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Amps for mains and Monitors - Carvin?

veatch

Asked by veatch,

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veatch Veteran HFCer

veatch

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Back in the day, it was always Crown or QSC.... Our band has been renting equipment, but we've had enough gigs that buying some real gear might be worthwhile.

I've been looking at the Carvin DCM2004L and DCM3800L - fairly affordable and seem to get good comments. Another big plus - light weight. Tis is an old man band, and we need to watch our backs. :)

The band is classic rock / 80s, we try to keep stage volume down, use small wedges and a couple of mains. Gigs are mostly bars and restaurants with an occasional hall.

Any thoughts?

Tnx.

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RichRS6 Veteran HFCer

RichRS6

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Have you looked at powered monitors ?

Less wiring up and carrying (although a little heavier) and for rehearsals you can just plug a mic in and away you go.

Only downside I can think of is that using separate amps means you can swap the amps around if you fry one.

veatch Veteran HFCer

veatch

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Thanks, guys. I am looking at the QSC GX5 as well.

Rich said it well - my biggest concern with powered monitors is having a backup for failure - it's easier to shuffle things around if they're separate. I guess we could always keep a spare monitor in the truck... Running power to them is usually no biggie, and the ones I have experience with do sound great.

The only other concern is outdoor gigs and rain. Are powered monitors water tight? I would guess that if it raining enough to cover the amps, it's time to pull the plug anyways...

My apologies if the question exposes my ignorance. That's kind of a gift I have. :)

RichRS6 Veteran HFCer

RichRS6

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My worries mainly stem from years of playing through old, cheap equipment, working at it's limits with no maintenance, connected by people that don't understand the principles so failures were likely to happen.

Modern good quality, well cared for, set up properly failures will be rare so the obsolescence thing is less important.

If you really had to (main PA failure) you could use powered monitors as FOH for vocals anyway unless it was a really large venue and you were running the Bass player through them.

I went mad and bought a pair of S/H RCF NX10's because the vocalist were always bitching about the monitors being too quiet, haven't had any complaints since then.

Our PA is all powered boxes too (HK Audio Actor DX) so it's a complete doddle to set up, I can do it alone in 30-45 minutes.

Water tight I wouldn't like to say but I wouldn't want to get them too wet anyway.

P.S. "The gift of ignorance" I have a load of this and am planning on giving it away for Christmas. (Oh shit I said the C word).

veatch Veteran HFCer

veatch

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Those RCFs look great - hopefully we can move up to that or the EAW Microwedge as we get more revenue. :)

Probably going to go with the QSC GX7 for mains and GX5 for monitors. Our sound guy has access to a lot of passives, not as many actives. At least we won't have to rent the power.

Not to derail my own thread, but any experience with the Community MX10 monitors? We've used some older Communities before with pretty good results. These are coaxial, small, and light.

Thanks again, all.

tomteriffic Veteran HFCer

tomteriffic

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If your stage setup is pretty consistent, going active is really not that big a deal, logistics-wise. We went to powered mains (JBL Eon 515X) and what I did was to take an appropriate length mic cable and power cable (Cables to Go is about a 5 minute drive and they do custom lengths) plus a few feet and bundle the two together for cross-stage runs. Shorter cables for signal and mains to the mixer were also whipped up. Since our power and mixer-speaker setup is consistent, it wasn't hard to do. We've been considering doing the monitors that way as well.

FWIW, for the first few shows, we carried a pair of passive mains, just as insurance against infant mortality in the JBL's. They've been rock-solid tho, and we don't do that any more. I expect we'd do the same thing for monitors.

geoff_hartwell Veteran HFCer

geoff_hartwell

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+1000 for powered speakers. I still gig 200 nights a year, and couldn't go back to power amps and passive speakers.

For mains the QSC k12s are the bomb. They work great as monitors on big stages too.

Look into the JBL G2 eon10s (the black ones) as powered monitors. They are super reliable, super light, super durable and with a tiny footprint. You can find them used on CL here and there. Get a pair, with the carrying bags, and you'll be lovin life.

:)

veatch Veteran HFCer

veatch

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Wow! I ended up with a Crown XLS2500 - got it used and very reasonable, but not $200 reasonable...

Hope the link helps someone else lookin'. :)

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