Dear All,

First off, nice to meet you! I have over the last few weeks been reading many of your posts and I am very grateful to be able to find this online resource.

My question is one that has been asked many times over, but the issue is that there are just so many answers to chose from. I am now very confused! For someone just starting out and looking to make their first sound kit investment, which speakers and amps do you go for if you are on a budget?

I’m going to be DJ’ing to small house parties (old school house / trance stuff), so no more than 30 people tops. It won’t be on a regular basis and is definitely more of a hobby than an attempt to add income to beat the credit crunch.

What I was hoping to do is to ask for people’s ratings on various brands / kit, on some kind of marks-out-of-10 scale, sound quality and things such as likelihood of cooking the drivers (e.g. worried that 4 hours of loud thumping tunes is going to cook the Chinese Class-D and mangle the Celestions in the NJ561s). So far I’ve looked at (but not heard):

Speakers:
• Class-D CD158
• Behringer Eurolive
• Peavey Messenger PR 15
• Tapco 6915
• Wharfedale SVP15
• NJD NJ561
• Warrior PSR15

Mackies & HK Audio are going to be too expensive (new) for me.

Amps:
• Rhino Storm 1300
• Numark Dimension 3
• & various Stageline, Warrior & Skytec models

Or do I go for system packages, like the Gemini XTR400?

I am open to both new and second hand (it would be nice, however, to have the peace of mind of a warranty). I know a lot of people recommend Thomann, but I don’t want to ship stuff back to Germany if it goes wrong. I am not bothered by big / heavy items, I don’t think I will need subs at this point, think passive is probably going to be a better option than active, but above everything else, my budget is limited!

Thank you for reading this and for any input you can give.

Cheers,
David

Hi David,you say you are on a tight budget but what is your budget?

Hi Andy!

Thanks for looking. Budget - ideally £300 no more than £500 tops.

Out of the list my personal choice would be the warrior PSR15 but by the time you have bought the speakers and an amp, you might as well buy the active ones PSR15a which are about £450 a pair. For the type of parties you are doing, it will be less to carry, take up less room and actives often sound better than passives in the lower price range.

If anything, they will be a lot more powerful than you need for a house party.

If you do go passive I would suggest a T-amp from Thomanns or the UK equivalent which are C-Mark.

With regards to Thomanns, they have a pretty good returns policy and give a 3 year warranty. If anything goes wrong within the warranty period they arrange a courier to collect it.

Thanks Tony! Good to know about the collection by courier also.

i've seen positive (and negative) posts about T-amp and C-Mark too from various different forums. This is part of my problem, knowing which way to go, and was hoping to get some kind of balanced grading scheme going.

IMHO if you are playing the sort of music you say,want a good sound and you are playing it loud then you will destroy the cabs you are thinking of given time.
If you go passive on a budget then C-Mark or Matrix are your best buys definately, but get someone else to carry them for you!
Speaker wise,that is quite difficult.I would seriously consider s/hand good quality boxes from the likes of A.S.S. as they will last you forever,sound good and deliver a reasonable bottom end from a 15" and 1" compression.
Again though get someone else to carry them for you!!

Cheers Andy!

Sorry for my total ignorance, who are A.S.S - surely its not a misnomer!


Thanks again Tony!
In your opinion is the bass coming from a PSR12 going to be big enough or will I need to add a sub - which is something I cant afford right now. Also generally, is a 15" woofer going to be any better than a standard 12"?

Cheers,
David



Thanks disco4hire! Just asked about the 12 v 15 argument and bass is important. Not worried about weight issues. Cheers also for the Europower and XTR400 tip.
David



Hi Andy!

Did reply but it hasn't appeared. Thanks for your suggestion. Who are A.S.S? Another option to add to the list!
Cheers,
David

If you look hard enough you will find negative comments about most things!

I have amongst my collection of amps a T-amp 1050 and a Numark Dim 3. The sound quality of th T-amp is more defined and clearer than the Numark. I have also had problems with the Numark, first new one I had the cooling fans didn't work. Within about 2 months one channel died on the replacement. I'm now on my third one which, touch wood, hasn't been any trouble.

Any future amps I buy will be T-amp.

I also went on a hunt for some new top speakers at the beginning of the year and listened to loads of different makes including the Peavey Pro and bought Warrior PSR12's as for the money, they out performed some more expensive speakers.

