Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Stuart Høgg

Stuart Høgg

Sophomore
Jan 12, 2011
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Glasgow, Scotland
Over the last few years, the audio item with the highest return on investment in our entire inventory has been the humble Mackie SRM450. We do quite a lot of dry rental to DJs and up and coming bands and they have proven extremely popular. Some of our stock is beginning to reach the end of its life and I am thinking about replacements.

We have the original SRM-450s (the very original ones which were manufactured in Italy by RCF). Our experience with the newer Chinese manufactured models was less than stellar (some of our customers owned some and managed to blow the guts out of them in pretty short order). Our boxes have suffered many years of abuse from novice users and we have had very few problems with them.

Our basic criteria for replacement boxes are:

Must be self-powered
Sound quality needs to be at least passable. (The new boxes have to at the very least keep up with the SRM450s)
Simple, idiot proof controls. (Ideally a volume knob and nothing else)
Bombproof speaker protection

Bonus points for:

Light weight
Durable finish
Power on IEC and audio on XLR (so we can reuse the existing cable stock)
Relatively low price - we do not have the budget for Varsity level boxes for this application


I'm unsure of the quality of the current model of SRM450. I know there are heaps of alternatives out there but wondered if anyone had any favourites?
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Hey Stewart,

QSC's K-series gets a lot of lovin' here on the forums. Mackie's HD-series had good reviews...for a while, but there have been issues. RCF has some good choices, too, so I would keep them in mind.

The company I work for had gone with the QSC K-Series, but has gravitated towards E/V's LiveX line. I have heard the K-series before, but it has been a while. I haven't heard the E/Vs yet, but am planning to go to a local music store and have a listen with familiar tracks, etc. (I know, I know...it's not scientific).
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

The JBL PRX6xx series has been getting good reviews so that would be on my short list. I checked them out recently and they seem like pretty good sounding, reliable boxes for the money. I have aged 450s now that are holding up, but I wouldn't buy new ones or even the HD series Mackies because of reliability issues. Too many reports of DOA units and ones that die on power up after a few uses. I think Mackie has some work to do on their foray into class D amp design.

Greg
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Jordan Wolf said:
Hey Stewart,

QSC's K-series gets a lot of lovin' here on the forums. Mackie's HD-series had good reviews...for a while, but there have been issues. RCF has some good choices, too, so I would keep them in mind.

The company I work for had gone with the QSC K-Series, but has gravitated towards E/V's LiveX line. I have heard the K-series before, but it has been a while. I haven't heard the E/Vs yet, but am planning to go to a local music store and have a listen with familiar tracks, etc. (I know, I know...it's not scientific).
Click to expand...

I feel that the K series has too many knobs and switches to be foolproof to the average user.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

I've heard very similar reports to Greg's about the newer Mackie kit, but nothing firsthand.

Having done a quick Google image search for the QSC K series, I agree with Silas about there being too many controls. I particularly dislike the "mic / line" switch which I expect could cause chaos.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Im might look at the RCF Art 310a's and the 312a's for rentals. Good prices (at least here) and seems just about every review has been positive.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

I love my k series stuff but can see how it has too many I O options for a dry rental (tho they seem pretty bomb proof so far). What about the rcf tt series stuff. Sounds amazing, louder than it should be for its size, great corporate looks. Maybe over budget but otherwise a great box.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Robert Kenton said:
Im might look at the RCF Art 310a's and the 312a's for rentals. Good prices (at least here) and seems just about every review has been positive.
Click to expand...
I believe the ARTs are good speakers. I auditioned the 310A when I was in this boat, and it's not the equal of a Mackie 450 for volume. At low volumes the bass boost can make them sound fairly full, but it runs out of gas before the Mackies do. The larger RCFs likely don't have that problem.

