Peavey PA

[bassistofdoom]

Has anyone used any Peavey PA Systems? Anything from the PR or PV Series is great. Tell me all the details of the speakers and what you thought of them

[the Arsonaut]

PR series,
cheap. lightweight.
Did not get wide dispersion...meaning, I'd probably have to use two/side to cover a room.
Didn't have a lot of bottom to them. I don't mean, subwoofer..I mean, compared to most of the others we've used, they sounded kinda thin at higher volumes.

[Big_Daws]

PR's sound like a speaker in a cardboard box....and i personally refuse to touch anyhting in a fuzzy carpet box....

[Misty Mountain]

We have the PV215s, our group is happy with the sound, pretty good bottom end response, and the last show we did was outdoors and the dispersion was very good considering we had to cover about a 240 degree field. Great speakers for the price.

[Hawkeye]

My set-up-and-go simple PA system is a Peavey XR696F powered box mixer and a pair of Peavey Impulse 1012 mains.

The XR696 is 600 watts/side into 4 ohms and has digital feedback ferret and onboard FX. I picked this up used for $400 and can't believe all that it does for this price.

The Impulse 1012's have the higher-spec Black Widow woofers and RX22 tweeters and are a serious step up from the PR or PV-series speakers. They have pretty good componentry. They are very clean and they can go very loud. I paid $400 for the pair of these too. They are pretty beat up and have a lot of mileage on them but they are still serving up a highly capable performance every time I use them. They are also good for "Big-rig" use as well. When I was running a "big-rig" I had two Yamaha P4500 amps. When I sold those, I tested them for the buyer using the 1012 Peaveys. He was impressed and asked if the speakers were for sale too. I said no. Whatever I could get for those old speakers wasn't enough money to buy me replacements that would be anywhere near as capable.

Peavey makes good stuff, period. My Peavey gear also happens to be extremely reliable. I've owned some of their bass amps too (Nitrobass, Deltabass, 115BVX cab, 210 TVX cab) and never had an issue.

I'm quite interested in their new Impulse D powered speakers with ribbon tweeters. They are very intriguing. The SP-series speakers are also very well thought of. There are a lot of those used on the market. They are big and heavy but they do the job.

[Big_Daws]

don't buy a PA system with a powered mixer unless you fully intend to have your mixer side stage. and using no less than 50ft of cable to each speaker...and even then power loss will be around 15-20% depending on the AWG cable you use....

[Marko5657]

Originally Posted by Big_Daws

PR's sound like a speaker in a cardboard box....and i personally refuse to touch anyhting in a fuzzy carpet box....

The PRs are the plastic boxes; you may be referring to the PVs.

[Marko5657]

Originally Posted by the Arsonaut

PR series,
cheap. lightweight.
Did not get wide dispersion...meaning, I'd probably have to use two/side to cover a room.
Didn't have a lot of bottom to them. I don't mean, subwoofer..I mean, compared to most of the others we've used, they sounded kinda thin at higher volumes.

I’m assuming you’re talking about the 12”s, as the 15”s have lots of bottom end (in fact they use the same driver that’s in their PR-Sub). They’re actually really good if you’re gonna DJ music without subs, which I’ve done with fair results.

The horns are 90-degree horizontal and in my experience have good dispersion, and two per-side would probably not be good unless you had to cover a really-wide field.

I’ve never heard the 12s, though.

[Marko5657]

Originally Posted by bassistofdoom

Has anyone used any Peavey PA Systems? Anything from the PR or PV Series is great. Tell me all the details of the speakers and what you thought of them

The 12” might be adequate for vocals-only, and more if you used a decent sub.

The PR-Sub is kinda crappy, but the PV sub isn’t too bad.

The 15” tops alone might handle more frequencies, although I’m not sure I’d put much kick drum into either.

I would NOT get the PVs with the two woofers; the horns can’t keep up, and you’ll get more of a muddy sound.

Upping your budget to the Yamaha Club series mains imo would be worthwhile.

[Floyd Eye]

I have PR15s for mains. They definitely do not sound like a speaker in a cardboard box. That aren't PRX or anything, but for $400 they're just fine. Set the crossover correctly though because if you have too much kick in them the air inside the molded cab will force the 1/4" jack out.

