Portable PA systems

[SoundInMotionDJ]

SoundInMotionDJ, I hadn't heard of RCF before so I did a bit of homework reading discussions on DJ equipment forums and stumbled across many of your posts. You really get around!

I *do* probably spend more time talking about PA gear than I should. But I *swear* that I actually get some work done at my "day job."

I'm probably going to skip RCF because I can't find any place locally or near-ish that carries them let alone stocks them but they do sound like a good option for us.

Not being able to hear speakers ahead of time is a problem. I don't blame you one bit for wanting a local contact for a purchase like this.

You talk about kits with a sub or adding a sub later. If we're just using the gear for swing dances or similar, would a sub be worth the cost/effort? If we had an event with hard thumping music it would be rare enough that I think it would make more sense to rent than own.

I am mostly a westie DJ. So...for that definition of "swing"....a sub is a requirement. For a lindy definition of swing...a sub would be helpful, but not a hard requirement. Tops that can get down to about 60-70Hz should be sufficient.

The issue with rental is that you never know what you are going to get...and the "experimenting" time ahead of the event is non-existent. Find a reputable rental house, and rent a sub a few times before you actually "need" it...to give yourself some experimental time to figure out how to best place and incorporate the sub into your PA system.

Our price range is somewhere on the order of $1600 for speakers, stands and bags. The rest of our budget is going to a mixer that we could use for small bands and a couple of headset mics.

That is a reasonable budget.

I like the EV RE2 wireless systems with the BPU-2 bodypack and the EV HM-2 headset. This is NOT the "invisible" headset...but this is MUCH more "accident" resistant. These are about $800 per unit, and good value for $.

I ordered from Northern Lighting Pro http://nlfxpro.com/. Call. These people know what they are talking about and actually care that you are happy.

We're hoping to use the speakers as mains if we have a small band in a small venue or to augment rented gear as monitors or mains if we have a larger venue or larger band. Our main use case is for our weekly outdoor dance during the summer. It's an outdoor amphitheater and needs surprisingly little sound reinforcement for a more or less open space.

Amphitheaters are "special cases" whe ... e stage.

[Toon Town Dave]

Thanks for the rapid followup and tips.

We (the organizers) are upgrading from borrowing my single Mackie SRM150 I normally use for teaching classes to owning something bigger. The 150 is good enough for the space for 80% of the music we play. It fails when something has more bass than the 5" speaker can handle so 2 of anything that sounds decent will be a huge improvement.

I'm in Canada so I'll be sticking with a Canadian vendor to avoid cross-border shipping costs, customs fees, etc. My likely choice will be Axe Music, I've purchased from them in the past. Great prices and selection and they have stores in Edmonton and Calgary where I often go for dance trips. They carry Mackie, QSC, EV, JBL and more. Our local stores have very little in stock and fewer brand choices.

For headset mics, a straw poll of a number of instructors is they favor something without a body pack over better sound quality so we'll be purchasing the Samson Airline 77's. The trade-off is the mics sound a bit tinny and tend to be prone to feedback. We want to keep the volunteer instructors happy so a little extra work to set and monitor levels and EQ on the PA is worth it. I would have preferred a Shure bodypack system with the WH20 dynamic headset mic. Given the environment I want to stick with a dynamic mic over a condenser mic.

[SoundInMotionDJ]

The trade-off is the mics sound a bit tinny and tend to be prone to feedback.

Keep the mic boom as close to the chin as possible.

If you have a 3 band EQ on the mic channel - turn the highs down, and the mids and lows up. The mids should be turned up more than the lows. Experiment until you get a more natural sound. As the sound level increases from the EQ, turn the mic gain down. The goal is "the same" volume level...just a difference balance to the sound.

Turn the headset sensitivity to the lowest setting that will still pick up sound. Keep the mic channel volume as low as practical.

Set the Master output to whatever corresponds to "0dB"...when in doubt, guess that it is about "7" or "8" on the scale.

That combination of things should get you a less tinny sound, and less feedback from the mic.

[straycat]

For headset mics, a straw poll of a number of instructors is they favor something without a body pack over better sound quality so we'll be purchasing the Samson Airline 77's. The trade-off is the mics sound a bit tinny and tend to be prone to feedback. We want to keep the volunteer instructors happy so a little extra work to set and monitor levels and EQ on the PA is worth it. I would have preferred a Shure bodypack system with the WH20 dynamic headset mic. Given the environment I want to stick with a dynamic mic over a condenser mic.

I love the Airline 77s, and we've used ours for some years - but while I would definitely recommend them, I would also caution you to be careful with them, and to caution your instructors and helpers to do likewise. They are not as robust as I would like.

Weak points are:
The PSUs (we have had to replace two, due to cable wear) - these are at least cheap to replace.

The microphone boom - one visiting teacher damaged it by constantly bending it up to his mouth in a rough fashion... and another (I believe, but cannot prove) subsequently snapped it. The units are, I might add, expensive to replace.

[Toon Town Dave]

We finally have our new gear. A pair of QSC K10s. Great clarity and lots of power. Worth spending substantially more than we budgeted. The K12 would have been nice but those are way more than we could afford right now. I can see some bass bins being necessary if we were playing different music. The speakers have what is basically a 2 channel mixer built in so we can leave some gear at home if we can get away with a simple set-up.

For mics we ended up with the Shure PG series transmitter and receiver and the WH30 Dynamic mic. The headsets are sturdy and almost every part is replaceable individually if the were to break. Clear crisp voice and little wind noise.

We went cheap on the mixer to stay moderately close to budget. That will likely be the first upgrade to get more channels for live music events.

[Surreal]

At the Canadian Costco... http://www.costco.ca/Edison-Professiona ... 86616.html

Can't find any reviews of this thing online, nor much else on the brand for that matter. Probably some cheap Chinese import... but geez, $300 including a stand and all the cables? I wonder if I can demo one next time I'm at Costco.

[Surreal]

Our regular venue has been growing and my little 300W system just isn't cutting it anymore. We're pushing into distortion these days just to be audible. I'm asking the other scene organizers about investing some money into better speakers (the old one was entirely out of my own pocket), and their response is "why? the current one gets loud enough"

[Surreal]

Anyone here have experience with the new Yorkville Parasource range of speakers? I didn't get a chance to hear them, but the sales rep guy was telling me they're a step up from the Elite range (I've used the Elite E10p once before and liked it, perhaps more than the QSC K10, but I never compared side by side).

[Surreal]

An interesting new portable solution:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audi ... ersonal-pa
http://www.churchproduction.com/story/m ... ersonal-pa

Could be useful for teaching or lindybombing.