Quote:
why powered speakers?
Fair question, because I'm old and I want to carry less gear but I will not compromise sound quality. right now an average set up for me is three power amps, 2 Mackie 1400Is and 1 Yamaha P5000s, two 18 inch subs, Peavey lowriders, two mids JBL K130s, two JBL 2425J compression horns, to hook this up I use a driverack and some other external processors and about a million miles of various cables because I run a threeway system. By the way I run mostly Live Sound, canned music is a small fraction of what I do. Depending on the set up and the way its wired the amps can putout up to a total of 5400 watts max total. I think the way I have it configured right now I'm using roughly 3000 watts.The Yorkville LS800P subs putout 1500 watts each and if I go with the U15P they put out 900 watts each, I believe the EF500P does slightly less at 800 watts each. So I think you can see that would be a total of about 4800 watts and only wheel in 4 cabinets, no xover needed, no amp rack needed and no BenGay needed(hopefully). This should give me a system that I shouldn't have to worry about time alignment or phasing (in theory)
Quote:
Have you heard a couple of Yamaha S115V
Yes I have, and they are fine speakers for what they are, they would not hold up well in my situation though. Comparing a Yamaha S115V to a Yorkville EF500P (two way) or the Yorkville U15P (threeway) isn't a fair battle by any stretch of the
imagination.
Quote:
Even if you have to drive and hour or to to get there, it's worth it.
You are of course correct, I did finally locate a "stocking" dealer about 50 miles from here which I will be visiting either today or tomorrow. Actually hearing them is of course the best way to decide, I didn't think I was going to be able to locate any locally, thats why I've been reading a lot of forums here and over on ProAudio and a few others. I've read nothing but glowing reviews and would have been fairly comfortable buying them without hearing them. You might find this interesting
http://www.cobrasound.com/shootout06
I hope I have quelled your curiosity. Their are a few people on here that know me well enough to know I do a tremendous amount of homework before I part with even a penny, Yes I can be cheap
![LOL LOL](./images/smilies/emot-LOL.gif)
. Bottom line is in the almost 40 years now that I have been doing this, it's better to get what you should have and not what you can get by with and in my experience, quality always wins out over price. It's kinda like that ole Valvoline commercial....you can pay me now or you can pay me later
![LOL LOL](./images/smilies/emot-LOL.gif)
When this adventure started for me I was Comparing the SA series Mackies, PRX series JBL, HPR series QSC and The Elite and Unity series from Yorkville. After about a week of reading and comparing stats and getting input from people that own some of this gear, I have decided on the Yorkville, I'm pretty sure I won't be regretting my decision. I'll even tell you that after all this I rate them like this, mind you this is just my opinion and these are all competing for the same market.
1) Yorkville Elite or Unity...just didn't find anything negative about them. Best of all the subs, very nice sound and reliable.
2) QSC HPR Series, many favorable reviews, very well made, reliable, but not quite in the same league as the Yorkville
3) JBK PRX Series, They are a bit thin sounding, not made as well as perhaps the QSC, Just didn't seem to live up to what the specs would indicate. Most reviews were favorable but their were some good points made on some issues.
4) Mackie Sa Series, they appear to like electricity more than the others, sound quality is good, the reviews were like a 50/50 thing, you either loved them or hated them, but thermal shut downs perhaps from lack of electricity seemed to be a major issue as well as some reliability complaints.
I went into this with the PRX in mind, but you see what happened. I got a little carried away with all this typing, but now.....you know the rest of the story.