People may trash them up and down the board, but my Kustom monitors have been reliable as tanks. They won't take a ton of power, but they sound good enough for a small band, and haven't quit on me yet. Plus, I got the pair of them for under $150.
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Matching PA Speakers to Power Amp
- Thread starter aggieactuary
- Start date
Thanks Bufalo. I'm worried about getting the Kustoms with all the bad reviews around.
I'm leaning towards the Yamaha S112V or the Peavey PR15.
Does anyone else have any input?
If you are rehearsing with drums and playing at just moderate levels, I don't think your amp will put out enough power to drive 2 cabs ( one cab will not be enough) with at least 10" speakers. And, you may need 12" speakers.
Your budget of $100 will not be enough even for decent used cabs.
Save some money and get what you need (Like yamaha 12" floor monitors w/ pole mounts for PA use).
Your budget of $100 will not be enough even for decent used cabs.
Save some money and get what you need (Like yamaha 12" floor monitors w/ pole mounts for PA use).
The power amp is not powerful enough lots of things. I get it. But it's what I have, and I can't save up to spend a lot more money on a PA that will only be used for rehearsals in the basement.
I understand that it's better to spend more money to get better equipment. That's always true. But I'm trying to get the most for my money, not spend more money.
I said this already, but I have a 65watt guitar amp that basically does the job for vocals right now. I just want to up grade a little. I know it's not going to be great, but I'll make do. I'm making do with an old guitar combo amp already.
It comes down to whether it's better to bridge my power amp and run one of those used cabinets or get two cheap Kustoms. Which will sound better and/or louder?
I understand that it's better to spend more money to get better equipment. That's always true. But I'm trying to get the most for my money, not spend more money.
I said this already, but I have a 65watt guitar amp that basically does the job for vocals right now. I just want to up grade a little. I know it's not going to be great, but I'll make do. I'm making do with an old guitar combo amp already.
It comes down to whether it's better to bridge my power amp and run one of those used cabinets or get two cheap Kustoms. Which will sound better and/or louder?
What kind of band are we talking about, here? It's not that ballsy of an amp, but plenty of people make do with less.
I'd get either of the Yamaha cabs you mentioned. For vocals only, I'd actually favor the s112v. These are decent speakers that you won't need to upgrade immediately, will hold their value if you want to sell them and should be easy to find a matching one when it comes time. If you can find the monitor version, better still.
I would also recommend against bridging the amp into a single speaker. Dumping more power into one of these speakers is going to quickly get in to diminishing returns and will greatly increase the odds that you will blow it up.
Just run the speaker on one side of the amp. Listen carefully to make sure you're not clipping the amp. If that doesn't give you enough volume, turn everything else down until you can hear yourself and start saving your pennies for a second cab.
I'd get either of the Yamaha cabs you mentioned. For vocals only, I'd actually favor the s112v. These are decent speakers that you won't need to upgrade immediately, will hold their value if you want to sell them and should be easy to find a matching one when it comes time. If you can find the monitor version, better still.
I would also recommend against bridging the amp into a single speaker. Dumping more power into one of these speakers is going to quickly get in to diminishing returns and will greatly increase the odds that you will blow it up.
Just run the speaker on one side of the amp. Listen carefully to make sure you're not clipping the amp. If that doesn't give you enough volume, turn everything else down until you can hear yourself and start saving your pennies for a second cab.
Thanks Erik! That's good information. I appreciate it.
As far as the band, we're still trying to figure things out. Mostly, we're playing classic rock covers and blues jams at this point. We have a guitar, bass and drums. I sing some, but we have a better vocalist who will probably join us soon.
As far as the band, we're still trying to figure things out. Mostly, we're playing classic rock covers and blues jams at this point. We have a guitar, bass and drums. I sing some, but we have a better vocalist who will probably join us soon.
What do I do if the speaker does clip? Will turning the amp down stop the clipping?
Yes, you'll need to decrease the signal going to the amp. You can either turn the volume control of the amp down or turn it down at the mixer.
