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Small PA sub advice

jongor

jongor

Jan 11, 2003
1,867
325
Maine
mamasboomshack.com
#1
My band (6 piece dance band w/horns) has been using a small PA for the small rooms play in for many years.

It consists of a Carvin XP1000L powered mixer into two EV ELX112's.

It's sufficient for what we do, but want to start putting kick drum into the PA.

We have one of the Crown power amps with the built-in sub crossover, so my thought is to run a signal from the mixer/head to the power amp, highs to the 112's and lows to a sub.

Cruising CL I see local to me two separate candidates, an SWR Big Ben 1x18 and an older (red stripes on front) Trace Elliot 1518 1x15.

Both are roughly the same size, 30x24x18

I know we should buy a real PA, but the money is just not there.

Which should I go with?
 
#2
I wouldn't be able to say which is better, but will say that there's not a lot of high fidelity in subs anyhow. They just reproduce a vary narrow band of lows, and it's mostly sine waves down low. If you already have the amp and crosss-over I bet there are many existing cabs that will work fine for a small PA

Take your amp and iPhone and go try them out.
 
#4
Sismicaudio makes a 300 watt powered 12in sub with a built in crossover
You take your main out of your mixer into the sub.
A pair can be had for around 500.
My trio uses a powered mixer with Behringer 2 way 15 and my Harbinger 12in powered subs.
Run the whole rig in stereo sounds amazing.
Easy to haul they have a pole mount so we stack it
Killer and easy to haul .
 
#5
Save for a used EV ELX sub. It's a decent sub and integrates with your tops. No other sub will do as well... That said I run the kick in my band through a set of K12's all the time. With or without the matching sub. You up have to find the limit and then back off. As is the case with every PA, they all have their limits...

My 'cheap' solution. Buy an Eminence 3015LF and build a fearful 15 sub. That will hang in just fine under your tops and it is an actual sub. If you or one of your buddies is equipped with a saw and clamps, it is an easy build. And they will kick some serious booty...

You'll want both hpf and lpf for it. Unless the crown's sub out has a high pass for the sub, you'll also want a decent external crossover. Used DBX, Rane, etc... Set the sub side HPF at 40 or above and cross out somewhere in the 80 to 120 hz range depending on where the ELX setup wants to cross.
 
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#6
I wouldn't put a bass guitar cab in as a sub. better a cheap sub than an expensive bass guitar cab.
Of course you can put kick in there now, just aim the mic at the beater and put the high pass filter on at the mixer. You'll get the click of the kick at least, if not the lows.
 
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#8
4Mal said:
Save for a used EV ELX sub. It's a decent sub and integrates with your tops. No other sub will do as well... That said I run the kick in my band through a set of K12's all the time. With or without the matching sub. You up have to find the limit and then back off. As is the case with every PA, they all have their limits...

My 'cheap' solution. Buy an Eminence 3015LF and build a fearful 15 sub. That will hang in just fine under your tops and it is an actual sub. If you or one of your buddies is equipped with a saw and clamps, it is an easy build. And they will kick some serious booty...

You'll want both hpf and lpf for it. Unless the crown's sub out has a high pass for the sub, you'll also want a decent external crossover. Used DBX, Rane, etc... Set the sub side HPF at 40 or above and cross out somewhere in the 80 to 120 hz range depending on where the ELX setup wants to cross.
Click to expand...


What he said..........

To bad you're on the other side of the country, I have two unloaded fEARful 15/subs for sale.....The work awesome as PA subs. Pretty in-expensive to build if you want to DIY. Only expensive part is the driver.

If you want to look used, usually CL will have some old 15 or 18 in Peavey PA subs around cheap.
 
#9
a powered dedicated "sub " would work much better ... even a cheaper one ...

i had a Samson powered 15 ... i think it was 500 or 1,000 watts ... but it added that low thump and fullness to the smaller PA cabs ... QSC K10 s ...


taking those really low freqs out of the other cabs/amps, really helps them work much better .. !
 
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#10
Putting aside the discussion of what cab to use here's a suggestion about how to do this very easily.

Run your kick mic to whatever channel you like...one with compression would be nice, but absolutely required. Then send that channel to both the mains (which you will EQ at a lower level) and a sub-group channel by itself. Feed that sub channel from it's output to a power amp channel and then to the cab. Easy and if you EQ right will sound great.

Now, back to the discussion about the cab...my two cents worth is to get a decent 18" sub or two.
 
#11
nutdog said:
Do you have a link? I've never seen 12in harbinger subs.

Our drummer uses a k12 for his vdrums and often it carries the room without PA. Bet the EV's would give some decent kick as well.
Click to expand...
Funny thing is
I purchased 2 HA 300 systems 2 years ago. Each one is a 200 watt 12in sub and a 100 watt 4aray top.
Since then I can not find a trace of that system anywhere vfor sale.
But sismicaudio offers a similar system but the wattage ie 300 for the sub and 200 for the top. Unlike the Ha 300 system
From sismicaudio you can just buy the subs.
Good luck
Duke
 
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#13
Yeah, dont get either of those bass cabs. If you wait long enough, an actual PA sub will come along for probably the same or less as those and should work better. Those cabs should be out rocking behind a bass player anyway. The 1518 is one of the best sounding 15s I've heard. Just super punchy and round and warm in all the right ways. And it weighs like 82 pounds so not exactly very portable.
 

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