6s to get the speakers up 48" from stage level. This past sunday was first time running sound since the change. I noticed that the front few rows are not being blown away with the highs but the vocals were still pretty clear. I still have not gotten the tops and bottoms separated with a crossover yet, as still not having funds to do so, but am working towards it as i can. The sound of the system is very good, and almost weekly I get compliments from the congregation on how well it sounds. Yes 108 is loud, I had just been doing testing to see how loud I could push it. we run more like 98 to 100 with bumps to around 102 for the most intense parts of songs, but not often. I check in here every couple of days, but as I need to get a pic of the stage set up as it currently is with the speakers now on stands(they are affixed to the floor on all 4 posts).

Thanks for your thoughts. Much appreciated. If at some point I get more funding, I will probably leave the speakers in the stage there, and just put the subs on the stage and the mains on top of those. Until then, I will probably make some sort of speaker stands for them for now. IF i can figure out the best way to build them.. I have an idea but want a bit of input on the structure of the stands before I build anything.

Happy new year and belated Merry Christmas to all. I know its been a few weeks since I've posted, and wanted to give an update/ask for suggestions. We had a bit of a mess a few weeks back as someone decided to quit doing worship music, and they took all their gear with them, which included quite a few mics and most all of the mic stands, and we were left with old clunky ones. We have filled some of the void, and I am working to get us back into a good spot again. I have our mains as the community cabinets sitting on edge of stage where they yamahas had been, along with the mtxs where they are in stage yet. I'm still running both in full range, as finances have not been available for a crossover or subs, so thats on hold yet. Now that the system is quite a bit louder, there is some complaints about it being too loud, and back where i'm at FOH land my spl meter hits a max of around 102db (a weighted). I know it was suggested to get the horns higher, and I am looking into how to do that with those monster community cabinets. I am considering building some wooden stands for them, just not sure if i should use 2x4s or 4x4s for the legs. I planned to use 2x4s for around the top. I also planned to used angle brackets (at least 1 per leg) and screw them to the legs and floor, as well as some straight brackets to secure the cabinets to the stands. Does that sound good, or should I use ratchet straps to hold the speakers to the stands. I know it needs to be secure, I want to make sure the weight is supported well and nothing would happen to fall. I feel brackets would be a better bet as i could use 2 or 3 per side and a couple along the back on the speaker to the stand. Thanks for any input you may give.

I forgot to add to that last update post. I def need a crossover, and some actual dedicated subs. I think I will get a behringer super-x pro cx3400 crossover. I just need to figure out what subs to get without breaking the bank as I am buying as I get paid from the church. All of the gear i've gotten for the church I have gotten from ebay and gotten pretty good deals on things. I was thinking of going with 18's for subs, probably 2 18's per side under the community cabinets. Any suggestions on true sub speakers? I am thinking of going passive subs and get another 3402 to run them, just not sure what ones are good without being too expensive that I would need a few months to collect funds to purchase some. Subs seem expensive to buy from ebay as they are so large and heavy. Would buying something new be an alright option? Yamaha's double 18s look to be a good value for double 18s vs over single 18s of their same line. I have never heard or used the behringer speakers so i'm hesitant to get those, unless someone chimes in and says if they are reliable or sound good. I think i would like jbls over yamahas yet i'm not sure if i could afford to do that unless doing there low end subs and still would cost more as it only comes as a single 18, vs the double 18s of the yamahas. Any insight into this is most appreciated.

Thanks for the information. I actually was able to score a 3402 on monday for 400 bucks and no shipping as it was local so picked it up tuesday. Last night I was able to get the community cabinet repaired and swapped out the rmx 1450 for that. Yes the rmx was able to run 2 ohm, but it couldn't keep up very well. Now with running the communities and mtx cabinets together as I had with the yamahas/mtx was night and day difference. It was like i flipped a switch and it sounds LOUD. I have a handheld spl meter and on the rmx amp running the yamaha/mtx I could only get to around 102 db "a" weighted and that was hitting the clip lights when kick drum would hit. When I got everything set up and a good mix running, I went and checked the amp to see how she was handling things, and I wasn't hitting the clip light, so I went to make sure the mix was at 0 unity on the mains out and grabbed my spl meter. I left it run for a good while as the band was finishing a song and getting into a new one, and once they got into the chorus a bit i looked down and seen I had hit 108 db. I knew it SOUNDED good, and could actually feel the bass and some of the kick, but I was floored it was 6db louder than before. I pushed the system slowly until i would occasionally hit the clip and that was roughly 2ish above 0 on the fader, so about +3 on the output. After practice was done, the band was like, what did you do? It sounded amazing. Their stage amps and monitors was loud enough on stage they couldn't hear anything from FOH speakers, but last night they could definitely hear a difference.

