Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

M

Matt Vivlamore

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
913
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Southern MD, USA
www.meerkatsound.com
My rig has served me well for the last 2-3 years, but I think it’s time for an upgrade. I am thinking about selling my current racks and stacks (monitors as well) and rebuilding as a self powered rig Powered system.

For speakers, I own: 2x QRX212, 6x SRx718s, 5x MRX512m & 1x MRX525, and for amps I have: IT4000 for the tops, IT8000 for the subs and 2x XTi4000 on Monitor duty. I currently have my system set-up as 2 rigs based on 1 set of amps. For my “Large” rig it consist of 1x QRx212 stacked on 2-3x SRX718s per side and then my “Small” rig is 1x MRX512m on a stick over 1x SRX718s per side. As for usage my small rig gets used about 40% of the time and then 50% of the time my rig has 2x SRX718s per side and then with 3x SRX718s per side is about 10%. In my region of ~1hr drive, my current rigs can cover every room with out any problems.

I have been looking at the RCF NX gear (4x L23a, 2 S25a & 2 S21a), but I think it’s out of my reach around $25k-26k. And then I would need to purchase monitors as well.

Finding powered speakers to replacements for the MRX512m isn’t a problem. However, is there a self powered top out there that can replace the QRx212?

I looked at the RCF TT series, and it looks as if the TT25a are equivalent to my QRx212 (135-136dB max SPL) on paper. The JBL VP7512/95DP & VP7515/95DP are a little too rich for me ($5500-6000). The TT25 is $3700 each and are pole mountable.

If I do make this switch, I am looking at buying: 2x Mains, 4x Subs and 4-6x monitors/mains. My only think about doing this it that I would like all speakers to have the same power connection (PowerCon is preferred).

I plan on selling everything for $13-16k and then adding $3-4k on top of that for my purchase. So I’ll have around $15k-20k to spend for new gear (yes, I know where I can save a few bucks). However, if I don’t do the change out, I am still looking at spending $3-4k on upgrades to my current rig (IT4000, QRx115/SRX715). So in the end, its going to work out to be about the same.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Matt Vivlamore said:
My rig has served me well for the last 2-3 years, but I think it’s time for an upgrade. I am thinking about selling my current racks and stacks (monitors as well) and rebuilding as a self powered rig Powered system.

For speakers, I own: 2x QRX212, 6x SRx718s, 5x MRX512m & 1x MRX525, and for amps I have: IT4000 for the tops, IT8000 for the subs and 2x XTi4000 on Monitor duty. I currently have my system set-up as 2 rigs based on 1 set of amps. For my “Large” rig it consist of 1x QRx212 stacked on 2-3x SRX718s per side and then my “Small” rig is 1x MRX512m on a stick over 1x SRX718s per side. As for usage my small rig gets used about 40% of the time and then 50% of the time my rig has 2x SRX718s per side and then with 3x SRX718s per side is about 10%. In my region of ~1hr drive, my current rigs can cover every room with out any problems.

I have been looking at the RCF NX gear (4x L23a, 2 S25a & 2 S21a), but I think it’s out of my reach around $25k-26k. And then I would need to purchase monitors as well.

Finding powered speakers to replacements for the MRX512m isn’t a problem. However, is there a self powered top out there that can replace the QRx212?

I looked at the RCF TT series, and it looks as if the TT25a are equivalent to my QRx212 (135-136dB max SPL) on paper. The JBL VP7512/95DP & VP7515/95DP are a little too rich for me ($5500-6000). The TT25 is $3700 each and are pole mountable.

If I do make this switch, I am looking at buying: 2x Mains, 4x Subs and 4-6x monitors/mains. My only think about doing this it that I would like all speakers to have the same power connection (PowerCon is preferred).

I plan on selling everything for $13-16k and then adding $3-4k on top of that for my purchase. So I’ll have around $15k-20k to spend for new gear (yes, I know where I can save a few bucks). However, if I don’t do the change out, I am still looking at spending $3-4k on upgrades to my current rig (IT4000, QRx115/SRX715). So in the end, its going to work out to be about the same.
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I'm in a similar spot but going the opposite direction. If I had known that I would be doing events with big stacks I would have bought good old unpowered speakers. I've been using my powered stuff and have discovered that it's easier to run one speaker wire than it is to run a power cord AND a signal wire. I have some new stuff on the way and will be looking for a club to sell off part of my older things to.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Philip LaDue said:
But Link USA puts them all to shame.
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+1 for Link, Link USA > Home

Granted we are working on a different scale, but we have thousands of feet of Link cabling for smaller rigs and all of our monitor rigs. If you can build your own cables, buying bulk can save you a lot of $$$.

Now ask me about L21 VS Socopex breakouts for powered line arrays. :)
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Matt,

As you know we made the switch from a 4/side EAW JFL210 w/Crest Pro200 amplification and Ashly DSP to a 6/side RCF NX L23 loudspeaker system. The L23s are an extremely versatile box and sounded fantastic which is why we went with them after trying out several other boxes. Even though we looked at some non-powered boxes since we already had decent amps and DSP but decided to go powered due to having a manufacturer-optimized design and quick setup. We havent done too many gigs with them yet but festival season is going to be a great season and I plan to report back on them after we have a few festivals under our belts with the new rig. As we already had Danley TH-115s and love them, we decided to stay with them instead of the NX subs and just decided to go with I-TECH 8ks to power/process the 115s.

