Quick question, are you running bass into those wedges? If so what brand/model are they? I have a pair of Kustom KPX112PM and they're fine for guitar and vox but can't really handle much bass. My band is very similar in that drummer and I are both on IEMs and guitar and singer are using (my poopy) wedges.
No doubt those are pretty low-end Kustom wedges, and I'm not surprised that you're having trouble with them for bass DI. I've been using wedge speakers almost exclusively for a number of years, and here's what I'll suggest to get the most out of them:
- roll off the low end (or use a dedicated Hi pass filter aka HPF) to a frequency as high as necessary (even 200-250Hz) to get the wedges to a volume that they can tolerate as your requirements dictate...if possible.
- other than at lower volumes, you'll be forever balancing practicality/function at the sacrifice of low end volume/tone. In context you may not miss the sub-low bass as much as you think...or not. You want to be heard, but with a cheap speaker, you can't have everything, right?
- put a compressor/limiter in line last as a protection mechanism for the speakers so that they can handle any dynamic spikes in your playing.This combined with the HPF will go a long way toward maximizing output from the speakers.
The real answer is to just get a higher quality speaker that is designed for better bass response and has internal protection circuitry. That said, I own a pair of 15" coaxial Seismic wedges, and a pair of 10" Seismic wedges. Both are passive and have been driven by a discrete power amp or the power section of a bass amp, or a bona fide bass head. They aren't terribly expensive (maybe $300/pair), but I've had the 15" wedges cranked up pretty loud before any issues.
These days I'm not messing around and I'm using a much higher quality pr. of speakers (Atomic CLR, passive) that give me no grief at all. You get what you pay for.
Good luck!