Thanks for the reply. And yes trying to KISS as possible while having the best sound I can get as well. I am currently the only person running sound, and want to get as much of the stuff set up and dialed in as I can before having someone else start working with it who may not have any clue about whats going on. The more I get set up and dialed in, the less someone else may need to mess around with outside of setting up gain and mixing on the board. I think for now, I will just get a crossover, and a 3002 for the community cabinets now that i have funds for an amp and possibly crossover. Once I get that situated, i may try selling the 1450 and get another 3002 for the mtx to use as subs. In the future sometime I would like to get some actual dedicated subs. Looking at possibly using a pair of single 18s per side or a single 2x18s per side. Those will probably be the hardest part to find without paying a boatload for shipping or a boatload for new, as well as to get ones that will sound good. another thing i'm working on is to get some more compression channels for the drums, bass vocals, etc. i'm currently using a behringer multicom pro which is a 4 channel compressor. It works, I just would like a couple good compressors for vocals, and some decent ones for drums bass etc. I am thinking of the presonus acp 88 for drums etc, but cannot decide what would be good for vocals. Need 4 channels for vocals. The presonus acp88 was a great compressor when I used it long ago. What helps me out is that we have the same group of people in the worship band from week to week, so i can mostly set things and forget it. I appreciate all the time you have been helping me with this as well. I will try to remember to get pics of my FOH set up, plus the amp rack, and mess of a stage we've got right now. The stage will get cleaned up once I am able to get the amp and crossover, and take a saturday to work on setting things up and cleaning up the stage. Gonna tape down all the cables and cords and power to keep it organized).

As an update. I had time to to a test with a wire, and wow, it worked. It sounds just like the other speaker, so I went ahead and got 4 bulbs on order and will swap out the bulbs in both crossovers so that I won't worry about the other ones bulbs going out on me. From what i can figure out amp wise, I am looking to try to score a used plx 3402 or 3602 for the community cabinets, as well as a decent crossover. Use for now the qsc rmx 1450 for the mtxs as subs. Does that sound alright? Or should I be looking into picking up a plx 3002 for the mtx speakers? Yeah i know I've got a qsc amp fixation, I had used them back long ago when running sound and they were very good amps and sounded good to me as well. Behringer super pro xl 3400 a good crossover? I like the built in limiters, phase inversion. I believe from what I can read up on them they also have a bit of time delay on them as well. Cant tell if its for the subs or highs though. Been a while since I've dealt with having to set and dial in crossovers.

Thanks for the suggestion of a piece of wire to test it out without replacing the bulb. I did find on full compass website that they have in their community speaker parts lists an sk3 bulb used for community and jbl crossover networks. I haven't ordered bulbs yet. I will try to do the test with the wire Sunday morning during rehearsal and see what I hear. i've got plenty of wire at home to take a bit and use for a test. If that works, i'll order the bulbs. Looking at both crossovers there does not seem to be any parts that look burned or caps that are bulged, or windings that look damaged in any way. However I am not an electrician nor do i have the tools to check those parts either, however one of our guitarists IS an electrician and may be able to help with diagnosis of any potential parts being bad or going bad. Thanks again for your help, it is much appreciated!

sorry for the delay in getting back with some updates, was quite busy and also didn't have much time to look into things until last night. I was able to hook up the community cs70 speakers and run sound thru them. At first glance they sounded quite a bit better than they yamahas. However, after doing some more listening to them one at a time and really paying attention to the sounds, myself and another person there at practice who was just hanging out we noticed that on one of the speakers there was quite a bit of the high end missing from the stage left speaker compared to the stage right one. I carefully took the back plate and crossover units out of both cabinets, and the one has both light bulbs with the filaments broken(this is the one with missing high end). The good sounding speaker has both bulbs with intact filaments. So here is my question. I know those bulbs were there as a overload protect of sorts for the horns, but with the filaments broken in both bulbs on the one speaker be the cause of the missing high end? If so, what type of bulb do I need to repair them, and is it something I can do with a bit of soldering? I am still in the process of collecting funds for a crossover and another power amp to properly drive the mtx's for subs and either the yamahas or community cabs for mid highs. Much appreciate any help anyone could give.

