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I am pleased to say I finally got a chance to A/B several speakers in the upper level category recently. In an effort not to generalize, as I've seen to many vague statements like, "JBL is over rated", I'm sure the SF and JRX line are "Price" type speakers, I assure you the SRX is top notch and MRX and PRX are also pretty nice indeed. I've also seen it implied that Peavey isn't very good when in fact the SP series is pretty nice and the QW series is very high quality.
 I was able to actually try several of the upper level cabinets, I guess we could call this my own personal little shootout that took about three hours in a Pro sound companies warehouse over by Lansing . The Tops I listened to were:

Mackie SA1530A
JBL PRX535
QCS HPR153I
Yorkville U15P

The Bottoms I listened to were:
Mackie SWA1801Z
JBL PRX518S
QSC HPR181I
Yorkville LS800P

  As you probably noticed all Cabinets were self powered and all the uppers were 3 way and the bottoms were all loaded with 18's. I don't want to go into specifics as that would just be subjective, if anyone is interested in any of these type of speakers and care to go into them in more detail that might be a fun discussion. When the smoke had cleared I purchased the Yorkville U15Ps and the Yorkville LS800Ps.
In my opinion the speakers stacked up like this
Uppers:
1 Yorkville    
2 QSC
3 JBL
4 Mackie

Bottoms:
1 Yorkville
2 QSC
3 JBL
4 Mackie

 I will add in the "Upper" category the the QSC was a fairly close second to the Yorkville and the JBL wasn't far behind. In the "Bottoms" category The Yorkvilles smoked the others severely but the QSC was certainly respectable the JBL seemed to be under powered and the Mackie was just muddy in comparison to the others. I also got a chance to hear the RCF 315A, it was very impressive in deed, especially for its size and weight, it wasn't quite as smooth as the Yorkville but I'm sure that was due to it being a two way vs a three way. I like the RCF a lot though.
 Anyway, this little adventure started a couple of months ago by reading specs and revues and reading threads on lots of Pro Audio boards. Then I was finally able to hear them all for myself in a side by side comparison. Only time will tell, but I'm pretty confident in my discission.

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

Good input.
Gives me something to go on.

If you want to save about 20 lbs per top speaker, the Yorkville 750s are also awesome.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

thank you LL for this

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I totally agree, the NX750's are very nice units, I didn't hear them the day of the shootout but I have heard them. I did get to hear the Yorkville EF500P (another powered 15/Horn Yorkville) that day and it also was a great speaker but slightly harsher to the ear than the U15P, I would imagine being because it was a two way design and the U15P is a three way. The weight thing is a concern, but as I plan on continue to build on my setup I wanted a cabinet that was designed to be clustered if need be in the future and the U15P being a 60 degree conical horn is a perfect candidate. Believe me, I was sceptical about the three fives that the U15P uses, I commented several times to the Pro's doing the demo that I didn't see how it could work out. It didn't take long to convince me it works very well. By the way, the unit was designed by Tom Danely of Danely Sound Lab and uses B&C drivers.

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

I think you will be very happy with your selection of speakers.

I think 3 way speakers cause mid range overkill but that is just me.

You purchased a great setup and with 2 - LS800p's you should never be looking for more bass. I don't think there is a better sub on the market that isn't over $3500

Liquiddye, thanx for the encouraging words. I had a little concern about "midrange overkill" as you call it also. All speakers were tested using an Allen & Heath MixWizard (which just so happens is what I use also) and all channel EQs were set to zero so there were no frequencies enhanced or diminished. I didn't detect any noticeable peak in the mid frequencies, but as soon as I get some good weather up here I'm going to drag these puppies outside and run an RTA on them so I can get a true reading on the cabinets themselves. You are absolutely right on the Bottoms, those things are monsters, dust was falling from the ceiling in chunks and they weren't even being driven hard. As a matter of fact during the test the U15Ps were set to about the 1 O:Clock position and the LS800Ps were set at the 11 O:Clock position, that seemed to be about the right combination for uniformity. Thanx for the input. I also ran the U15P's without the bottom just to see if it could stand alone in a smaller situation, trust me, they can.

