Expanding basic PA for amateur cover band

[wemmick]

We currently have two speakers that we run vox through - Behringer Eurolive B212D (powered, 550W, 12"). We need something more to expand on this.

We're a cover band comprised of 40-50-somethings who all have kids at the same elementary school. We have day jobs and this is a great hobby - this means while we do have some disbosable income to invest in this, we also are not shopping for the top of the line stuff. Our budget is $300-600.

If we were to buy a couple 1-2 speakers so that we can have monitors in addition to these, should we use the Behringers as monitors and buy new FOH speakers? Use the Behringers as FOH and buy new for our monitors? Buy unpowered and a power amp? Buy more powered?

[uhdinator]

Use the behr for monitors (so you audience does not hear them) and get better powered speakers for FOH.
$600 will only buy one good powered speaker.
I would recommend yamaha MSR400 or better yet JBL PRX612m.

[gotmule?]

Originally Posted by uhdinator

Use the behr for monitors (so you audience does not hear them) and get better powered speakers for FOH.
$600 will only buy one good powered speaker.
I would recommend yamaha MSR400 or better yet JBL PRX612m.

Definitely agree with this post. For $450, you can find an RCF Art 312A at proaudiostar.com. I have 2 of these speakers and love them! You will be better off with powered speakers because it will be a simpler setup and breakdown, less to worry about, and you never have to worry about ohms or lack of power. I would definitely recommend you get 1 RCF and a nice case for it to keep it in good condition. If not the RCF, I have heard a lot of good things about the speakers that uhdinator mentioned.

[MNAirHead]

hmmn ...

used craigslist?

Really kind of sounds like used EON

[Wes Whitmore]

$300-600 each person, right? Well...start chipping away at it. Use the berhingers for shared monitors. Get some Yamaha Club S112Vs for mains. Find them used. One of the best affordable speakers out there. You will need to get some sort of powered mixer with enough channels for all things you want to send through the mains, and you can feed the monitors with one of the aux feeds of the mixer. If you can find a decent poweramp and passive mixer, I would probably go that route, unless you do not plan on every having more than a couple of guitars and vox in the mains. You can then build from there as money increases.
Wes

[SpruceApple]

Originally Posted by MNAirHead

hmmn ...

used craigslist?

Really kind of sounds like used EON

+1....lots of bang for your buck

[SBsoundguy]

You can save a lot of money and match or exceed the performance of commercial offerings if you build you own cabs. It's not difficult at all either though that is dependent on the design. Try one of Bill's designs.

[Never_grew_up]

I'm in almost the exact same situation. I would suggest either the Carvin PM15A powered speakers (2 for $599) or the Peavey PR15D. (A little more expensive at $340 - $399 each). Either will sound better than the behringers, which can be relegated to monitors.

[gareth dunster]

Samson dB500A. cheap well made and solid sound

[DONZI97]

+1 on the RCF's, I own a pair, and they are a great value and sound.

[jaywa]

Get some subwoofers as soon as possible, and the watts to drive them. Or at minimum, some full-range mains that can handle low end.

The biggest thing you can do to start sounding more "pro" to your audiences is to get the kick drum and bass pumpin through the FOH. The whole PA-for-vocals-only approach doesn't feed the bulldog anymore... at least for gigs where you want to play for a crowd of any size and get paid any sort of real money. You're competing against not only other bands, but DJs with big-time sound systems so it's good you're making the effort to step it up, soundwise.

[Hactar]

With that budget, you could go to CL and find some powered speakers.
SRM450s, Eon G2s, or Eon 515s?
Something of that sort, methinks.