That was what i was thinking, or using wood screws and some angle brackets to screw together. whatever i do for testing i won't strap down as nobody will be nearby, but if i find something that sounds better than current setup, i will secure them down thats for sure. would hate for someone to get injured by them falling.

Thank you for your input. I just got home from church and took a couple of quick pics before rehearsal this morning. I have attached them to this post. I however did not get a chance to find out if the community cabinets are still in working order or not. If they are, would they be a better use vs the yamaha's? I know that I am going to probably have to at some point get better cabinets for subs other than the mtx's in the future but if the community cabs are still in good working order would they outrun the mtxs and make it really noticable? and would the qsc run the community cabs decently enough for now until i could get more powerful amp? I will double check but believe the amp dip switch is on 30 hz low cut, didn't think to bump it to 50 since currently don't have a dedicated crossover. When I go to practice this coming week I will move that to 50 hz, and try to get more idea about the community cabs as well. Thanks again for your help!

Dookietwo, the speaker front itself says its a 4/8ohm speaker and it is built into the front of the stage and I cannot get access to the back side, nor can I find any information on google, bing, mtx's website as to the true speakers ohm rating. Yes I am planning to get an active crossover here at some point and also get an amp for the mtx to run them as subs. I hadn't thought of running the yamaha's with the 1450 amp bridged or to get a better matched amp to run at 8 ohm, and later add another set of them per side. and use the 1450 for monitor duty down the road if we need to add another 2 monitor mixes. The mtxs are built into the front edge of the stage, and the yamaha's are sitting on the corners of the stage at the edge of the arch(this was an old theater before converted to church) and are about 3 feet higher than the mtx's. I will get some pictures of the stage and speaker layout tomorrow morning during soundcheck before church and post them when I get home. Hopefully that will help give people a better idea of whats going on. Another question: The church also has a pair of old Community CS70 speakers (4 ohm 600w rms 1500w peak). They are not in service, and I'm not sure if they still work, but would those be a better fit for the mid highs than the yamaha's? I would definetly need a bigger amp to power those big boys properly though. Back 20ish years ago when i was running sound, we had 2 pair and 2 18" subs per side and they got plenty loud and to my ears sounded pretty good. Thank you for your time and replies Chad

Hello all, it has been over a decade since i've been here. I had gotten out of running sound, got married, have 2 boys 7 and 4. Now here comes the important parts. I have gotten involved with a church as the sound tech about 3 months ago. I have been slowly getting things squared away and forgotten about this site until just today. The church runs a contemporary service with drums, bass, 2 electric guitars, acoustic guitar, 2 or 3 vocals, and they are looking to add a keyboard player. The current gear for FOH and Mains are this: behringer mx 2442a(about to be taken out of service for a soundcraft gb4 40 channel mixer i scored on ebay for 400 bucks monday. only 1 channel has a gain issue, rest works well) they have 2 24 channel snakes run to FOH Mains are: 1 per side Yamaha S115IV (500w rms @8ohm) 1 per side MTX PRO 215 (400w rms @8ohm) AMP is qsc rmx 1450 NOT A they have the yamaha and mtx on each side running in parallel so i think from what i can tell it is running a 4 ohm load on the amp, which is rated at 280@ohm and 450@4ohm and 700@2Ohm. I am looking to get a crossover and an amp or amps to properly drive those speakers. as it stands i am pushing the clip light when on the behringer it hits +4 on the main fader, so i keep it below that. my concern is with how this is set up currently i am wasting what watts i have trying to drive mismatched speakers by running both in full range, plus having undersized amp on them as well. I would like some guideance as to what to do here. I don't have much money to spend, and ebay is my friend, so recommended amp/amps would be much appreciated. Volume wise, we get to just about 90db on my handheld SPL meter, but we have no room to push it when we get to big moments in songs. ALL help is appreciated. monitor wise, we are paired well with amp to speaker needs watts wise per rms. Thanks, Chad