Here's (an oversimplification of) the deal: There will be the tendancy to push this little system right up to (or beyond) what it's capable of. When you push an amplifier into clipping, it's capable of delivering considerably more power to the speaker than it's rated for. (Note: this doesn't give you more volume, just distortion.) This can kill your speaker. Since you'll be running on the edge, you need to be extra careful.
This is why people often recommend having more amp than speaker. With a more powerful amp, you're less likely to clip and send the extra power to the speaker. This is what people refer to as "headroom."
So why not bridge the amp into the speaker for the extra headroom? Honestly, you probably could wring a little more volume out of the speaker with the amp bridged. The catch is that no matter how much power you throw at a speaker, you're only going to get so much volume out of it. And honestly, you'll probably want more volume than one speaker is capable of giving you. So then the tendency is to keep turning the amp up. Eventually you clip the larger amp and send even more wattage to the speaker. Poof, time for a recone.
Bottom line: Take it slow and accept the limitations of the system you have and consider a second speaker when/if finances allow. It will be considerably better than the guitar amp.
I cut my teeth with a pair of these and a Peavey CS400. That little amp had plenty of juice to pop the tweets in these cabs (especially when run by someone young and foolish
)
We very much like our Yamaha S112IVs on sticks (now S112Vs, which appear to be the same components, but slightly different sized box). The wool was lifted off of these when we upgraded from a Crown CE1000 and started driving them with a channel of our QSC PLX3602. I know, it's has the potential to weld the magnet and voicecoil together, but we keep it in check. These speakers aren't anything special, but we love em. Partical board box, cheap crossover, 12" driver, but the horn is pretty darn smooth. It gets plenty loud without getting harsh. These can be found pretty cheap all over the place. We lean pretty hard on our 2 18" Mpro subs and these cabs in all of our gigs and they have lasted a couple years so far. It's all in what you are looking to do. We try not to melt faces with volume, but you would be suprised what a good amp can do for a small system.
Good luck,
Wes
Good luck,
Wes
This is an important consideration. Many years ago as a high schooler, I organised a garage band (with drummer) and put together a small cheap PA just loud enough for rehearsals. Right after graduating high school, the band starting playing paying gigs. We quickly discovered our PA as woefully inadequate and we had to borrow money from parents and stuff to replace everything. Back then (1964), bars/clubs did not have usable PA systems.
So, if you plan on playing pro or semi pro gigs in the future (w/o tapping into a venue PA) you might want to avoid buying anything that you won't be able to use later on. Even if this means just using what you have now.
As far as your power questions/concerns with the Yamaha S115V speakers, while they are rated at 500 RMS (1000 peak IIRC), I have hammered mine with 700 for years and they love it. I'd expect the same out of the S112V. They really are great speakers for the money.
To get the best sound out of speakers, my rule of thumb is drive them with 150% of the RMS rating for the speakers.
I.e., with amp and speakers at same ohms (usualy 8) speakers rated at 100 watts will sound best when driven with 150 watts.
Ummm...no.
They are rated 250w/500w/1000w
Continuous/Program/Peak
Yamaha SM15V Club Series V Monitor Specifications:
Dimensions (WxHxD): 28x19x13 inches
Freq Resp (-10dB) : 55Hz-16kHz
Model: SM15V
Power Handling (noise/program/peak): 250/500/1000 watts
Sensitivity: 99dB
Tweeter (diaphragm): 2" titanium
Weight: 57 lbs.
Woofer: 15"
Ok, thanks for the spec sheet check. Note the IIRC in my post.
My point is they kill at 700W so don't be afraid to drive them.
Well, it turned out that one of the channels on the Peavey CS500A didn't work. So, I got my money back. In the meantime, I found a few other good deals.
So, here's my system:
Crown XS500
Peavey TLS-5X pair
Peavey PV6
I got that stuff, stands and cables for under $400.
It's more than I wanted to spend originally, but I think I got good gear.
So, here's my system:
Crown XS500
Peavey TLS-5X pair
Peavey PV6
I got that stuff, stands and cables for under $400.
It's more than I wanted to spend originally, but I think I got good gear.