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

With the Yorkville subs, you can easily go with the NX55s (under 40 lbs) and still have great sound.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

You all are killing me, I thought I wanted the B52 powered sub, now I'm thinking Yorkville powered sub. 1500 watts, WOW! I guess I am going to spend a little more than I thought I was.

We mean you no harm . I don't know what your application is, but if you are doing large rooms you'd be hard pressed to find a better self powered sub for the money. If you are doing smaller rooms Yorkville makes some smaller models also. The place I made my purchase from is willing to deal, which was a pleasant surprise and mentioned they could drop ship anything they didn't have in stock. These people spent several hours with me and they didn't know if they were going to make a penny or not. I did comment to them that it must be nice to be selling gear that can sell itself.

Always remember: If everything seems to be going your way, your probably in the wrong lane.

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

We play a small to medium venue for karaoke, but also DJ larger ( weddings, ect. )venues so the extra headroom would be great. We have a Yamaha EMX312 powered mixer with Peavey 215 speakers. I have actually played a few karaoke songs in my vehicle that had ultra low bass and they sounded good, then we played it on the PA system and it would not reproduce the low bass notes at all. Had a hollow sound, I would say 99% of songs sound good through our system.

LondonLive could you please PM me where you purchased the Yorkville sub from, if it was an internet site. I actually think I probably couldn't go wrong with either the B 52 or the Yorkville, but I like a really tight bass that you feel in the gut and I think by what I've read that the Yorkville would be a better choice. I am still going to do more research. Thanks for the input and anymore advice would be appreciated. Rudy.

The B-52 is a good system but it's also more for people who want a little more oomph on a tight budget & smaller.    It's not going to compare to any of the systems mentioned, but they are also more higher end systems as well.  I recommend the B52 systems for those that are looking to spend the same amount on a system that includes a basic 10-12 speaker with no sub as they generally are priced comparitavely.

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Lonnie that's good to know because we are not talking about a difference of a few thousand dollars, it's more like a few hundred. If that's all that seperates half decent to high end on these subs, I will gladly pay the difference. Thanks for the info. Rudy.

BTW, I am ashamed to admit I had never heard of Yorkville.

I'm not sure which subs you were actually comparing, I was referring to the "Matrix" series of the B52 line that is a powered 3 way system consisting of a powered sub & 2 top speakers.  B52 does have their higher end stuff as well, what model are you actually referring to?

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I was referring to the lone B-52 ACT-18X Active 18" 1200W Subwoofer for 799.00 as compared to the Yorkville LS800P Elite Series Powered Subwoofer for a little over a grand. Maybe that B52 is comparable. Anxiously awaiting your reply!

I was referring to the lone B-52 ACT-18X Active 18" 1200W Subwoofer for 799.00 as compared to the Yorkville LS800P Elite Series Powered Subwoofer for a little over a grand. Maybe that B52 is comparable. Anxiously awaiting your reply!

Yorkville is a Canadian company and has been around since 1963.  all units are made in Canada and a lot of the top acts use them.  You can also check your local stores and see if they rent them.  Often stores will sell their rental gear at a reduced cost. .Very hard to kill a Yorkville.  Here's there link.

http://www.yorkville.com/

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You can be strange but not a stranger

You probably should have looked at Electro Voice SXa250's and Plasma P2 Powered subs.

These are excellent sound quality.

http://www.electrovoice.com/products/210.html
http://www.electrovoice.com/products/31.html

I read several not to favorable review's on the SXA360's over on a few of the Pro Sound forums. I think it was Pro Sound Web. I didn't look at 250's at all. I was specifically looking for  three way cabinets for my application as I do a lot of live sound work in mid sized to larger rooms. I am very pleased with my purchase and I fear no plastic speaker, well maybe the RCF315a, but just a little . As far as the subs go, pretty much everything I read indicated that the Yorkville LS800P was the king of self powered small format subs.(In the mid level price range) From what I heard in person, they deserve their reputation. You might find this link interesting.
http://www.cobrasound.com/shootout06

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

The SXa250's are 15" speakers in a wood cabinet...nothing like the 360's. While they are a two way the crossover and phasing that EV uses produces a very clean sound and good midrange. Not as good as a 3-way, but better than most 2-ways. I have them and they replaced 3-way passive speakers and sound as good if not better.