But sound is a very personal thing and different people will have different ideas of what sounds good so best advice is to try and get along to some DJ equipment suppliers and have a listen or see if you can hire some to try out.

If you are only doing small house parties for 30 - 40 people, why buy 15'' speakers? 12'' would be perfectly adequate and easier to carry about. Class D speakers are suprisingly good for the price and the ones I've heard, sounded OK. Considering your budget, I would look out for a S/H Europower 2500 to power the system, I've had a dimension 3 amp and was pleased to see the back of it, btw FORGET the XTR400, that's even worse.

Thanks disco4hire! Just asked about the 12 v 15 argument and bass is important. Not worried about weight issues. Cheers also for the Europower and XTR400 tip.
David

Again that is something down to personal preference. I always use bass bins and have tried the PSR12's on their own once and I thought they lacked a bit of punch (small wedding in a hall, about 70 people and ended playing a bit of house. Bass was maxed out and they asked for more bass!) but then I am used to having bass bins.

If I was going to get speakers to use without bass bins, I would go for 15". Although you are doing just house parties at the moment, you could well end up doing parties in halls and in my opinion 15" would serve you better.

Thanks Tony!

For 15"s, for instance someone has offered me £200 for 2x new NJD NJ561, but then I looked into celestion drivers and people say they cant take the hammering. have you heard of the A.S.S. speakers also?

Cheers
David

Not heard ASS speakers. Not sure if they are still around. They had a website at http://www.acousticsoundsystems.co.uk/ but it seems to have gone.

I know of another DJ that has a pair of 15" Celestions (not NJD) and loaned them to a friend a couple of weeks ago and they both came back dead.

Thanks Tony

Not looking good on the Celestions then. ASS Speakers - what a name!

without getting into specific brands, if I were you I would go down the Active 15" Driver route. Active speakers are so easy to setup and many of the cabs are verey portable.

I'm saying this because I went with the 12" Active Mackies. Don't get me wrong I think they are great, but if i was doing it again I would go for 15s because I have since needed to add a sub for bigger gigs or where i want more volume.

There's a pair of Mackie Actives SR1521z's on e-bay at the moment, If you got them for your budget (and you might) you would have a serious system for not much money, I run the SA version myself and they're awesome beasts. LINK HERE

Hi again,A.S.S. speakers were made by a chap called Tony Rossell.They are in the same neck of the woods quality wise as Turbosound,Martin Audio,Nexo etc.In fact Tony used to build some of the Turbosound/Martin Audio concert cabs in the 80's
They are no longer in production,however as I said in a previous post they were built for life on the road out of proper wood!,AND WILL LAST YOU A LIFETIME.
If you are only going to use one box a side then a 15" + 1" or 2" compression,however if you are going to run subs as well then you really want to be using a 12" + 1" or 10" + 1" is what you want.
Have a look for a company called S.S.E. on the web as they often have A.S.S. secondhand, also a company called GDS sound and light may be able to help you.
If you need further info give me a shout.
Hope this helps.

id try and pick up a pair of Mackie SRM 450's second hand (active)

you can buy the new mk1's now for £699, so second hand you'd be below or around your £500 budget

Cheers Dave! Much appreciated. There are definitely two camps both equally split, both active and passive. Decisions decision!



Thank you! They do look like some serious kit. Will keep an eye on it...

A lot of amps can be the same but with a different badge.. Be wise when buying an amp.

Cheers Steve! Bit of a minefield for a newbie to navigate...

Well, my first proper sound set-up, which is great for small - medium sized venues was a 250Watt Gemini X1 amp and 2 x Gemini speakers which I think cost me around £250 new from Sapphires...

and Im still using it!!

proper!!

Hi I also run the T amps from Thomann and they are very good I have a T1050 and T2400 both are well constructed (but heavy) together with thomans 3 year warranty and collection service they are well worth thinking about.

Also another idea would be their active speaker range I have a couple of Thomann active sets the PA302A a 12'' and the PA502A a 15'' powered speaker. both are excellent value, the 12's are best they sound great also they are not as heavy. They are good for up to 100/150 people.

My recomendation would be buy a bundle and get a set of stands thrown in see link below

http://www.thomann.de/ie/the_box_pa302a_bi...ullrangebox.htm

hope this helps