[Doug R]

Very happy with our lightweight Peavey PR-15 "neo" PA speakers. For a small gigging band they are good sounding, very light to carry and set-up, and fairly affordable. A good overall design for working musicians.
I've owned quite a few Peavey products over the years and have always found them reliable and good quality, and American-made too. People may say they aren't as loud or full-range as some other brands, but we think they work very well for most average gigs and are a joy to load and transport. You'll need to pay a lot more to get anything much better sounding, and they will probably be a lot heavier.
If you play large arenas, go for the bigger stuff, but if you play in small clubs, banquet rooms and other "average" music venues, you'll be happy with them.

[seanm]

I have the PV12M monitors and no complaints so far.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by Big_Daws

don't buy a PA system with a powered mixer unless you fully intend to have your mixer side stage.

Side stage? Do you mean on stage? If so, I can't agree. One venue here in Ottawa (The Elmdale Tavern) uses a powered mixer and the sound is always great. It helps that the sound guy knows what he is doing.

Originally Posted by Big_Daws

and using no less than 50ft of cable to each speaker...and even then power loss will be around 15-20% depending on the AWG cable you use....

I think you have this backwards. The shorter the cable the less the loss.

I assume people using a powered mixer are playing small/medium bars. I use 25' speaker cables and they are always more than long enough.

[the Arsonaut]

Marko,

my experience with them has been less than ideal.
Then again, we used them in a fix to replace QSCs...thought they'd be cheaper than renting...for the application, a very poor substitute.
for the price, I'm sure they're fun, but I will stand by my dispersion statement...

[Big_Daws]

Originally Posted by seanm

Side stage? Do you mean on stage? If so, I can't agree. One venue here in Ottawa (The Elmdale Tavern) uses a powered mixer and the sound is always great. It helps that the sound guy knows what he is doing.


I think you have this backwards. The shorter the cable the less the loss.

I assume people using a powered mixer are playing small/medium bars. I use 25' speaker cables and they are always more than long enough.

you're right, i meant to say no more...i wrote that on a 8 hours of sleep on a 40 hours of work..lol

and we can agree to disagree on the use of a powered mixer at FOH. i find it pointless to do so if you have to run your powered signal over 50ft. anyhting more that your sound won't be right. also makes it pointless cos at that kind of distance you would want to be using a snake, in which you can't use the return lines for monitors or mains unless you do either of 2 things, 1) sending a passive signal to an amp, or 2) passive signal to powered speakers. so which means that you have to run separate speaker cable of appropriate lengths which is extra work to have to do if you are setting up every time. pain in the ass.....

the venue in ottawa im guessing is that FOH is about 10ft from the front of stage.

im not disagreeing that you can't do this, its more that it is not ideal to do if setting up and tearing down for every gig, and also helps considerably with cable management.

[Big_Daws]

Originally Posted by Marko5657

The PRs are the plastic boxes; you may be referring to the PVs.

i know that, the PR speakers sound like a speaker in(side) a cardboard box. the PV's are a fuzzy carpet enclosure. which i refuse to touch them.

[Marko5657]

Well, I wasn’t really trying to sing their praises, but I’ve used them before for small stuff I did at the School where I teach, and staff parties where they love the karaoke, haha. I have Yamaha Clubs, but they were heavier than what I wanted to carry for those, especially since they're all freebe gigs..

I’m now have RCF ART312-As (with JBL PRX618-XLFs for band PA) and don’t think I’ll ever use the PRs anymore... or the Yamaha Clubs either.

[morgansterne]

one band I play in used pr15's for a long time. You could not get much low end out of these without the 1/4 plug popping out the back. The enclosures are light plastic and so they flex, which is a bad thing for the sound.
We did many bar gigs with them and we all loved being able to heave em up with one hand to get em on a stand. But soundwise, I don't miss them at all.

[TwinBass]

I used a Peavey PA for many years.

-XR680 powered mixer
-2x SP-2 mains
-2x 12" Peavey mons (don't remember the model)

It never let me down. It took everything I threw at it. I couldn't have been happier with it. Best PA ever? Probably not. Great PA? You bet!

[modulusman]

If you afre going to use Peavey PA cabinets get the the SP series. They sound way better than the PV and PR series do.