Hi guys,

I have been playing around the idea in my head of purchasing a little pair of High Quality 10 inch loudspeakers (Martin Audio) for smaller events.

The amount of times ive turned up at tiny venues with my usual 15" cabinets, and always have to carefully think where they are going to go. Now at the end of the day, I don't think in small places, I ever exceed 150w AES (rating of the cabinets im looking at). They also have a 97db sensitivity with SPL of 117dB continuous..

Now I also do conference work, where sometimes only a microphone is required with perhaps some BGM in small office rooms or eating areas.

Theoretically this concept is good, but im just wondering if anybody actually uses this kind of practice and if it is as efficient as the concept?

Many thanks in advance for your advise.

yeah i guess it would be a good idea for smaller venues when im in a smaller venue instead of taking my 15" tops i take a smaller 12" pair of tops as you dont really need much in small venues

Don't know what your budget is but I've got one of these ... Bose Compact It's a fantastic piece of kit, awesome sound, ideal for wedding speeches, children's parties, Bbq's, smaller parties, quizzes, back up speaker etc.

I recently used it at our 6 year old daughter's school sports day and summer fete. It blew people away with the quality of sound outside for such a small unit, compliments galore and a couple of bookings!

I use mine a lot. You simply plug it in, one input for a mic and different inputs for music. Plug an ipod in and you are up and running in literally two minutes! Outlay ........... I got mine for £850.

I use a pair of RCF Art310a's for smaller gigs. Obviously you're not going to get ground shaking bass - but it's surprising how good they are. As long as you are sure of the size of venue, number of people and music required then I think it's a great idea. For instance this weekend I have a party for about 30 - 40 people in a venue that holds a maximum of 60, 70's and 80's disco has been requested and it's upstairs....the ART 310's will handle it easily.

Cheers for the feedback so far guys.

I starting to think its probably a good idea. When I say small, im talking venues of 60/70 persons max. I may look at getting a little 12" sub to attenuate the low end.

As for Bose, I can't say i'm a massive fan, ive used it, and its been ok, but I find it relies heavily upon processing. I do prefer the natural sound of a solid birch ply cabinet. Just personal preference really.

[quote name='Welsh Audio Man 21' date='Jul 20 2010, 03:38 PM' post='255195']
Cheers for the feedback so far guys.

I starting to think its probably a good idea. When I say small, im talking venues of 60/70 persons max. I may look at getting a little 12" sub to attenuate the low end.

As for Bose, I can't say i'm a massive fan, ive used it, and its been ok, but I find it relies heavily upon processing. I do prefer the natural sound of a solid birch ply cabinet. Just personal preference really.
[/quot

Okay but have you heard the Compact live? If you have a supplier near you it would be well worth an hour or so having a listen.. If you don't like it then fine but you could be pleasantly surprised. As I always say ... You don't know till you know!

The Bose Compact is a completely different animal to the older Bose systems.

RCF 310a's

These are fantastic speakers

Just doing some research, are these 350w rms?

They are good but sorry no way are they fantastic. They don't hold a candle against the Bose Compact and yes I have listened to them. I tried them speaker V speaker against the Bose Compact in a large room. It was in http://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/st Poole. Okay so the Bose is £500 dearer but talk about money well spent. Within 2 minutes from walking a room I am set up!

Interesting - did you demo the bose compact against a single or a pair of the 310's? What swayed you towards the bose over the 310's? I may be on the lookout for some new speakers soon and I'm very open to auditioning something new.

I would say, in no particular order ...

1 Ease of set up, no stands simply take off the cover, put the extensions in (if needed), connect mic and/or say laptop, all done in 60 to 90 seconds.

2 Quality of sound, absolutely stunning, so clear.

3 The carry of the sound, check out you tube for Bose Compact clips especially those by a chap called Cap Capello and you'll be amazed at how far the sound carries. As I said in an earlier post I used it at a school sports day and you could hear everything beautifully from 300 yards plus away AND at 180 degrees either side of it. The volume was only at about 70% of max too.

I appreciate Bose seem to be a 'Marmite' product and some people have heard them many years ago and base their views on old Bose systems. The new ones are just great, I've got the L1's too that I use for discos and I can honestly say I have never had so many compliments on sound quality ... NEVER!

As I said just give them a sound check, if they are not for you then fine but you could be missing out on someting really good.


Here's just one ... Compact in action

I know it is quite hard to express this as the technology is different but what would you say the approximate RMS output of this unit would be matched to a conventional speaker.


!!!UPDATE!!!
Just brought one from here.


Nik

Cool, I'm sure you'll never be disappointed with the outlay. I'll be looking for some gig reports from you Nik!

Ref the RMS output, no idea I'm afraid.

Its more for my wife to use for the kids disco's that she does. Lighter and easier for her to set up and pack up. But I might give it a try this coming Saturday as I have an OB with the Wolf and we need just a small PA.

Nik

I think so.

