Need advice. Power amp for 4 wedges in a basement rehearsal room - now 2 wedges

[80/20_Bronze]

I'm just confused about the wattage and ohm numbers.

Here's what I'm looking at getting. 4 10" wedges.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/kustom-pa-kpc10m-10-monitor-speaker-cabinet-with-horn

I have no idea how powerful of an amp I need. They're just for vocals, all getting the same mix. Daisy chain two of them together? Bridge the amp and chain all 4? Does that bring the whole "ohm" thing I don't understand into play? Fak, I'm confused.

 

[Floyd Eye]

I would highly advise buying decent speakers, even used, over these. These things are horrible. That said, if you buy them you need to keep in mind that 2 of them daisy chained will give you a 4 ohm load. Most power amps ( and all in your apparent price range) do not like to see a 2 ohm load. Therefore to use 4 of them you will need 2 channels of a power amp and you would daisy chain 2 per channel. These are 60 watt RMS@ 8 ohm. A QSC GX5 would be a good fit, as would almost any modern 2 channel power amp.

 

[GCDEF]

What Floyd said. You may as well shred your money and put it on the bottom of your hamster cage before you buy those things. Buy one or two real speakers. Those would be beyond useless.

 

[335guy]

I would highly advise buying decent speakers, even used, over these. These things are horrible. That said, if you buy them you need to keep in mind that 2 of them daisy chained will give you a 4 ohm load. Most power amps ( and all in your apparent price range) do not like to see a 2 ohm load. Therefore to use 4 of them you will need 2 channels of a power amp and you would daisy chain 2 per channel. These are 60 watt RMS@ 8 ohm. A QSC GX5 would be a good fit, as would almost any modern 2 channel power amp.

I agree. Look around on CL for some good/decent used monitors. Yamaha Club speakers can be found on CL for $100 ea or less. I'd get those at your price point. Kustom speakers are bottle of the barrel. There's a reason they are selling for $50 ea, because they use very cheap and poor sounding components. A QSC GX5 is too good of an amp for those pieces of crap. And don't buy Seismic off of Ebay either. Another real crappola brand of speakers.

 

[loudboy]

+1 on the used Yamaha Clubs.

Then get some giant used QSC RMX or Crown DC-300 or MicroTech amp for $150-200. They weigh a ton, but you're not moving it.

 

[Astronaut FX]

To give another option, consider going with two higher quality monitors instead of four lesser quality.

These are for rehearsal right? Vocals only? How many band members? How many sing?

Bands have a tendency to want to optimize their rehearsal sound. But the fact is, in many live settings, sound can be less than ideal. By rehearsing in less than ideal situation, I feel you may be more prepared for those less than ideal live situations. Just something to consider before setting everyone up with their own monitor for rehearsal.

 

[wpawley]

Agreed on most everything sent so far (except the Seismic statement-they ain't the best by far but a world better than the Kustom 10's. My drummer has a pair or the Kustom 12"s that sound pretty good for a monitor and they are rated at 100 watts.). As far as amps, look at the Crown XLS line. Most places are having a sale on them now. I use Yamaha BR15's for monitors and they work extremely well being pushed by a Crown XLS 1500 amp.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Yes Yamaha Clubs. I have a pair that used to be my tops. They are more than solid enough for monitor duty.

 

[sants]

I know several people who have bought these or similar type kustom speaker and blow them up with light use. Maybe ok volume for an acoustic act but I'm willing to bet if you need any decent volume from them, you blow them on first use.

Save your money and do it right. As the other ls have said Yamaha clubs are a great buy and even jbl jrx will work.

 

[mixwiz]

Another Yammi club vote. Cheap, sound great and virtually indestructible. If you can, get the 'c' model ( non rat fur). An xls 2000 will be plenty of power.

 

[Jon Silberman]

I loved my Yammie Clubs but I sold them and replaced them with newer EVs to cut down the weight.

 

[walterw]

+1 on the used Yamaha Clubs.

Then get some giant used QSC RMX or Crown DC-300 or MicroTech amp for $150-200. They weigh a ton, but you're not moving it.

this is key, and this is why:

I loved my Yammie Clubs but I sold them and replaced them with newer EVs to cut down the weight.

these days, heavy + used = cheap! all the awesome new stuff is light, and more and more of it is self-powered instead of using a separate power amp. that means you can find nice unpowered boxes and nice power amps used for not much money, just because they're too heavy and it's too much hassle hooking up separate power amps.

perfect for jam rooms where you don't have to move anything or wire it up over and over.

 

[80/20_Bronze]

To give another option, consider going with two higher quality monitors instead of four lesser quality.

These are for rehearsal right? Vocals only? How many band members? How many sing?

Bands have a tendency to want to optimize their rehearsal sound. But the fact is, in many live settings, sound can be less than ideal. By rehearsing in less than ideal situation, I feel you may be more prepared for those less than ideal live situations. Just something to consider before setting everyone up with their own monitor for rehearsal.

5 members, 3 doing vocals now, drummer likely doing them too once rigged up. Currently I'm running vocals into a mixer and out to an AV reciever (5.1, but sing A and B Left and Right channels, and the 4 bookshelf speakers aimed at our heads. Tiny bit of latency with that reciever, and it's just not loud enough. I'd really like to do the 4 wedge plan, but I guess I could start with 2 wedges on stands on one wall, but we rehearse circular instead of in a line like gigs. Room is smallish.

 

[walterw]

Currently I'm running vocals into a mixer

what kind of mixer?

chances are you could easily squeeze 2 monitor mixes out of it, which will make things much easier to hear for everybody. a normal stereo power amp and three or 4 wedges (one or two per side) and you're there.

 

[GCDEF]

5 members, 3 doing vocals now, drummer likely doing them too once rigged up. Currently I'm running vocals into a mixer and out to an AV reciever (5.1, but sing A and B Left and Right channels, and the 4 bookshelf speakers aimed at our heads. Tiny bit of latency with that reciever, and it's just not loud enough. I'd really like to do the 4 wedge plan, but I guess I could start with 2 wedges on stands on one wall, but we rehearse circular instead of in a line like gigs. Room is smallish.

The thing is, those speakers are rated at 60 watts with 93dB efficiency. You won't get any volume out of them either.

 

[80/20_Bronze]

what kind of mixer?

chances are you could easily squeeze 2 monitor mixes out of it, which will make things much easier to hear for everybody. a normal stereo power amp and three or 4 wedges (one or two per side) and you're there.

Behringer 16 channel. Decent mixer. Inherited it from an old band I was in.

 

[walterw]

Behringer 16 channel. Decent mixer. Inherited it from an old band I was in.

that'll totally work.

score a heavy, cheap power amp and at least two heavy, cheap boxes and you can do two mixes.

 

[80/20_Bronze]

Here's a pair of powered 10" wedges that seem to have good reviews and within my price point. The rehearsal room isn't super loud but are 10"ers to be avoided for monitors (and possible gig pa)?
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/dak/msd/5027010797.html

Weird that it uses RCA inputs.

 

[GCDEF]

Those are 8s and a no name brand. The cheapest but still usable powered speakers I know of are Alto TS-110A. Behringer has a few that would work fairly cheaply too.

 

[80/20_Bronze]

Right on. Scratch those off the list. Don't know why I thought 10s when it clearly says 8s.