PreSonus StudioLive AI speakers (Have you actually seen, heard, touched?)

[Chris Paras]

I'm new to thissite and forum. My background is in analog engineering, and for the past 10years in IT and classroom technologies or in the old days affectingly calledAV! By night & weekends, I’m a want-to-be drummer, sometime Mobile DJ,sometimes sound & lighting guy when a friend’s need a hand!
For personalreasons I got out of the DJ sound & Lighting bus approx. 5 years ago andnow things have changed and I’m thinking of starting business back up!
I am lookingfor some not so typical really great sounding speakers for small band and DJgigs primarily on the general business, wedding & event circuit! Or like Iused to tell people, we do weddings, baptizers, and pagan rituals!
Anyway, I ampretty familiar with all the typical “Guitar Center” PA speaker market, I.e.JBL, EV, QSC, etc..
I have beendoing my research and came across the somewhat new (1 yr old?) Presonus AI lineof PA speakers. The issue is besides the little info available including David Gunnesstalking a little about his designand some really stupid video from a marketer at Presonus that posted aYouTube demoing the speakers to an almost empty room! I have not been able tofind any real working people, (musicians, DJ’s, sound guys etc…) that are usingthe Presonus or at least have done a real A/B comparison against some maybe competitorslike the new EV, ETX series?

I even called my favorite toy shops in NYC, B&H, Sam Ash & new GuitarCenter at Time Sq. who said “come on down and we can demo EV vs. Presonus foryou! Got down there and no one even knew that Presonus manufactured speakers until Ishowed them that they were all selling the AI series on their websites! I didcontact Presouns and they put me in touch with their local dist. ch in New England who werewilling to demo for me but they couldn’t do A/B comparisons, against JBL’s,QSC, EV etc..?

I am a fan ofGunness and FulcrumAcoustic and almost tempted to do this totally blind with the gut feeling theyare going to be more then I ever expected! Againthis is my last ditch effort to see if anyone has actually tested them in realfield use?

Thx;
Chris

 

[Max Warasila]

Re: PreSonus StudioLive AI speakers (Have you actually seen, heard, touched?)

I had the opportunity of hearing the 315s, and they're good sounding mains. I don't know how they'd handle abuse, and I wouldn't push them too hard in the low end. I was kind of babying the ones I was around because I don't know how much shock those horns are going to take. The sound across pattern sounded pretty even, and they got plenty loud for the space they were in (300 cap), but I only have gotten that one chance with them. I wouldn't honestly say they're as good as the fulcrum ones, but they're nice.

 

[Chris Paras]

Re: PreSonus StudioLive AI speakers (Have you actually seen, heard, touched?)

I had the opportunity of hearing the 315s, and they're good sounding mains. I don't know how they'd handle abuse, and I wouldn't push them too hard in the low end. I was kind of babying the ones I was around because I don't know how much shock those horns are going to take. The sound across pattern sounded pretty even, and they got plenty loud for the space they were in (300 cap), but I only have gotten that one chance with them. I wouldn't honestly say they're as good as the fulcrum ones, but they're nice.

Thanks for the response, I should have mentioned that I'm planning on Qty 2, 312 AI'a and one 318 sub in the middle and then adding another Qty 2 more 312's and another 318 for larger venues.

 

[Tim Padrick]

Re: PreSonus StudioLive AI speakers (Have you actually seen, heard, touched?)

Thanks for the response, I should have mentioned that I'm planning on Qty 2, 312 AI'a and one 318 sub in the middle and then adding another Qty 2 more 312's and another 318 for larger venues.

I'd wait until some folks have experience with how well a pair of tops array. Many have compromises.

 

[Art Welter]

Re: PreSonus StudioLive AI speakers (Have you actually seen, heard, touched?)

Thanks for the response, I should have mentioned that I'm planning on Qty 2, 312 AI'a and one 318 sub in the middle and then adding another Qty 2 more 312's and another 318 for larger venues.

Chris,

Most would prefer the subs to have substantially more headroom than the tops, looking at the Presonus specs, a one to one ratio would be advisable. Note that the sub has only half the power of the top cabinets.
The tops are all 90 degrees, unless you actually need 150-180 degrees of coverage, the output will be overlapping, with attendant comb filtering (peaks and troughs in the response, uneven horizontal coverage). The definition provided by the coax mid/high unit and the Gunness tuning will no longer be there. That said, multiples per side will be no worse than other 90 degree cabinets, but if you think you need more level than a single cabinet per side, you would be better off looking at cabinets designed with (a lot) less horizontal beam width.

Art