whats everyone using for PA's these days?

mike257

Phil_aka_Pip;1022098" said:

A 4mm x 16mm ID ball closure ring

Brilliant! Does it chafe much?

Bojangles

The best I ever had were RCF TT25-A, immense sound but bloody expensive.  Had to sell them after a spot of financial meltdown, now got TurboSound Milan's.  Not as good but still a great sound.  Only use Soundcraft desks as that's all I've ever known! 

Fez

Mackie desk and srm350's for us

simonk

We use the Studiomaster VPX15 tops and matching 15" subs. They're reasonably priced and sound way better than the similarly priced Wharfdale systems. Spare drivers are readily available from Studiospares too, who also do the systems under their own Fortissimo (I think) brand. 

Desk is a Yamaha MG16XU.

monkey42

kennedydream1980 said:

My 5 piece cover band (2 guitars, bass, drums, lead singer) have been using a full KV2 PA for about 4 years now. The rig consists of 2 x EX12 tops and 2 x EX2.2 Subs. It's top quality stuff and was a pretty Sizeable investment for us (Approx £10,000) when we took the plunge and bought it, but it's probably the best thing we ever did.

It's fairly compact but it has handled every venue we have played with volume to spare. The quality of sound from this little rig is amazing.

We also have a Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 digital mixing desk. The singer uses in ears for monitors and we have a single Mackie SRM450 active speaker which is used as fold back for the rest of the band. Stage volume is fairly low so this single speaker is enough for us.

Near on identical to this, although we have a Mackie digital desk and use IEM. Great clear rig

EricTheWeary

Our PA is mostly borrowed from where our singist works. Just for vocals and a bit of keys normally - two powered Wharfedale speakers and a powered Peavey monitor primarily for the drummist. Using the pair of Peaveys out front as wedge monitors were very tricky in terms of getting meaningful volume without feedback. Having one back by the drummer helps him and largely cures feedback issues and we just about get enough from the powered speakers to hear ourselves.

The mixer is a huge, heavy 24 channel thing. At the most we must be using 6 channels so investing in a modern digital one (ipad compatability would be a huge bonus) so we might do that as a band purchase. Any thoughts on that? Ideally cheap, simple, reliable.

AlexHunter

Best eBay bargain I got was an SR Technology pocket 1400 system. Little known Italian manufacturer, 800watt sub with a Bang & Olufsen amp section, two 300watt tops with lightweight neo speakers. Clarity and punch, fits on the back seat of standard hatchback and can handle full 2 guitar band set up in 200-400 seater venues easily.

Danny1969

EricTheWeary said:

Our PA is mostly borrowed from where our singist works. Just for vocals and a bit of keys normally - two powered Wharfedale speakers and a powered Peavey monitor primarily for the drummist. Using the pair of Peaveys out front as wedge monitors were very tricky in terms of getting meaningful volume without feedback. Having one back by the drummer helps him and largely cures feedback issues and we just about get enough from the powered speakers to hear ourselves.

The mixer is a huge, heavy 24 channel thing. At the most we must be using 6 channels so investing in a modern digital one (ipad compatability would be a huge bonus) so we might do that as a band purchase. Any thoughts on that? Ideally cheap, simple, reliable.

There's 2 ways to go with a digital mixer. Either iPad dependent like the Mackie DL1608, SM Pro Umix etc or Ipad remote controllable like the A&H QU series and many others

Personally I like the desks like the QU series which function as standalone digital desks but are fully remote controllable with an Ipad including phone control over monitor mix'es etc ..... if the Ipad dies the gig carries on

With an iPad dependent desk like the popular Mackie DL1608 or cheap SM Umix you lose all control except gain if the iPad goes down

You can do a lot worse than an Allen & Heath QU16, we have one and a QU24 and they are affordable, well built and have some great dynamics and time based effects built in plus plenty of aux sends for monitors and IEM's. 

EricTheWeary

Cheers @danny1969 I will look those up.

ash96

Currently using some RCF ART 722A speakers with Mackie Subs. Like @roland suggested, we got ours from ebay. You can get great speakers for the price of average ones new.

We use monitors and I hate them, we're thinking of going the in ear route.

Roland

IEMs really surprised me. My previous experience, albeit many years ago, was poor quality and flaky signal. The modern stuff works really well. We run two separate channels, which allows singers and instrumentalists to have different mixes. It also means that we can get by on one channel if there's interference on the other.

benmurray85

I'll update this as we actually purchased something yesterday. We have gone the traditional route. As much as we'd have loved to get in ears they were out of our price range at the mo.
Tbh I don't know the specs but can't speak highly enough of the guys at Pro Audio Centre in Leeds. They went through lods of stuff with us, many phone calls and emails later we got a great deal.

Highly recommend them