It's handy to have a varied size to setup with. I have 10", 12" and 15" Tops and a set of 15" Base Bins and mix and match to suit. I carry them all with me anyway, Just in case

I've taken a Db Technologies Sub12 along with me for smaller gigs with the Art310's - to be honest would've been fine without it, so I don't bother now. I think you're edging away from the simplicity and ease of a pair of 10" cabs if you start adding a sub - you may as well have a pair of 12" cabs instead. Get the right 10" speakers and they'll be fine for what you need.

Your totally right there. Need to stick with the whole reason for considering this!

I have got a very good price on some Martin Audio EM56 loudspeakers. I have always found Martin Audio to be of a high standard. However, all this talk about the ART310's, I might have to get a listen of these before I commit to anything...

Another good (but admittedly expensive) option is the QSC K10, massive output for a 10" speaker and very tidy and easy to transport, depends on your budget not sure how price compares with rcf's but if memory serves me correctly they are more expensive. If you play small gigs mainly you would rarely need a sub with these.

Hi guys.

Many thanks for all the advice and suggestions. After much thought, and a little bit of bribery, I have ended up going for the Martin Audio EM56's.

I had a listen to a pair last night (even though it was in my living room), but I was pleased with the performance, and they had very good clarity.

For what im paying for them, I couldn't say no really! I know Martin Audio isn't everyones cuppa tea but they are ideal for what I need.

I do have much bigger equipment, which I use for larger events, aswell as multiple pairs of full range 15" loudspeakers, just wanted the 10s for the smaller events I do, especially small corporate events and conferences.

Again, many thanks for the feedback all, kindly appriciated!

Well best £899 I have spent on kit. Got it Thursday and have done two school disco's an Adult party and a Radio outside broadcast.

It is fantastic any one thinking about a small speaker this is for you it is so light I can carry the bass unit the pole and my laptop into the venue all in one go. You could potentially plug your laptop into the inbuilt mixer and your mic and away you go.

For the OB it was fantastic because of the system we use (Matrix Comrex) we have a slight delay and are sometimes plagued by howl round so we have to have the PA quite low when on air. With this one L1 Compact we had loads of level very clear sound and zero howl round.

The L1 is for my wife to use as it is light and compact lol but I now want one of my own lol.

Any way if you can possibly stretch the budget do not hesitate if you want hifi sound in a small unit that is very portable then this baby is for you.

Nik

Nik, wow, that sounds impressive, please elaborate when you have a moment - how big were the school discos and adult party? Size of room? Were you using just one L1 Compact?

Could've done with one tonight - small party of 25-30 in a tiny upstairs room in a pub, mainly 70's and 80's tunes.

They're definitely on my demo list.

The school disco's were your average sized primary school hall's come gym. The adult party had about 100 guests and was at a hotel Not a massive room but big enough to sit and feed 100+

The OB was in the car park of Carvers in Wolverhampton and I had the L1 on half volume and that was more than enough for us.

One thing you have to get used to is that the L1 in itself is not loud as we DJs perceive loud. This is hard to explain and I could not get my head around it to start with I was asking dealers and on here what can you compare it to in terms of power. They told me you cant really do that so I was worried it would not do the job.

Of cause if your a drum and bass DJ then the L1 is not for you but if you do weddings and family events and want a wonderful sound then it is. The thing also seems to EQ itself. for example in the school halls there was no echo that you get with hard rooms and the sound was perfect. Like wise in the car park the sound travelled and did not go thin as you walked away from it.

I don't know how such a small light weight speaker does it, but it does.

As I say it is a different concept to what we DJs are used to as in the speaker is right next to me so its blasting so it reaches the end of the dance floor. With this you have it set at the volume you want it at the end of the Dance floor and it is a nice uniform sound in the whole room. With one you are of cause in mono the speaker deals with this for you as it has a left and right input so just run a stereo cable to it. Even though its in mono you don't notice and you don't feel that the music is coming from a single source.

The longest part of the set up is plugging the mains cable into it. I will be ordering another this week wife permitting lol.

Hope that helps and depending on your style of DJing you cant go wrong with the L1 Compact.

Nik

Thanks Nik - excellent review. Understand what you mean by having to rethink how we listen to our speakers - I'm open minded enough to think different isn't necessarily better or worse - just different!.

Think I'll arrange a demo so I can set up my current speakers side by side in a village hall somewhere.

Something like an HK lucas system is ideal for a small do, nice and compact.

Nik, your comments do not surprise me in the least, really glad you are happy with your investment.

I would suggest anybody thinking about Bose simply do a search on you tube for 'Bose Compact', especially by Cap capello there are loads of great scenes on there, such as ... Bose Compact. You can also trawl the Bose forum for feedback and great stories.

Got a couple of weddings this week end one is upstairs so gonna give it a go on that one will save me three trips up and down some nasty brick built stairs. But so far am 100% impressed.

Nik