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let's talk about soundsystems...
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| Inertia |
ok. tonight has been enough. tonight was the third night my friend get together here to throw a private party, invite people (3:1 female to male ratio), abusive amounts of drinks, the venue was my poolhouse, which is kind of unkempt, which gives it this kind of defunct warehouse vibe, excellent music, decent setup....
BUT THE M***ERFU**ING SOUNDSYSTEM F*CKS UP.
ill go into detail just to vent, but if you just want to help me out picking a soundsystem, please skip ahead to the end of the post.
first attempt:
oldschool Marantz reciever + oldschool beaten to death speakers
venue was my terrace
result:
one of the speakers didnt work, and the other was pretty . after about 20mins of spinning, the bass died on it (as in the mids and the highs could be heard, but not the bass, and yes, we're sure it was the speaker, as the mixer still functions correctly). wasn't so disastrous as there were only like 13 people to begin with.
second attempt:
for my birthday, venue was the poolhouse. i got some lent speakers and an amp. the amp was a bit shot, but it did the job.
result:
we did a small soundcheck during the afternoon. although the soundcheck was at the terrace, and we were only using the cd players. later we got the vinyl decks, and another mixer. we did about 25mins of spinning, and all was beautiful. we move to the poolhouse. that night, when we hook everything up to the other mixer (Stanton SK6) the decks worked perfectly, of course, but the cd players would go in the red automatically. we even turned the gains ALL the way down, and it was still in the red. so we had to use the other mixer, which was just plain ty. we then noticed that for some reason, when we played with EQs, adding a lil extra punch to the bass, it would (apparently) overpower the system, and the amp would shut down, probably to prevent problems. so we basically had a night of not that many people (was during exams, people left at 2am) and problematic sound.
third attempt:
tonight. venue is poolhouse. no soundcheck (no time). some speakers (homemade pretty much) and a radio console as amp.
result:
beautiful attendace. large groups of hot women. even though there was no soundcheckh, the DJ's got here early, and started to fawk around, and all was good for about 1 to 1 and a half hours. then the amp we had just went off. it wouldnt go to volume 15 and hold its own, it would go sensitive with the EQs like mentioned above. which is completely unrecognized, as the exact same setup worked perfectly at my friends house. people got bored and bored when the sound would cut, or was being played (very low to keep it from dying). they left. us organizers felt more and more helpless, and finally, after everyone left, we got a bottle of whisky and sat down to talk and laugh at our own pittifulness till 5am.
the console seems to have burned out, as the ventilation fan goes on only sometimes, and it was getting uber hot. we then took the top off and put a huge fan next to it, and let it cool for a while. even when running cold, would still do the same.
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so now, i can basically never throw a party here, ever. who would come? after those 3 experiences.
so, soundsystem. i want something good. we want something good. but we're not the sons of donald trump. basically, give me a best bang for the buck type of thing. if preamplified speakers are possible, thatd own, because after three gay experiences, not having to rely on one amp to power everything would be great, rather have everything have its own seperate problem. at least that way i have less chances of everything going out at once.
so, what are we talking about here? my friends are thinking of putting their cash together, so give me ideas. be as explicit as possible. we will probably end up buying used gear, but give us pointers. |
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| Inertia |
in case you want to know, we're using:
2x Stanton STR8-80
2x American Audio CDS-1 (not that good, but does the job)
mixer 1: American Audio QDS-1 (i think. its the most basic, and the one that least causes trouble. it is also the gayest)
mixer 2: Stanton SK-6
mixer 3: Stanton RM3-S (we tried using it tonight. the decks would be heard extremely low, and when we turned up the master to use the decks, it would distor if we had both at full volume)
so tonight we went with the AA. |
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| Keith Chambers |
I use the Bose PAS and it has never let me down once. I have two of these:
http://www.bose.com/controller;jses...ducts/index.jsp
I'm not sure if a total system at $4600 is what you would call Trumpin' it but I assure you what you will not have any 'gay' experiences with it.
These things are wicked loud, wicked clear and super easy to move around. Since they are top of the line Bose they will have good resell as well. And with a 45 day money back guarantee where they pay the shipping BOTH ways you have no reason not to try them out.
