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Passive or Active Monitors?
- Thread starter Cteam
- Start date
Passive with 2 reasons
1: I am cheap and can get good passive equipment a lot easier than active.
2: I do not want a power and a signal cable going to every box on stage. Hard enough just to keep speaker cables organised.
1: I am cheap and can get good passive equipment a lot easier than active.
2: I do not want a power and a signal cable going to every box on stage. Hard enough just to keep speaker cables organised.
Yeah I'd agree with passive. Plus it's not exactly uncommon for people at our shows to fall into the stage area in a mess of flailing limbs and beer, and a passive box with tolerate that better. Plus I'm all about light-weight, and it doesn't get lighter than passive.
Although, if you sing as well, or just care about your ears, consider IEMS. Factoring in the cost of the amp and at least one wedge each, IEMs may not be that much more expensive, and give you the benefits of ear plugs, with the clarity and detail of having foldback right there in your ears. We just use a cheap Ashton system and some decent earphones; it's not going to be as nice as a Sennheiser kit, but it'll get you there.
Although, if you sing as well, or just care about your ears, consider IEMS. Factoring in the cost of the amp and at least one wedge each, IEMs may not be that much more expensive, and give you the benefits of ear plugs, with the clarity and detail of having foldback right there in your ears. We just use a cheap Ashton system and some decent earphones; it's not going to be as nice as a Sennheiser kit, but it'll get you there.
Last edited:
wmhill
Inactive
- Aug 20, 2012
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We use 4 of the active Mackie thumps (with 15s)...and love em. I like the fact that they can be daisy chained unlimitedly with no ohm issues, you can tweak each ones EQ and volume individually. I have done a couple hundred gigs with em without problem. Fairly light and cheap, $259 each new at the time (year and a half ago).
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I have a third reason. I'm really cheap and my equipment is vintage. Oh, that's about the same as the first reason. Never mind!
Rick Auricchio
Registered Bass Offender
My drummer and I use the Behringer B205D active monitors (a knockoff of the Mackie SRM150). Mine mounts right on my mic stand. This allows us to use lower onstage levels and still hear our monitors. Our guitarist uses a 12" Yamaha passive wedge.
I used passive monitors forever, Peavey SP 115Ms for the past fifteen years or so. They did the job, I really have no complaints. The matching SP 2G mains and SP 118 subs weighed a ton, I started playing with a band that had a QSC K series system last December and I loved the sound and overall light weight. I decided to get my own for the other two bands that I'm in in which I own and provide sound.
This past year I upgraded my whole PA. My new mains and monitors are all QSC K-12s. They actually weigh about the same as my big old Peaveys, but are much cleaner and clearer sounding. And I don't have to haul around a rack full of amps anymore.
This past year I upgraded my whole PA. My new mains and monitors are all QSC K-12s. They actually weigh about the same as my big old Peaveys, but are much cleaner and clearer sounding. And I don't have to haul around a rack full of amps anymore.
Are you redesigning a system for your band to use while self-mixing from stage, or is this a system to be run from FOH position?
For self-mixing, active is easier if passive monitors would leave you with a heavy amp rack and long cable runs. OTOH, when you have a light multi-channel monitor amp already racked on stage, it's easier to just drop speaker cables from the rack. Saves you the weight of the speakers' power supply cables and extensions, and makes for quicker set-up and load-out.
For self-mixing, active is easier if passive monitors would leave you with a heavy amp rack and long cable runs. OTOH, when you have a light multi-channel monitor amp already racked on stage, it's easier to just drop speaker cables from the rack. Saves you the weight of the speakers' power supply cables and extensions, and makes for quicker set-up and load-out.
