NAD: QSC has killed my need for bass amps

[Jack]

There was a big but short lived issue where not updating the firmware led to some of the speakers bricking themselves and going into a boot loop. It happened to one of mine mid gig. Probably very little to worry about now though as any new speakers will be unaffected and any older ones will either have been updated to the new firmware, be unaffected, or bricked themselves by now.

It's the only stain on an otherwise flawless record for my speakers, but I try not to give them too hard a time. Many products have warranty issues and recalls and QSC were great at fixing mine.

 

[John D Harris]

There was a big but short lived issue where not updating the firmware led to some of the speakers bricking themselves and going into a boot loop. It happened to one of mine mid gig. Probably very little to worry about now though as any new speakers will be unaffected and any older ones will either have been updated to the new firmware, be unaffected, or bricked themselves by now.

It's the only stain on an otherwise flawless record for my speakers, but I try not to give them too hard a time. Many products have warranty issues and recalls and QSC were great at fixing mine.

That's good to know; thanks!

 

[darev]

There was a big but short lived issue where not updating the firmware led to some of the speakers bricking themselves and going into a boot loop. It happened to one of mine mid gig. Probably very little to worry about now though as any new speakers will be unaffected and any older ones will either have been updated to the new firmware, be unaffected, or bricked themselves by now.

It's the only stain on an otherwise flawless record for my speakers, but I try not to give them too hard a time. Many products have warranty issues and recalls and QSC were great at fixing mine.

What a wonderful world we live in where we now have to occasionally reboot our speaker cabs and think nothing of it.

 

[michael_t]

What a wonderful world we live in where we now have to occasionally reboot our speaker cabs and think nothing of it.

Something I never had to do when I was younger that I need to do every so often these days... Reboot my brain!

 

[Jack]

What a wonderful world we live in where we now have to occasionally reboot our speaker cabs and think nothing of it.

A very very small price to pay compared to 20 years ago when a beginner pa was a 100kg rack filled with hot, loud amps, analogue outboard, dbx driveracks, etc and then a pair of 40kg plywood boxes covered in cheap carpet with terrible sounding passive crossovers.

If you're reading this and you own a K.2 speaker then update your firmware. If you don't then just crack on with life and don't worry about it.

 

[crazycloud]

A very very small price to pay compared to 20 years ago when a beginner pa was a 100kg rack filled with hot, loud amps, analogue outboard, dbx driveracks, etc and then a pair of 40kg plywood boxes covered in cheap carpet with terrible sounding passive crossovers.

LOLing hard, because it's true. My racks were a lot heavier than that for the band PA (all active, no passive xovers here) and depending on the size of the area I had to fill, there were often several 40kg ply boxes that needed to be hauled in and out - usually by me alone.

My small Church is having renovations and we're going to make a trip to one of the big suppliers and audition the newer 'integrated' boxes for some of the Church's varied PA requirements, and I'm going to take the opportunity to try my bass with them. Based upon a couple of brief listens in other places, the Yamahas seem to be great, and good value, but we'll see how the measure up.

 

[John D Harris]

That's good to know; thanks!

A QSC K12.2 would be more simple than the 10" top + 12" sub, might not have the same low end heft, but I think in most situations I'd face, I think it would be plenty.

By itself, it's a few pounds lighter than the EV sub, plus one less piece of equipment to move.

Their website shows:

Frequency Response (-6 dB)	50 Hz - 20 kHz
Frequency Range (-10 dB)	45 Hz - 20 kHz

Which should support a B0 well enough - I'm not doing Reggae or EDM.

132 dB is plenty loud for me as well.

 

[John D Harris]

A QSC K12.2 would be more simple than the 10" top + 12" sub, might not have the same low end heft, but I think in most situations I'd face, I think it would be plenty.

By itself, it's a few pounds lighter than the EV sub, plus one less piece of equipment to move.

Their website shows:

Frequency Response (-6 dB)	50 Hz - 20 kHz
Frequency Range (-10 dB)	45 Hz - 20 kHz

Which should support a B0 well enough - I'm not doing Reggae or EDM.

132 dB is plenty loud for me as well.

The Yamaha DZR10 at -10dB down is rated 44Hz - 20kHz; with a max SPL rating at 137dB and weighs 39.5 lbs.

 

[Jack]

I had the rare opportunity to use my pair of k12.2s as backline last week and they/the stage/the room was so boomy I had the hpf up to 130Hz. Plenty of low end response for me

 

[John D Harris]

I had the rare opportunity to use my pair of k12.2s as backline last week and they/the stage/the room was so boomy I had the hpf up to 130Hz. Plenty of low end response for me

Maybe you could have gotten by with one cab.

 

[Jack]

Maybe you could have gotten by with one cab.

I could have not used any as it turned out. However this was a first gig with a new band and we were using a supplied PA, we actually got there before the PA guy did so I just thought it was best to play it safe. Ended up with my own monitor and enough pa to cover the room without any help from me, but you can guarantee that if I'd have planned on that it would have been a very different PA that came out of the cupboard wouldn't it?

