Yeah, it would be nice to see somebody else give us a comparable system for less...but I have a feeling that most pro audio companies are too conservative.
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Bose?
- Thread starter Mud Flaps
- Start date
Just a followup here...my little three-piece-plus-drum-machine band has decided to give the PAS a try.
First, the disclaimer: We definitely "fit the profile." We do NOT play loud, we do NOT play metal, punk, or anything terribly raucous, and we do NOT play in large venues. Our existing PA has a pair of 12"+horn cabinets for vocals and a pair of 2x10+horn cabinets for the drum machine...these give us plenty of volume for our needs. So we're not asking the PAS to do what it's not meant to do.
We've gotten two PAS units, each with one bass module. Two vocals and one channel of the drum machine go into one PAS. The third vocal, the acoustic-electric guitar, the other channel of the drum machine and a line out from my bass rig go into the other.
We tried it at practice for the first time the other night. In that situation (a ridiculously small room...about 8x10 feet, tops, and feedback was not a problem). It sounded HUGELY better than our existing rig. I mean night and day, not "well, it's okay." I was skeptical (since I'm the guy who's paying for this, it's got to be REALLY GOOD or I'm sending it back), but I have to admit i'm very impressed. For the first time in my life I could hear myself clearly in the mix without having an in-ear monitor.
Note to Bose naysayers: Try it and then decide. Yes, it's too frigging expensive. But plastic crap? Not if it sounds this good.
One important note that should interest TBers is that I'm keeping my bass rig (SWR Grand Prix/PreSonus Blue Max compressor/Stewart World 1.2/Avatar B212). This is mostly because it's just not cost-effective to replace it with a PAS. The existing rig sounds really great on its own, but it does have the limitation that the PAS overcomes...it sounds great on-axis, but you lose the overtones if you're not in front of the speaker cabinet.
I found that by putting some (not a lot) of the signal into one of the PAS units, I get the overtones even when I'm well off to the side without losing the fundamental thump inherent in the existing rig. And the PAS isn't working too hard trying to give me a lot of low end, since I'm not cranking the signal into it.
I have no doubt that the PAS would sound great if I got a sufficiently large PAS rig (the maximum rig is two power stands, one pole, and as many as eight bass modules). However, the cost is SO high that it's just silly. My solution sounds great.
If we keep it, we'll be replacing:
Two power amps
One mixer
Two power conditioners
One compressor
One high-end third-octave EQ/RTA
One digital effects unit
Two six-space rack cases
One headphone amp
Two wired individual headphone monitor mixer widgets
Three sets of in-ear headphones
Four speaker cabinets
A LOT of cables.
One acoustic guitar amp.
We'll be keeping:
Bass rig (four-space rack plus 212 cabinet)
Two drum machines and small mixer
We'll also be able to set up in 15-30 minutes. More importantly, we'll be able to tear everything down at the end of the night just as easily. And we won't have to haul all that gear.
First, the disclaimer: We definitely "fit the profile." We do NOT play loud, we do NOT play metal, punk, or anything terribly raucous, and we do NOT play in large venues. Our existing PA has a pair of 12"+horn cabinets for vocals and a pair of 2x10+horn cabinets for the drum machine...these give us plenty of volume for our needs. So we're not asking the PAS to do what it's not meant to do.
We've gotten two PAS units, each with one bass module. Two vocals and one channel of the drum machine go into one PAS. The third vocal, the acoustic-electric guitar, the other channel of the drum machine and a line out from my bass rig go into the other.
We tried it at practice for the first time the other night. In that situation (a ridiculously small room...about 8x10 feet, tops, and feedback was not a problem). It sounded HUGELY better than our existing rig. I mean night and day, not "well, it's okay." I was skeptical (since I'm the guy who's paying for this, it's got to be REALLY GOOD or I'm sending it back), but I have to admit i'm very impressed. For the first time in my life I could hear myself clearly in the mix without having an in-ear monitor.
Note to Bose naysayers: Try it and then decide. Yes, it's too frigging expensive. But plastic crap? Not if it sounds this good.
One important note that should interest TBers is that I'm keeping my bass rig (SWR Grand Prix/PreSonus Blue Max compressor/Stewart World 1.2/Avatar B212). This is mostly because it's just not cost-effective to replace it with a PAS. The existing rig sounds really great on its own, but it does have the limitation that the PAS overcomes...it sounds great on-axis, but you lose the overtones if you're not in front of the speaker cabinet.
I found that by putting some (not a lot) of the signal into one of the PAS units, I get the overtones even when I'm well off to the side without losing the fundamental thump inherent in the existing rig. And the PAS isn't working too hard trying to give me a lot of low end, since I'm not cranking the signal into it.
I have no doubt that the PAS would sound great if I got a sufficiently large PAS rig (the maximum rig is two power stands, one pole, and as many as eight bass modules). However, the cost is SO high that it's just silly. My solution sounds great.
If we keep it, we'll be replacing:
Two power amps
One mixer
Two power conditioners
One compressor
One high-end third-octave EQ/RTA
One digital effects unit
Two six-space rack cases
One headphone amp
Two wired individual headphone monitor mixer widgets
Three sets of in-ear headphones
Four speaker cabinets
A LOT of cables.
One acoustic guitar amp.
We'll be keeping:
Bass rig (four-space rack plus 212 cabinet)
Two drum machines and small mixer
We'll also be able to set up in 15-30 minutes. More importantly, we'll be able to tear everything down at the end of the night just as easily. And we won't have to haul all that gear.
