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Not Klipsch but interesting in Colorado


vjdebart

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Hello all,

 

I have auditioned many PA speakers over the years as I used to DJ on the side and had a home studio with a small pa setup for band practices, I have listened to many Cerwin Vegas over the years.  My thoughts in 3 words: "They are loud...."  (especially their horn loaded subs!) With that said, I have never bought a pair because I found them to not sound as good as other brands... Obviously sound quality is very important to me!  So, I ended up building most of my PA speakers because the ones I really liked were out of the budget range for a school teacher.  If I can build something for considerably less and that sounds better than something I can buy, well, that's a no brainer!  Although I did end up buying one set of amplified PA speakers with the goal of simplifying my setup.  When I purchased the Mackie HD1531's, I no longer needed to drag my separate power amps along, nor my subs, unless it was a huge space!

 

I did buy and still own the Mackie HD1531https://mackie.com/products/hd-series

This was by far the best sounding PA type of speaker out there at the time.  It didn't sound like your typical PA speaker...rather a high quality 3 way home stereo speaker.... that goes up to 11!  It still sounds as good as or better than most of the Klipsch speakers I own/have owned... just a little too industrial to have in the living room decor.  Plus, it's not as quiet during critical listening moments as you have to give something up with 900 watts of power per speaker RMS.

 

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@Iteachstem Thanks for introducing me to Class-D powered Mackie speakers.  Although no longer in the market for DJ speakers, it’s interesting to keep up with the SOTA.

 

In the mid-70s I used four factory built plywood 8ohm Speakerlab SKhorns with aluminum squawker horns and EV T-35 tweeters for a mobile DJ biz.  Powered by a Dynaco ST-400 that delivered 300 watts/channel to the resulting 4 ohm load. While not as good as genuine Klipschorns, they played loud and clear.

 

Something like the Class-D Mackies would be the way to go today.

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21 minutes ago, Iteachstem said:

Hello all,

 

I have auditioned many PA speakers over the years as I used to DJ on the side and had a home studio with a small pa setup for band practices, I have listened to many Cerwin Vegas over the years.  My thoughts in 3 words: "They are loud...."  (especially their horn loaded subs!) With that said, I have never bought a pair because I found them to not sound as good as other brands... Obviously sound quality is very important to me!)  So, I ended up building most of my PA speakers, just because the ones I really liked were out of the budget range for a school teacher.  If I can build something for considerably less and that sounds better than something I can buy, well, that's a no brainer!  Although I did end buying one set of amplified PA speakers with the goal of simplify my setup.  When I purchased the Mackie HD1531's, I no longer needed to drag my separate power amps along, nor my subs, unless it was a huge space!

 

I did buy and still own the Mackie HD1531https://mackie.com/products/hd-series

This was by far the best sounding PA type of speaker out there at the time.  It didn't sound like your typical PA speaker...rather a high quality 3 way home stereo speaker.... that goes up to 11!  It still sounds as good as or better than most of the Klipsch speakers I own/have owned... just a little too industrial to have in the living room decor.  Plus, it's not as quiet during critical listening moments as you have to give something up with 900 watts of power per speaker RMS.

 

Do you think they'd be easy to flip?

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35 minutes ago, wstrickland1 said:

Do you think they'd be easy to flip?

No

 

For several reasons:

#1 The market is flooded as people are selling off their DJ/PA equipment that is just sitting there collecting dust do to the government shutting things down. (You think you would be able to find some great deals, but at this point, it seems like people are still shooting for the stars with their prices on used gear.)

#2 These aren't that popular of a speaker where you would have a large enough demand for them.

 

So, unless you just want to buy them and play around with them to see what they are all about, I would pass.

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35 minutes ago, wstrickland1 said:

So we're in sync on this you mean not being easy to buy low and sell high. Not physically"flip" them over correct?

 

Yes.  I resisted the temptation to pretend I thought you were referring to physically flipping them over.  That pun was too easy.

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8 minutes ago, RandyH000 said:

the moment any gear is used in the DJ Field -it's usually abused

100% agree.  Not only does most of the equipment spend time at very high volumes, in less than desirable operating conditions, etc. but it gets bumped and banged in transitions! I am the exception because I was always very careful when I transported my audio equipment, and I always used compressors in my dj rig so I protected my speakers from damaging audio spikes...like when someone would drop a mic, etc.

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I've been a big Cerwin-Vega fan.  My first "high quality" speakers were PD-15 models.  They are like small Cornwalls (15" woofer, horn mid, horn tweeter, smaller vented cabintet) -- and having had both at the same time, they actually had a similar sound (with 105dB sensitivity).  They were not quite as "refined" as Klipsch Heritage, but they still sounded very good and clean -- don't dismiss them too quickly.  There are better models than others.  The PD-15s have cloth surrounds on the woofers, whereas most CVs typically have foam surrounds.  I had those speakers for over 30 years (still in outstanding condition with original boxes, packing material, owner's manual, pamphlets) and reluctantly sold them a couple years ago due to just having too many speakers.  I'm currently using a similar set of speakers in my garage.  Without going out to check the model number, I beleive they are the V-15B models as they look like this:

 

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