Let's talk floor monitors

[Munjibunga]

^ Do any powered speakers in this class have a volume pot that's accessible when the speaker's used as a floor wedge?

They all seem designed foremost for FOH PA duty, so it makes sense that there's no attenuator on the speaker side, tempting under-inhibited audience members to give it a whirl. Still, having the attenuators on the back of the speaker doesn't offer useful on-the-fly volume control when they're used as monitor wedges. (And frankly, except when you're running your own sound, you probably don't want the wedge's attenuator within reach of the singer during the performance.)

JBL PRX cabs have a level knob, but are outside the budget parameters. We use my PRX 612Ms for monitors and they work great. The OP may be able to find some used PRX 512Ms at near the budget price.

 

[powmetalbassist]

So I looked at the pair of monitors I found in my area. They are 200w @ 4 ohms each.

 

[funnyfingers]

If they are passive, 4 ohms may be too little. If each person did want their own monitor, you'd need 3 power channels with a 2 ohm capable power amp. With 8 ohms you can have 3 up front and one back near the drummer.

To make the sound more clear, you might think of putting the guitars through the PA and monitors too. This way stage volume will be lower and you won't need to turn up the vocals so loud that you may get feedback.

 

[Flashback Bass]

We're a four piece band and we play small Bar & Grills with minimal stage area, so we went with these;

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Everybody has their own monitor and our Mackie PA/Mixer drives them fine.

Super simple!

 

[bassmeknik]

The 4 ohm wedges could be used with a series box (extremely simple) giving an 8 ohm load when both are used together.

 

[bassmeknik]

A box with three 1/4" jacks inside. Wire the hot of the first jack to the ground of the second, the hot of the second to the ground of the third, the hot of the third to the ground of the first jack. Now the amp output goes to one jack (any it does not matter) and the wedges go to the other 2 (again it does not matter). Now your 4 ohm cabs are wired in series and present an 8 ohm load to a single amp channel. The series box should be able to be constructed for under $10.

 

[bassmeknik]

For many years I used an extra bass or guitar amp as a monitor power amp... food for thought.

My first wedge monitor system employed a salvaged school PA amp (Stromberg-Carlson tube amp w/4-6L6's). About 100 watts and worked great, and would keep your sandwich or drink warm while playing...

 

[Jools4001]

I've been playing a long time and have used all sorts of powered and passive wedges - Yamaha, Peavey, JBL etc... until our last singer left the band we were using a spare pair of Mackie SRM450s on their sides.

When that singer left, his replacement had no monitors and we needed some good speakers fast, and on a budget. I built some Bill Fitzmaurice Wedgehorn 8s and I've been tremendously impressed with them. They certainly punch way above their weight and price bracket, and they're one of the few monitors I've used where the vocalist and guitarists have asked for less vocals in the monitors (I'm usually trying to achieve sufficient gain before feedback). A pair of them are enough to hold their own against my rig and two half stacks in a band playing loud rock.

Downsides are that you have to build them yourself and, although they can be used without, they are better with some DSP (like a driverack or DEQ2496) to EQ them.

 

[bassmeknik]

Very nice cabs you have there Jools4001. BFM's cabs are impresive, definitely among the best of wedges, however they aren't within the $300-500 stated budget with the recommended DSP. Very nice though.

 

[bassmeknik]

I am a 56yo singing bassist that sings some lead and a lot of harmony/back-up. Both parents were semi-pro singers, and I started singing semi-pro (paid gigs) at age 16. I have used all manner of monitor cab (no experience with IEM's) and feel qualified to say most bands can get by with much smaller monitor cabs than the mains cabs, and most bands can get good sound out of their monitors with only 50 to 75 watts available per wedge. Clean headroom is always desirable so I try and have at least 100 watts available per wedge. Just my non scientific experience in small to medium sized clubs playing classic rock, blues and progressive rock and singing in 3, 4, and 5 piece bands over 40 years.