Get the Bose PAS and get back to focusing on the music! :-)
Keith |
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| Briden |
i'm willing to guess that your problem is overheating. Amps and speakers don't like to get too warm. Living where you do this is probably a big concern
I suggest you get something brand new, that is meant for this, doesn't even have to be that powerful, but make sure you get a stereo amp, not some home theatre crap. Then, make sure your amp is kept cool, put a fan facing it, and make sure there is nothing on top of it and it can breathe.
powered speakers are an option, but they can overheat as well, and tend not to have as good heat dissipation as seperate amp and speaker combo's. |
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| Koolaid |
| If I were you I would locate a DJ / music shop. Rent some powered speakers (such as JBL Eon, Yorkville NX-520, or Mackie SRM-450) for around the $50 mark, give or take, and have a great time not worrying about the amp overheating and going into protect mode. |
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| jdat |
When you're running a party I'm pretty sure you're running the amp at the max or pretty high most of the time. Bad bad idea!
You cannot do that with home equipment they overheat so easily and you could easily damage it and have extensive repairs. Such is not the case with pro equipment ( generally ).
Because you're no pro and I don't think you have unlimited funds, I think you should be looking at one of those cheaper sound system + speaker amp packages for about 500 USD that's about 25000 DOP. These systems won't break any world records and they'll be far from fabulous but they'll probably beat your home amp + speakers. You have to be realistic with your finances, and well if you have a much larger budget tell us. |
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| MERiDiAN5i2 |
the HELL with internal-amplified speakers.
ever had one of the internal amps give out at a party? the whole damn speaker instantly becomes USELESS.
atleast with an external amp, you can quickly swap the amp and leave the heavy-ass, bulky, centered on the dancefloor speaker alone.
as far as amps go... I have two suggestions:
a) rane MA6. use it as a 6 channel 150w/channel amp at your home studio.. but when you bring it to the gig, you can bridge the channels, and have 3 channels at 300 watts each in 8 ohms. this is perrrfect for driving two mains and a monitor.
b) just about anything from crown: all they make is good amps!
as far as speakers.. I can not say enough good things about the Mackie C300. They aren't cheap, but the woofer is damn near indestructable and the horn is in-fawking-credibly clean. both are pro-quality RCF components. it's also light and easy to move/setup. it's mackie, and it sounds as such!
It's basically the same thing as a SRM450.. but
a) costs less - no internal amp
b) woofer has a bigger voice coil (3" vs 2.5")
c) horn uses a mylar compression driver rather than titanium - most would agree mylar has a somewhat cleaner sound.
d) weighs less
personally, for small parties (houseparties, mainly) I use a MA6 amp w/ 3 Mackie C300s. This takes care of two mains and a monitor, all three loud as hell and very clean! I also use a crown UT1010 to power subwoofers.
between the mixer an amps are two other rane goodies - SM26 splitter mixer, and AC22b crossover. |
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| brian |
| quote: | Originally posted by Koolaid
If I were you I would locate a DJ / music shop. Rent some powered speakers (such as JBL Eon, Yorkville NX-520, or Mackie SRM-450) for around the $50 mark, give or take, and have a great time not worrying about the amp overheating and going into protect mode. |
Renting is also a great way to figure out which works best for your environment without making as huge of an investment at first. Once you find a good combination of equipment that can withstand the sound levels without dying, you at least have something to consider buying for your own. |
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| SgtFoo |
The stuff said before about overheating is a definite factor.
My second guess to that would be that you're plugigng in speakers with wacked impedance ratings (measured in ohms) that your amp can't put out.
Look for DJ shops in town with live-venue used amps for sale.. ask to test some out and ask about applying it to your situation, but be careful that he doesn't get the "salesman's curve" over you just to sell it.
If you're looking at price first... www.behringer.com ... they seel cheaper equipment for the pro-sumer person like yourself. Get a seperate amp and 2 speakers.. but make sure the amp has a lower impedance number than the sum of the s2 speakers's impednace numbers (if i remember that correclty) ... cuz ANY amp will shut off if the speakers are pulling the wrong amount of power, just to save itself from blowing up.
...another definite issue would be the humidity in your pool house. Most modern electronics default to shutoff when too much moisture enters their systems... keep that in mind
it would be best to put the amp in a seperate room (well ventilated), and don't let anything touch wet floors. |
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| MERiDiAN5i2 |
| quote: | Originally posted by jdat
You cannot do that with home equipment they overheat so easily and you could easily damage it and have extensive repairs. Such is not the case with pro equipment ( generally ).
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yup.. home audio stuff doesnt have the cooling for long-duration high-level output.
however, additional cooling isn't hard to add.
you'd be supprised what a home theatre reciever can do with additional cooling. the first three houseparties I threw were powered completely by a sony str-de945.
5 channels at 110w - two mains, two subs, and a monitor!
and one bigass fan sitting on top, blowing into the amp.
we'd leave it cranked all night.. fully maxed, almost to the point of distorting.. but it refused to blow up.
I still have that str-de945.. they're great amps! but now it serves my home theatre.. like it was built to do. |
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