Karaoke Forums

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for the best speakers for under $2000 a Pair. Please give me suggestions.

This is my system:

QSC 2450-Amp 500 Watts per Channel @8 Ohms.
Zed 12FX - Mixer
DBX 231 - EQ
DBX 166xl - Compressor
Shure PGX24 - Mics

I've heard that EAW FR153z makes awesome speakers.

I don't really like asking so many questions, but it's pretty hard to choose a pair of good karaoke speakers if you can't sing on them before buying. I need suggestions. There are soooo many speakers out there it's hard to choose or know which is the best.

Are 3-Way speakers better than PAs? Instead of horns, they use 2 small woofers like the FR153z.

Those EAW's are some seriously nice speakers. Their three-way design with the 6.5 inch mid-range cone is setup to keep that range from becoming too "honky" as often happens with 2-way cabinets that are crossed over from woofer to horn right in that frequency range.

A couple thoughts though. One EAW recommends an amp capable of 750-1000W at 8 ohms for "peak performance" from those speakers. Your litte QSC 2450 is below that recommendation and while it will work, it's not the best match for the cabinets. Second, despite having a 15-inch woofer, those speakers are definitely designed to work with a subwoofer. Those are not a set of speakers you're going to want to drive low-end out of. Finally just a note on terminology, PA does not refer to speaker design. Most of us use either 2-way (woofer + horn in most cases) or 3-way (2 woofers+horn most often) speakers. PA means Public Address and actually refers to your entire rig from mixer to amp to speakers.

For an alternative, I'd recommend looking at the ElectroVoice Force series. The 2-way 15" model would be a great match for your existing rig and the price would leave you room in your budget to add a sub-woofer. The SX250 would be another option for ElectroVoice that would also match up nicely and leave you room in your budget.

You can get some pretty nice speakers that are matched well to your existing rig for much cheaper than your proposed budget. I think you'd get more bang for your buck going that route and using the rest to add a sub-woofer than you're going to get out of spending more on your full-range cabinets and not having a sub.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I like your EV SX 250 recommendation. Will it be a little too much power? 350/750/1400. 750w is a little above my QSC 500w. How good are those speakers? on the scale of 1-10. S115V being a 5.

Do you have any other Recommendations?

Again, you need to listen wih your own ears. You are ultimately going to be the one to be using them and/or liking them. Again what some people absolutely love, other may hate. The EV is another great speaker. I'm not going to rate anything on a scale, it would be in how I like them to my ears.
And again NONE of these speakers that were recommended here or in your other thread are 'karaoke' speakers, these are professional PA speakers. So if they reproduce music clearly without any harshness, chances are good to better that they will make great speakers to sing on. Remember many of these speakers are used for bands which involve singing. So when you keep saying a good 'karaoke' speaker, most PA speakers are designed with singing in mind.
You don't want anything that says or is made for karaoke. Usually that is all overpriced, under featured/underpowered stuff.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Hi Lonman,

The thing is I can't hear most of the good speakers in person. They don't have them here. If i want them, i will have to get them online. Therefore, I have to rely on other's experience. It's the only thing i can do. It would be nice if they have all the speakers at GC, but they only have a few.


I'll only be using these speakers for KARAOKE purpose at home. I want really good ones. I will not be taking these on the road or do any "GIG" with it. However, I do want good ones.

You can only take recomendations so far. Example some people swear by Behringer speakers, say they are the best ever, while high end/pro users wouldn't touch them if Behringer gave them an entire PA to use.
I like Peavey SP series, others may say they suck. Others like the S115V, others say they are junk. These comparisons can go on for every brand/model. And again, once you get something someone says is great, you get it home and don't like the sound? Find a store & make your own evaluations.
Go listen to what is in the store & you may be able to make a good choice from what they have in stock. GC usually still have a good selection of various brands, no they don't always have everything in stock that is recommended, no store ever will. Even for home use, the difference between the 'best' & an 'ok' speaker may be pretty minimal. You won't need the best - trust me. Much of the music recorded for karaoke is recorded so differently, even the best speaker on some tracks will sound like crap.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

yup. that's true. ^_^

For the most part, everyone thinks that they own the best equipment for the money so they just recommend what they own because they are convinced that their system sounds great. It's just human nature to think that you know what you're doing so you brag about your "knowledge". There are a few professional "sound people" on this board who actually have experience with more than than one set of equipment whose opinions are more "open minded". The rest are just touting their individual choices based on no comparison tests; just their own egos.... I have the best system I have the best system I have the best system !!!

Lonman,

My gf has just came over and tested out the s115v and she said they sound good. Much better than the jrx. What's your experience with the ev sx250? Is it a pretty good upgrades from s115v?

Have you guys ever heard of BMB karaoke speakers?

When I started out I bought a pair of BMB CS-450Vs as part of a package deal from Ace Karaoke because I didn't know any better. The biggest thing I can say in their favor is how light and compact they are. They don't sound bad, so if you were playing in a small cramped area they might do.