The Eminence drivers are good quality (better than you are likely to find in a budget wedge cab) and are worth a few extra bucks... $240CAD sounds like the max I would like to pay (try and talk him down to $200) but this at the asking price will still allow you to get an amp and still keeping within the $500 limit you mentioned. Those Eminence loaded wedges should give years of good performance while keeping up with stage amps.

In fairness to the powered wedge camp you should be able to find a pair of powered wedges for about $500 also, just keep looking. IMO the used DIY wedges with Emi drivers is very close to your requirements of reliable gear on the cheap. If it was me I would be full speed ahead getting the best price on the wedges (pay $240 if necessary) and find a decent amp in the classified ads/CL.

 

[Jools4001]

Very nice cabs you have there Jools4001. BFM's cabs are impresive, definitely among the best of wedges, however they aren't within the $300-500 stated budget with the recommended DSP. Very nice though.

I agree, with DSP it pushes the budget, but you can use them quite successfully without. I usually run mine via a Behringer DEQ 2496, but that has developed a tendency to crap out intermittently, so for the last few gigs I've run them straight from the auxes on the desk.

They sound smoother when hi-passed at 120Hz and when RTA'd flat, this lets me put some guitars in the monitors as well, but used without DSP the vocals really punch through.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

when I used to carry a monitor system, we started out with just a small powered PA mixer head, a 70's Yamaha I think, with some no name passive wedges...12's up front and a 15" for the drums. It worked great, and we were plenty loud.
We took direct outs from each channel and put them into the Yamaha board, did a L mix for up front, and a R mix for drums.
Worked out great. I had that same setup in my garage until just a couple years ago, and I sold the whole thing for $200.

 

[Marko 1]

I use Harbinger APS 12's (I know, everyone is going to say they are garbage, but keep reading). I bought them on Musicians Friend for $99! I added the 24 month full coverage warranty for $10, so for $109 bucks I got a good low end monitor. It's true they don't sound good compared to a K-12 with recorded music as a reference point, but for a monitor it works just fine and if you factor in the cost, $436 for four powered monitors! You can't go wrong. If you keep an eye on MF, they will go on sale again.

Downtown this New Year’s Eve I’m providing for five separate rooms, four with smaller acts and one just for speech, so that's eight main speakers, four stage monitors, and one for speech. Anyways, I just plum ran outta speakers, so just to get me through the gig cheaply, I got two of those Harbinger APS 12s, one for the speech room and one for a stage monitor.

I knew they wouldn’t hold a candle to my RCFs, but I gotta say, they’re great for what I need them for, and I got two referbs for $129.99 each that are like new.

Obviously I haven’t used them out yet, but just putting them through some paces at home, I’d say they’d make for great budget monitors.

 

[Wadge]

Don't want to sound like a Nerd but you mention that your band has a nice PA and that you cannot hear the vocalist properly. To me that sounds like you're practicing at volumes which are dangerously high.

I would suggest that the solution would be to turn down and not add more volume with more monitors.

 

[F-Clef-Jef]

If powered wedges are acceptable, I'd suggest a used Mackie SRM350, which can be had all day from Guitar Center's used gear section for under $200 a piece.

 

[rust_preacher]

A liquidation sale has a pair of ancient (relatively) NOS "Road" made in USA wedges, 12" + horn, 75 W.

Does anyone have any advice regarding these, in terms of "stay away at any cost" or "if you get a good price snatch them" level?

These would be for practice in a garage-like space. 2 guitars or guitar + keys, vox, bass, drums or electric drum set.

 

[C130AVN]

I run 4 older Yorkville pulse tm12 and for 250W they are loud as hell, and sound pretty good.

 

[INTP]

I didn't see this mentioned, but I'd suggest a graphic EQ, preferably 1/3 octave (31 band) for the monitor signal. This will help tremendously to deal with the acoustics of different venues, and help control any feedback that will often occur.

 

[gbrooding]

Do you prefer monitor speakers that have the horn in the middle of the speaker, or do you like the horn to be separate in the cabinet?

 

[powmetalbassist]

separate in the cabinet is my preference