Plastic Vs Wood P.A. speakers

[juancaminos]

I swear I can tell the difference. At least in the old days. I have always preferred wood (plywood) mains and monitors. in the late 1990's I joined a band that had early JBL EON's and I hated the sound of them vs my Audio Centron mains. Recently a friend in another state told me that he bought the newer EON's and they sound great.

Thoughts?

 

[SLO Surfer]

What are K10’s made out of? That.

 

[AGCurry]

I swear I can tell the difference. At least in the old days. I have always preferred wood (plywood) mains and monitors. in the late 1990's I joined a band that had early JBL EON's and I hated the sound of them vs my Audio Centron mains...

You are trying to prove a general case using a specific case. There are crappy plastic speakers and good plastic speakers, and the same with ones of wood.

 

[juancaminos]

I am looking to trade in my old heavy wood ones...So what are the good plastic ones. Our guitarist has the latest top shelf 112 EV's but I don't like the "plastic sound".

 

[Windreaper]

I am looking to trade in my old heavy wood ones...So what are the good plastic ones. Our guitarist has the latest top shelf 112 EV's but I don't like the "plastic sound".

EV powered speakers above the cheapest ZLX line are plywood, though...

I feel wood vs plastic is apples and oranges. Manufacturers tend to use plastic for cheap mass-market models, since it's cheaper once you amortize the cost of the mold. Quite easy to make a rigid box from 3/4" plywood, but it's going to be more labor intensive. Makes more sense for higher end models with limited production numbers.

I guess the difference boils down to cost, labor, transport, and other economic factors. Manufacturers could probably engineer a very inert plastic box, but I suspect it wouldn't make economic sense.

 

[Mike Caldwell]

Never heard any EONs that I thought sounded good.

In the plastic speaker world the RCF 700 and 900 series with the large
format high frequency drivers are at the top of the list.

 

[AGCurry]

The QSC "K" speakers (ABS plastic) sound great. They're not so light, though.

 

[Killing Floor]

I voted wood because wood is from trees and trees are strong like bull.

 

[Fynn]

The difference you heard was probably not in the material, but rather in the construction of the speakers.

 

[pfschim]

I am looking to trade in my old heavy wood ones...So what are the good plastic ones. Our guitarist has the latest top shelf 112 EV's but I don't like the "plastic sound".

The EV EKX and ETX (top of the EV line) are plywood, not plastic, so I'm not sure what EV boxes your talking about.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I swear I can tell the difference. At least in the old days. I have always preferred wood (plywood) mains and monitors. in the late 1990's I joined a band that had early JBL EON's and I hated the sound of them vs my Audio Centron mains. Recently a friend in another state told me that he bought the newer EON's and they sound great.

Thoughts?

I’m not so sure if I could tell the difference in sound between plastic or wood in front of a PA system being honest, and I’m pretty certain paying customers wouldn’t be able to tell or care.

Back in the early 70’s, my high school shop teacher and I built two Altec A7 voice of theatre cabs out of marine grade plywood. We toured with them for 6 years afterwards, mostly one night stands. All I can say is they were rugged, durable, sounded great, and until the day they became firewood 40 some odd years later they were heavier as hell.

As to the poser wood vs plastic. “The king is dead, long live the king!” As long at it is made from a high grade of plastic or composite, I have no issues with plastic cabs and see no real advantage to using wood. JMO.

 

[Pilgrim]

I think it makes sense to choose speakers based on their sound, not the material used in construction.

Even in wood, there's grained wood, plywood (part wood, part resin), and "composition" wood which is chips held together with resin. That's an increasing amount of plastic (resin) in the order listed.

It's kinda like an amp. I don't care if it's solid state, tube, or runs on peanut butter; for me it has to be light enough to move easily and it must sound good to me.

 

[Wasnex]

The original JBL Eons were entry level junk IMHO. I doubt making them from wood would have done anything except make them heavier and more expensive.

I will second QSC K series as decent sounding molded cabs. Keep in mind where they compete in the market. I would put them a step or two above entry level junk, but there are certainly better sounding cabs.

I haven't heard them, but the Yamaha DXR series has a decent reputation. I would put them in approximately the same category as QSC K series, and some seem to like the Yammies better. K12.2 appears to run about $100 more then DXR112MkII

 

[brianrost]

I rocked EV 100S 12" PA cabs, the first of the plastic cabs from the late 70s for three decades and they always sounded great, better than the first gen Eons (the only ones I'm familiar with). In fact they sounded better than my Community CSX35 S2 cabs, which were 15" in wooden boxes.

Besides, at TB we know that the wood doesn't matter as far as tone, right?

 

[No Malarky]

I cover all cabs with Pleather so what do I care.

 

[bodgiebass]

The differences in PA cabs sounds is not wood vs plastic. The differences are vast though, and as mentioned by others, the higher models (in some brands) are plywood vs their lower models (cheaper drivers etc) in plastic.

 

[bassliner50]

My plastic Alto TX10's do the job very well. Low cost, low weight, low bulk.

 

[fourstr00]

Of all things, I liked the original Mackie SRM450s. Solid workhorse speakers that were a great bang for the buck.

QSC CP series are basically the last gen Ks for a nice bargain. I think they’re an excellent value and I don’t care that they’re plastic.

 

[fokof]

It's all a question of design.
I've heard wooden boxes wich sounded like absolute garbage , same for Thermo plastic.

I've played bass made of Alder wich sounded like garbage , heard some wich sounded great too.

FWIW : I use active PA stuff as bass monitor since 2000 , mostly RCF stuff

As a general Rule Of Thumb : you get what you paid for
Don't expect a 1000$ box to sound like a studio reference

 

[bassbrad]

I have a couple of Alto speakers that work well for me, plenty of power, volume and clarity. I don't run a boosted low frequency sound through them, if I needed more volume or lows I would add a sub.