Harbringer APS15 review?

mark anderson

Sophomore
May 4, 2011
172
1
16
<vent>
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Harbinger-APS15-15--Powered-PA-Speaker-105122774-i1430143.gc

It's rare that I find a piece of gear so bad it's worth posting just to dis it but I ran into these things at a gig recently. It was a small venue and they were on sticks where I would normally put my speakers so, having never heard of them, I had to test them out. :lol:

First off, who though it was a good idea to give any audio product a name where your first reaction is "A Behringer knock-off?" I mean Miere, or ElectroVox or JPL... maybe but Harbringer. It smacks of quality.

When I came in, they were playing some standard soft rock/trance guitar wank stuff quietly in the background. It sounded like the "loudness" switch was on, extra 60-80 hz and extra 6-8k.

After asking to test them, I flattened the "eq" and selected line input, and plugged in my eq's output. Getting them even near "background at a wedding reception" volume, maybe mid 80's, and they were breaking up. I checked the levels along the path and still the peak like was blinking way before it should have. It's unfortunate that some kid will purchase these with his hard earned money thinking he's going to d.j. his friends' parties. Clearly, in the store they're going to seem fine at the levels they demo them but he'll look like a dope when the party starts.

Now that I look at the GC site I see its 180 watts. It's a 15" cab. What are they thinking? It's like having a 15" version of a computer speaker. "BEEP" I guess there's no end to how bad things can get when marketing is the only goal. Sucker bait.

</vent>
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

Hello Mark,

Yeah....knockoffs of knockoffs....

And...ElectroVox is/was a real company. They made some decent products..."back in the day". JPL was a real company too.

Cheers,
Hammer
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

Now that I look at the GC site I see its 180 watts. It's a 15" cab. What are they thinking? It's like having a 15" version of a computer speaker.

<Vent>

I don't really get that... I have a boat load of EV SXa250's which are both 15" and 250 watts (a negligible difference). I've never seen that speakers and agree that they are likely garbage, but there is nothing inherently wrong with a lower power and lower priced 15" speaker (or anything else for that matter). The FBT Jolly series is another example of this - the same speaker is available with a higher (350 watt) and lower (200 watt) powered amplifier module to meet the requirements of the end user.

</vent>
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

I didn't know it was a $200 speaker when I tried it, it was just sitting on a pole.

I guess I did change it from Harbinger to Harbringer. You are correct.

The point is that this under-powered monstrosity fooled the venue into purchase and I'm sure are fooling others. I sure most people who look at a 15" speaker expect it to be able to put out some volume.

Caveat emptor, I get it. But the person who purchased these didn't know any better. We can't all be experts in everything, have you tried buying health insurance lately?
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

They didn't fool anyone, I'm amazed it works at all for that price. Surely there is some acoustic musician plying their trade who doesn't need a lot of output, and this product does what they want. The only fool is the venue thinking they could buy a sound system for $1,000.
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

They didn't fool anyone, I'm amazed it works at all for that price. Surely there is some acoustic musician plying their trade who doesn't need a lot of output, and this product does what they want. The only fool is the venue thinking they could buy a sound system for $1,000.

Why don't people get the connection? The $2000 speaker is $2000 for a reason...they didn't fill the box up with gold...
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

Funny.......the specs on my Sxa250's are 350W LF and 80W HF.

DR


Hmmm. I just revisited what I have told myself is true for sometime. It would appear that they are 150/50 watts RMS and 350/80 watts peak (I guess I'm wrong in either case!). My point is that I'm not sure it really matters. They sound fine and work when lots of output isn't needed - as is the case with most other quasi-professional SOS products. Where more output is needed, I'm not sure the 800/1000 watt modern variants would cut it either, though their specs are more impressive. The watts game gets a bit silly when speaker efficiency and sound quality are disregarded.
 
Re: Harbringer APS15 review?

These are Harbingers:
(what you are talking about is just chinese crap)

So are these. "Real" Harbinger. Standard issue SF Bay Area passive club and small concert wedges from the 1970s. Many still in use today in "C" and "D" level systems. JBL D or K 130 woofer, JBL 2410 1 inch throat driver on a 70 degree horn. I've still got a half dozen in various states of repair/disrepair.
 

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