I think you could look at getting 2-3 L23/side and keep your 718 subs and IT-8ks to power/process the 718s. Keep your PRX wedges for the time being or try to sell them off and get something like the DB Technologies M-12-4 powered wedges as they are a lot of wedge for the money. We actually own 10 QSC K10 for SOS and wedges which we love.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Matt Vivlamore said:
Finding powered speakers to replacements for the MRX512m isn’t a problem. However, is there a self powered top out there that can replace the QRx212?
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This is the bit that keeps me up at night. What's great about the QRX212 is that it's tall, and it is not a 90-degree box, which I imagine means you have bit more control over where sound is going and you can also use more than one per side to cover a larger area. I haven't been able to find a powered top that matches this description, but maybe I'm overestimating the importance of these factors.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

RCF does have some boxes in the 4Pro line that maybe in the QRX league. RCF - 4PRO 6001-A might be one to check out.

You could also drop a few dollars off the TT25 with the NX M12/15a. Just a thought. Ive played with a TT22a and love the sound of those boxes. I have a pair of NX M10a's now that sound great but might not have the juice you need for monitors or a small system top.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Robert Kenton said:
RCF does have some boxes in the 4Pro line that maybe in the QRX league. RCF - 4PRO 6001-A might be one to check out.

You could also drop a few dollars off the TT25 with the NX M12/15a. Just a thought. Ive played with a TT22a and love the sound of those boxes. I have a pair of NX M10a's now that sound great but might not have the juice you need for monitors or a small system top.
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Daniel Postilnik said:
This is the bit that keeps me up at night. What's great about the QRX212 is that it's tall, and it is not a 90-degree box, which I imagine means you have bit more control over where sound is going and you can also use more than one per side to cover a larger area. I haven't been able to find a powered top that matches this description, but maybe I'm overestimating the importance of these factors.
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RCF has a NX M22a/M25a out now, which have the 2.5 VC with a 2” exit. It looks like a step between the TT2#a and M1#a, you also gain a db or two. The horn is rotatable between these boxes thus giving you a 90x40 or 40x90 splay.

I don’t want to limit myself to RCF. But I relay wish there was a QRx212/SRX722 powered option and sounded good.

Has anyone worked with/demo’d the dB Technologies Flexsys F212, is it comparable?
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

There's no 'right' answer between powered and passive speakers. It all depends on how you want to operate.

Advantages of powered speakers:
•No amp rack to deal with.
•Built in bi-amp operation.
•Easily can break apart the system for smaller shows
•Amps sized properly for the speaker making it harder to make a stupid connection and blowing the whole thing up
•For monitor speakers, adjustments can be made right at the box.

Advantages for passive speakers
•All amp controls are at the amp rack. No need to go to each speaker to see the level settings
•No need to run power to each speaker, just speaker cable.
•Power distribution is easier. Just need all of the power at the rack, not distributed to each speaker. This matters with larger systems.
•Replacement amps can be easier to deploy than full replacement of a box.
•For monitor speakers, there are no adjustments on the box that the artist can dick up.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Brian jojade said:
There's no 'right' answer between powered and passive speakers. It all depends on how you want to operate.

Advantages of powered speakers:
•No amp rack to deal with.
•Built in bi-amp operation.
•Easily can break apart the system for smaller shows
•Amps sized properly for the speaker making it harder to make a stupid connection and blowing the whole thing up
•For monitor speakers, adjustments can be made right at the box.

Advantages for passive speakers
•All amp controls are at the amp rack. No need to go to each speaker to see the level settings
•No need to run power to each speaker, just speaker cable.
•Power distribution is easier. Just need all of the power at the rack, not distributed to each speaker. This matters with larger systems.
•Replacement amps can be easier to deploy than full replacement of a box.
•For monitor speakers, there are no adjustments on the box that the artist can dick up.
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Brian... you make great points. The main reason I was looking at moving to active is being able to send out smaller rigs with out splitting my amp racks or rewiring them.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

I’ve only been Internet shopping… but right now I am leaning towards this rig to trying out this rig: 2x RCF TT25a (new) or JBL VP7215/##DP (B-Stock) stacked on top of 4x NX S21A/S25A and this should put me at what I am currently running with the QRx212/SRX718s. Then when funds become available with bigger shows, I can build on subs with adding 4-6x NX L23A.

But right now it comes down to, “can the TT25a/VP7215DP replace the QRx212?”
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Thinking out loud again, Both the TT box and the JBL's have a fairly large hi-freq. drivers in them that should rival the QRX top end. If you have 4 of the tops, and the venue allows I wonder how the TT would perform with one box on top of the other flipped so the horns couple together?
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Robert Kenton said:
Thinking out loud again, Both the TT box and the JBL's have a fairly large hi-freq. drivers in them that should rival the QRX top end. If you have 4 of the tops, and the venue allows I wonder how the TT would perform with one box on top of the other flipped so the horns couple together?
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The DH7 compression driver in the QRx is not a very top-end driver; it's a budget version of the drivers they use in their flagship products.

I have no doubt that a top-end JBL or RCF driver will beat it, like what would be found in the VP or possibly the TT series.
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

Silas Pradetto said:
The DH7 compression driver in the QRx is not a very top-end driver; it's a budget version of the drivers they use in their flagship products.

I have no doubt that a top-end JBL or RCF driver will beat it, like what would be found in the VP or possibly the TT series.
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The DH7 is no slouch either though. It's a very solid performer. I was always a big fan of the way my old QRx boxes sounded. I'd have no issues putting it up against any JBL or RCF 1.4" driver. It may not have the oomph to get quite as loud, but if you're to the point of pushing the HF that hard, you're probably out of LF/MF power...



Evan
 
Re: Moved to Active/Self-Powered or stay passively powered?

its 2012 and all top tour rigz in the wourld use power amps but 1 .....meyer

if u want powred srx/qrx demo this box:
EAW: KF364NT
 
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