FWIW, I ended up buying a pair of QSC HPR122s. Tuned up and processed they sound MUCH better than the Mackies do, but they are heavy, and the replacement for the HPRs is the KW122, and is much more expensive than a Macke 450.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

My hunch, based on what TJ and others have said, is that an Art 310 would probably be fine for an acoustic duo, but wouldn't cope with a DJ playing to a couple of hundred people?

QSC HPR looks quite enticing but is a bit more than we need. If I were buying speakers to use myself they would definitely be a contender. The other drawback is that they might be a bit on the large side to fit into customer's vehicles.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Stuart Høgg said:
My hunch, based on what TJ and others have said, is that an Art 310 would probably be fine for an acoustic duo, but wouldn't cope with a DJ playing to a couple of hundred people?
...
Click to expand...

I don't think any SOS is going to cope with a (modern, bass-crazy, clip-maniac) DJ playing for a couple hundred people. At least not if sound quality matters.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Silas Pradetto said:
I don't think any SOS is going to cope with a (modern, bass-crazy, clip-maniac) DJ playing for a couple hundred people. At least not if sound quality matters.
Click to expand...

I'd agree. Think wedding disco rather than hardcore dance music though.

And the fact of the matter is, for a lot of the young DJs we find ourselves dealing with, they don't have any choice. They have hardly any budget, and are restricted to whatever gear they can squeeze into one of these:

Vauxhall-Corsa_1999_thumbnail_01.jpg
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

I've standardized on the QSC K and KW series for this purpose. The K10 is pretty much the perfect replacement for the SRM450.... it sounds better, goes louder, and doesn't distort when pushed hard. It's now my standard "i need a couple of cheap powered speakers" speaker.

I also have been worried about the "too many buttons" issue. It hasn't been a problem yet, so I'm getting less worried. But we have taken to taping over the switchable side (the A side), so that the customer can only use the B side, which is all line-level. The EV ZX series is a simpler back-plate, so you might consider it. Personally, I liked the sound and the look (which is often more important than sound for those sorts of gigs) of the K series better.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

I think I would always try to offer one or two powered subs with the tops for a wedding DJ.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Jim King said:
I've standardized on the QSC K and KW series for this purpose. The K10 is pretty much the perfect replacement for the SRM450.... it sounds better, goes louder, and doesn't distort when pushed hard. It's now my standard "i need a couple of cheap powered speakers" speaker.
Click to expand...
That hasn't been my experience - the Mackie throws better and definitely has more low end than the K10.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Evan Kirkendall said:
EV ZX5a. It really doesn't get simpler.
Click to expand...

We own a dozen or so of the unpowered ZX1s which I have been very pleased with, and I've also installed a bunch of ZX5s in various projects. I haven't experienced any of the powered models but have heard good things about them.

The biggest drawback is that our dealer price for a ZX5a is more than double the street price of a current SRM450.

It's a shame that (as far as I can see) there isn't a ZX3a in the range. ZX1a is obviously far to small for this application, and the ZX5a is a bit too expensive.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Stuart Høgg said:
We own a dozen or so of the unpowered ZX1s which I have been very pleased with, and I've also installed a bunch of ZX5s in various projects. I haven't experienced any of the powered models but have heard good things about them.

The biggest drawback is that our dealer price for a ZX5a is more than double the street price of a current SRM450.

It's a shame that (as far as I can see) there isn't a ZX3a in the range. ZX1a is obviously far to small for this application, and the ZX5a is a bit too expensive.
Click to expand...

Stuart,

consider then the EV SXa250, a product that will surprise for what it is.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

The SXA360 is still in production, and cheaper than it used to be. Most bang-for-the-buck in the U.S. is definitely the current version RCF ART312A.
 
Re: Replacing aged SRM450s - recommendations?

Hi Stuart,

You might want to look into the following models. We've had great success with the HiMaxx40A's.

FBT HiMaxx 40A
FBT ProMaxx 12A
FBT EvoMaxx 4A
RCF Art 412-A/422-A
RCF Art 712-A/722-A

Jeff
 
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