Budget stage monitors

Kevin Hunter

Kevin Hunter

Sophomore
Aug 10, 2012
158
0
16
Fife, Scotland
Hi folks , I'm looking for some advice on purchasing some monitors.

ive currently got 6 Mackie srm450's but I'm looking to buy 4 passive monitors as they will be used outdoors.

my requirements are:

12" main driver.
must be passive.
Pole mountable to double up as foh on small corporate gigs.
easily available in the UK
and now the tough part ! Budget of approx £250 each.

most of the bands I work with are typically rock / cover bands but I also do corporate gigs so must handle multiple genres.

any suggestions ?

JBL JRX112m
yamaha
ev

thanks
Kev
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Yamaha Club series are usually best bang for the buck out of what you listed. I've never heard anyone being happy with JRX series JBLs.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

I've always been happy with EV, but at your price point, I'd suggest the Yamaha's over the JBL JRX. Sounds crappy for a JBL speaker.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

mackerr said:
What about your personal experience makes you recommend the Yamahas over the JBL?
Click to expand...

The Yamaha's can be made to sound decent. The JRX is just too crippled to be worth a purchase. I have Yami CM wedges in a 500 cap venue, and they get by with them except for a few shows a year. JRX's would be blown up or more likely stabbed to death by musicians.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

mackerr said:
What about your personal experience makes you recommend the Yamahas over the JBL?
Click to expand...

One of my main reasons for recommending JBL over Yamaha is that IMO, JBL speakers sound cleaner and nicer than the Yamahas. The one exception to this has been the JRX series, which sounds very trashy to me, especially at higher SPLs (naturally, of course). In this instance, the Yamaha speaker costing a similar amount ends up sounding better, though I cannot guarantee it'll last quite as long.

Last time I heard something from the JRX series was a JRX115. A simple voice sounded like crap, though as always, it might have been the engineer.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

I have been pretty happy with the Peavey PV115M. I use those pretty often, They can be used as house or monitor speakers , and They are pretty clear. and they are in your price range as well.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

John Chiara said:
The Yamaha's can be made to sound decent. The JRX is just too crippled to be worth a purchase. I have Yami CM wedges in a 500 cap venue, and they get by with them except for a few shows a year. JRX's would be blown up or more likely stabbed to death by musicians.
Click to expand...

+1 JRX is very similar to their predecessor the Soundfactors, under seemingly normal conditions they will often lose a diaphragm. The yamaha club series in my experience is one of the only "carpeted wedges" that proves to be fairly durable. They might not even be carpeted anymore, the one's I worked with were from the 90's.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

I owned the JRX115's and they were awful. Tried upgrading the HF driver to the Selenium driver, and they were still awful. I upgraded from those to Mackie SRM450's and from those to QSR HPR122s.

What about the Mackies do you not like? Are you concerned about them thermaling outdoors? Or are you looking for 4 additional monitor speakers besides the 6 powered Mackies you already own?

We'd much rather have Mackie 450's for monitors than JRX or even JBL EONs, indoors or out.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Ned Ward said:
I owned the JRX115's and they were awful. Tried upgrading the HF driver to the Selenium driver, and they were still awful. I upgraded from those to Mackie SRM450's and from those to QSR HPR122s.

What about the Mackies do you not like? Are you concerned about them thermaling outdoors? Or are you looking for 4 additional monitor speakers besides the 6 powered Mackies you already own?

We'd much rather have Mackie 450's for monitors than JRX or even JBL EONs, indoors or out.
Click to expand...


The passives are for outdoor use and the mackies for indoor use. I dont like mains power being run to monitors if its raining . Remember Im in Scotland where it rains way too much lol.

Apart from the JBL/EV/Yamaha ones already mentioned are there any others worth mentioning that are a little more expensive (Im trying to keep budget for an X32 rack)

Kev
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

The list of candidates so far are

Peavey PV12M - £138
EV ELX112 - £244
JBL JRX112M - £245
Achat 112M - £262
HK Audio PRO12M - £264
Yamaha CM-12V - £267
Dynacord A112 - £287

Any more for the list ? By the sound of it JBL is out and Im leaning towards the HK / Yamaha / EV

Kev
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Is the EV ZLX available in your area? It might be worth a look.

If I had to choose from your list, I would choose the Yamaha CV-12V, but I admit that I have not tried the Achat, HK, or Dynacord units.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

If your going passive theres no reason not to get the ELX they cost within a few dollars of each other and the ELX are a wood cab with better finish
Chad Young said:
Is the EV ZLX available in your area? It might be worth a look.

If I had to choose from your list, I would choose the Yamaha CV-12V, but I admit that I have not tried the Achat, HK, or Dynacord units.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Kevin Hunter said:
Apart from the JBL/EV/Yamaha ones already mentioned are there any others worth mentioning that are a little more expensive
Click to expand...

Once you start creeping upwards, dB Technologies Arena 12 and RCF Art 312 springs to mind, the RCF sound very good for a plastic cabinet and the dB is probably better than all of the others mentioned here allthough not by much.
For vocal monitors, I would go for HK Premium Pro 10x or dB Arena 10 in the price range already covered, but they are of course less versatile with their smaller woofers.
My impression from the little I have heard them, is that compared to the smoothness of the EV ELX 112 horn, the HKs and RCF are a bit more in-your-face while the dBs are somewhere in between, but with a very solid sound throughout.
It's hard to beat the EV though, they sound a lot better on vocals than the JRX (or indeed the srm450 which I think is awful on vocals ;)~;-)~:wink: ), but they are not any louder at all, despite what claims EV makes. My gripe with EV in general is that they seem to blow up easily. Still, if I could swap my JRXs for EVs, I'd do it without the slightest hesitation.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Chad Young said:
Actually, I and many others have found the finish on the ELX cabs to rather delicate. In my experience, the Yamaha's exterior finish is far more forgiving.
Click to expand...

So what? Painted up scratches and other signs of use just shows that you are a pro, not a wannabe with all new and shiny stuff ;)~;-)~:wink:
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Don't forget to take power into budget consideration as well, the JBL is 250w program and the Yamaha is 350w program. General rule of thumb you'd want to double that, which means 500w for the JBL and 700w for the Yamaha.
 
Re: Budget stage monitors

Kevin Hunter said:
The passives are for outdoor use and the mackies for indoor use. I dont like mains power being run to monitors if its raining . Remember Im in Scotland where it rains way too much lol.

Apart from the JBL/EV/Yamaha ones already mentioned are there any others worth mentioning that are a little more expensive (Im trying to keep budget for an X32 rack)

Kev
Click to expand...

Got it - good point and apologies for not noticing you're in Scotland. I'd suggest then that perhaps carpet/rat fur speakers be put further down the list of what you're looking at; carpet + MDF + rain may not be a formula for long-term use.
 
Top Bottom