My band's PA (tools, or toys... you decide)

[chad]

Hi, my name is Chad and I'm a new member here. I have been an audiophile and JBL - ophile for many years. Lots of interesting reading here, thanks for sharing your stories. I am a performing musician, I enjoy configuring our PA and mixing our band as we gig nearly every weekend. I thought I'd share some details of our system and maybe swap some stories about the live performance aspect of audio.

Our system:

Mixer: Mackie CFX-16 - This board has been a jewel since the day I bought it, the features and performance have been invaluable.

Crossover: DBX 223XL - the price / performance ratio is right on

Mid- high amp: QSC plx 3002 running 900 wpc @ 4 ohms

Sub amp: QSC plx 1602, running 1600 w bridged into 4 ohms (2 subs paralleled)

Monitor amp: QSC rmx 1850HD running 360 w @ 8 ohms into my monitor, 600 w @ 4 ohms into the drummer's monitor

Monitor EQ: DBX 215

Mid-high cabinets: Yamaha S215 IV (2 x 15" with a 2" horn driver)

Sub cabinets: Yamaha SW118IV (1 x 18")

Monitor cabinets: JBL MR802 for me and the guitar player, and the drummer uses a Peavey 2 x 15 w horn.

This system is a joy to operate, half the fun of performing is setting up this system and putting on a cd while we finish setting up our stage gear. In bigger rooms, we wish we had a 4 x 18 subwoofer system (like a pair of JBL SR 4719 with a hefty power amp), but that requires some serious investment in money, storage, and handling .

[chad]

By the way... the only component of our system that has been a bit unreliable is the 2416 hi freq. compression drivers in my JBL MR 802 cabinets.... I hear that the Radian diaphragms are sweeter sounding and a bit more robust in demanding applications.

[pelly3s]

if you are ever looking to upgrade the speakers check out the Wharfedale Pro stuff, mainly the LX line. And for amps check out the Crown XS amps they are a ton of power for the money. If what you have works for you then thats good. there are people who always try to push someone to change their gear but if someone has what works then leave well enough alone.

I cant answer your question on the radian diaphragms though because I dont really know the answer