If you're looking for the best sound though, there are quite a few better alternatives. Currently I use the BMBs as part of the practice rig I have set up in my basement, but when I'm doing a show somewhere I use Peavey SP-5Gs.

Everything is relative, too. An S115V in a small bar or coffee shop may be a good tool for the job and budget. Behringer makes some good products, but a lot of bad ones; and so on a certain level, people/customers won't use even the good Behringer devices because of the brand reputation. Most pro artists/companies won't use anything that says Peavey, even though Peavey makes many good products. One of Peavey's biggest problems selling their line array is their brand name, believe it or not.

For a home system, unless the room you are covering is really large, I would look at products geared towards home theater or consumer home audio, not professional PA equipment. Both will certainly work, but home equipment will generally be smaller and focus more on sound quality than maximum volume.

If you insist on using speakers that are more SR-oriented, and you really want to spend about $1000ea, I would look at JBL MRX, SRX, and PRX; Electro-Voice QRx; and the QSC K and Kw series. That gives you plenty of passive and powered options and these product lines include a range of driver compliments, and subwoofers (if you want one.) All these are good-sounding speakers and can get much louder than you would need for most homes.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Jeff, most of Speakers you'd mentioned are way above what my QSC can handle.

It's a common misconception that your amplifier must be somehow sized for your speaker. That's only partially true. I will try to explain, but you can search my many posts on this topic as well.

Say you have a 400w/ch 8Ω amplifier and a 800w 8Ω speaker. The amplifier will not be able to take maximum advantage of that speaker, and buying a more powerful amp would allow it to play louder; but that's all. As long as you don't drive the amplifier into heavy clipping (red light on the front of the amp = bad) the speaker will work fine, sound fine, and will not be damaged.

Now pretend you have a 500w/ch 8Ω amplifier and a 100w 8Ω speaker. If you drive the amplifier to full power for an extended period, you will damage the speaker. You could even do so pretty quickly depending on the specific speaker and your crossover configuration (or lack thereof.) However, if you use them correctly, they will be fine.

FYI I have 100w 8Ω speakers on 500w amplifiers. I sometimes use 800w 8Ω speakers on those same amplifiers. So I'm not just making this up; it is sometimes a practical way to deploy my equipment for a given job.

Speakers are where the most distortion in the audio signal chain is introduced. The best way to make your system sound good is to have reasonably good speakers. You certainly can find installation or reference monitor speakers with low power ratings, e.g. 50 - 200 watts RMS, which may be what you previously thought was appropriate for your amplifier. These speakers may sound excellent. But you won't be unhappy with, for example, an MRX515, just because it's a 400w RMS speaker and conventional wisdom would suggest you use an a 600-800w amplifier.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Husky,

Were I you, I would look into the EV SX300 speakers. Pretty well matched to your amp, and some of the best HF drivers in your price range. You should be able to pick some up for about $400-450 each on Ebay.

With your remaining budget, get a small powered sub. For home use, you don't need anything huge and one should be plenty. I am partial to the DB Technologies SUB12:

http://www.directproaudio.com/product.c ... m=googleps

They list these for $660.00, but I bought mine from these same guys and talked them down to $550.00 each. Again, for home use, you should only need one.

So that's $1450.00 for a REALLY good home system. I run two EV SX300s and two DB Technologies SUB12s in my professional rig, and it is very very good sound that easily fills my 6000 sq/ft bar vanue at about 1/3 of it's possible decibal level.

Bottom line, though, is that with the equipment you have and the budget you have, you almost can't go wrong. The level of equipment you are talking about here is going to be better than even most of the professonals on this board. You are going to have one of the top 10% of home systems in the country with that level of equipment!!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Jeff, I have a question now. I've always heard that amps are most linear when they are turned all the way up... If you ran a 500 watt amp at only say 200 watts wouldn't that create problems for you?

No. Turning the "volume knob" on your amplifier down instead of turning down something else in the signal chain (mic pre-amp, for example) will slightly increase your system noise floor; but with modern PA equipment, this is not a serious issue.

In a home environment you may wish to avoid some amplifiers with a slightly noticeable noise floor, for example, the Crown XTi amps have DSP noise somewhere below -90dB. You can hear it in a quiet room when listening carefully; but with any audio going, it is completely transparent. I would also avoid any of the JBL PRX500 series speakers for your application (except the PRX512MI) as they have a noise gate to artificially decrease the noise floor, at the expense of bad behavior if the output required is very quiet. No problem at all in normal use for live performances; but some of these products would not be practical at all for a home installation.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Jeff,

So my 500 wAtt @8ohm amp can handle speakers that're rated 500watt/1000 watt/ 2000 watt (continuous, program, peak) without any Ill effects? It would sound just as good as if I was to run them on say 300/600/1200 watts speakers?

It will work fine.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