dogpound444

I am 58 years old and have been playing on and off for the better part of my life. Like all of you, I have been looking for the perfect system forever. If the system sounds great, it takes way too long to put together and break down. If it is cheap, it sounds that way no matter what you do or how much eq you have. I have been thru the Perkins cabinet era, the folded horn era, the Claire S4 era and now the line array era. I have had every amp known to man with amp racks that almost took gorilla strength to move. After using our B system (Mackie 450s on top, and 1501s on the bottom) it seemed to me that powered cabinets were the ticket. I have invested in JBL VRX 932 LAPs (4 per side) that can either be flown on a stick or on a truss and they sound great. Subs have been somewhat of an issue. We have used the above 1501s with some success, but recently have been using EV TL 550s ( the ones that your local cinema uses with dual 15s) and powered them with QSC 5050s. FOH mixers can add or subtract ALOT more than you might think, especially if your amp/speakers are high fidelity. Good value for the money is Midas, specifically the Venice series... You will hear the difference even without A/Bing them. Before the Midas, we were using an Allen and Heath 2200 series. When we went to in ears, we needed more outputs and have recently invested in a Yamaha M7CL.... AWESOME!!!!! It has the same fidelity as the Midas, but has 300 memories, EQ, compression, outrageous effects all built in... good bye effects rack. Next on the list to invest in is a digital snake.... can you believe 32 channels all carried by Cat5e????. Alot of the back line equipment on stage can be prewired into the digital stage boxes making setup a snap.... Maybe after all these years I am close to having the perfect system.... we will see...