Ended up running it quite hot on stage (with soundman's blessing) because, hey, why not?

 

[bucephylus]

In 2025, I finally mostly accepted the fact that the PA is now my amplifier. For north of 50 years, I had been tied to backline rigs as part of “my” sound. That is a hard paradigm to shake.

I retain several outstanding backline rigs “just in case;” but, have permanently moved to pedal board preamps into QSC K.2 monitors for live performance. In a pinch, either (or both) of my K10.2 and / or K12.2 can be put on a backline for vocals only PA gigs. I used the K10.2 in that way for an outdoor winery stage, which was NOT quiet, and carried the venue without breaking a sweat.

A signal chain which is friendly to the FoH mixing board is key to getting your sound to your audience. It helps to have a strategy where the monitor, backline, and FoH all sound the same.

Here is a gig I did last summer with everyone’s fav Mustang Sally. I was using my plugless board into the FoH and into the K10.2.

 

[nonohmic]

K10.2

What does the pedalboard look like?

 

[bucephylus]

What does the pedalboard look like?

Good Q.

This is the setup I used on that particular gig (though not necessarily the settings on the BDDI)

Signal, R to L is active bass with Sadowsky preamp into TC Polytune Mini into TC Spark into Sansamp BDDI V1. Signal to the board was from the BDDI. Pretty simple. Output from the BDDI was into a Broughton Always on HPF into an AMT A Bass preamp to fatten the signal up for the monitor only.

I have since moved on from that signal chain. Here is my current version, in which I added a SushiBox More in front of the BDDI, which fattens up both signals in a nice way.

As many players already have known for some time, the BDDI imparts an SVT oriented profile to the tone. I find this chain works really well with my Fender-ish instruments. Every Sound Engineer I’ve worked with using the BDDI has gushed about the signal they get. Big smiles.

 

[nonohmic]

Good Q.

This is the setup I used on that particular gig (though not necessarily the settings on the BDDI)

View attachment 7403648

Signal, R to L is active bass with Sadowsky preamp into TC Polytune Mini into TC Spark into Sansamp BDDI V1. Signal to the board was from the BDDI. Pretty simple. Output from the BDDI was into a Broughton Always on HPF into an AMT A Bass preamp to fatten the signal up for the monitor only.

I have since moved on from that signal chain. Here is my current version, in which I added a SushiBox More in front of the BDDI, which fattens up both signals in a nice way.

View attachment 7403649

As many players already have known for some time, the BDDI imparts an SVT oriented profile to the tone. I find this chain works really well with my Fender-ish instruments. Every Sound Engineer I’ve worked with using the BDDI has gushed about the signal they get. Big smiles.

Yeah that's a sweet setup. Nice!

 

[burpbripbrin]

I too went down this path with upright bass. I play small gigs as a folk/country/bluegrass trio

Started with a cb10 - very clear but not a lot of low end. Returned it for a K10.2 - much better fidelity but spent far too long trying to eq out trouble freqs that made the speaker buzz on certain fret/finger positions.

I wanted to try the k12.2 but im just not willing to pay that much for a heavier speaker with questionable reliability reviews.

Got the cp12 today and after a few hours with it I’m impressed! REAL low end, likely from being a 12, and clearer all the way up the low mid spectrum.
Perfect for upright. And smaller/lighter than the k10.2! Mission accomplished

That being said I preferred the k10.2 for playing acuistic and singing into. There was something inspiring about how my voice sounded that I got a little swept away with. Like a polished studio fidelity in a vocal speaker.

My rig is a Grace Felix 2, golden reverb, and tuner. Copperhead pickup

Will update after I get thru a couple shows

 

[Pep]

Too bad you didn’t try the K12.2. I think it would have been a keeper.

 

[burpbripbrin]

Too bad you didn’t try the K12.2. I think it would have been a keeper.

Yea? I guess i was just deterred with reviews of unreliability and lengthy warrenty processes due to parts shortages. Maybe I’ll get around to it!

 

[Pep]

Yea? I guess i was just deterred with reviews of unreliability and lengthy warrenty processes due to parts shortages. Maybe I’ll get around to it!

Most of those parts issues occurred during and several years after COVID. Any oarts issues after that could have been caused by the tariffs. Either way I’ve owned QSC products for iver 20 years and all performed flawlessly. Most QSC products come with a 6 year warranty.
Glad you found one that suited your needs.

 

[bucephylus]

Yea? I guess i was just deterred with reviews of unreliability and lengthy warrenty processes due to parts shortages. Maybe I’ll get around to it!

FWIW, IIRC QSC went through a period of issues with the digital software. The early versions were pretty bulletproof; but, QSC felt the need to address some minor issue, and created a series of not well debugged updates. The result was not uncommon failures at or on the gig.

The most recent updates seem pretty firmly back on solid ground. So, if you acquire an older unit, probably a good idea to perform the current system update.

I bought used with the original / earlier software, and never had an issue; then updated to the current version just to stay current, and have had zero issues.