Speaker upgrades - your opinions please

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When the ETX18sp light comes on it is actually in a state of pre clipping. Still has a little more to go before clipping.
What I find is when the clipping light comes on it's saying time to dial it down a bit. If you need more volume usually that means you don't have enough sound for the kind of event you're doing.

I understand sometimes it's all you have. That's where experience comes in. If you feel you won't have enough sound to cover the type of event someone is asking you to do then you have 3 choices. Buy more sound to do the event, rent more sound or simply tell the client you're not the right DJ for the event.
 
As stated, this is not the case with etx18sp. Have you ever used one?
Honestly I haven't. I just know from my experience when the clipping light keeps going off, it's best to be careful after that. As it has been said any speaker can get damaged. Even with protection built in.
 
Over modulation , proper unity gain can be an audio killer.
Use dbx compresser / limiters for years.
Won't run a system without one.
Overeasy works well.

I'm of the same mindset. A good quality compressor, in overeasy mode, is perhaps the best thing you can have in your audio chain. I believe more clip lights are caused by transients, which do damage to your speakers. It's also amazing how much more headroom you get out of a system with that overeasy compresor in the chain.
 
What I believe in doing is setting the volume on a speaker at 12 o'clock or 1 o'clock. Anything past that for me I say you don't have enough sound for the event. After that I adjust the volume on my controller.
 
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Like this is Rickryan first rodeo.
I think Rick has done his home work unlike some other people that don't.
How long have you been on this forum Mixxy?
 
Doing a little testing this morning, inside my personal residence. In short, I'm LOVING this setup. The Link feature is really cool. I un-boxed the 2nd unit and put it in another room, then ran a single XLR cable to it and put them in Link mode. The 2nd unit becomes a satellite that is remotely controlled by the master (first) unit. Plenty of juice, clarity and bass. We're talking $1400 for the pair and they sound fantastic. Now will they hold up over time? Only time will tell but this sure looks and sounds like a winner to me. Thanks for the referral Ricky.
 
Well, I guess I'm committed. I just sold 2 of my trusty QSC K10s yesterday. 10 year old speakers and I got $600 each, with travel bags. The guy says he also wants to buy the 3rd speaker but doesn't have the money right now. I'm still loving the Harbingers, even though they haven't been outside my house yet, and hopefully they'll hold up over time. If they don't, I'll likely buy a pair of EV Evolve 50s. Fingers crossed.
 
UPDATE: I sold the 3rd K10 to the same guy this week. That makes $1800, which is right about what I paid for them 8 years ago. Can't say that I've ever bought another piece of gear that I didn't lose money on. Here's hoping the Harbingers are sturdy enough to last a while. I have my first test coming up next weekend with a couple of bands who will be doing a memorial gig. I still have my Alto 15" powered subs and would like to stack these, but not sure if it will work without a crossover. Guess we'll find out tomorrow, when I have a chance to test them.
 
UPDATE: I sold the 3rd K10 to the same guy this week. That makes $1800, which is right about what I paid for them 8 years ago. Can't say that I've ever bought another piece of gear that I didn't lose money on. Here's hoping the Harbingers are sturdy enough to last a while. I have my first test coming up next weekend with a couple of bands who will be doing a memorial gig. I still have my Alto 15" powered subs and would like to stack these, but not sure if it will work without a crossover. Guess we'll find out tomorrow, when I have a chance to test them.
You didn't mention the model of your Alto subs but most powered subs have a high-pass output connector so you could go into one sub from you mixer and then out of it to your tops. Many powered subs on the market are what are known as "1-note wonders" with just a big peak at 60 Hz. I don't know if the Alto falls into this category. However, I suspect the Harbinger's bass driver extends up to several hundred Hz. That should let you use them with the Alto subs.

If you notice a problem when doing this, try the polarity switch on the sub. You can also experiment with the output crossover frequency, if the sub gives you that control. The Alto TS315S changes the crossover frequency by selecting which top it is to be paired with in the DSP settings. Selecting the smaller tops will raise the crossover frequency and vice-versa.
 
You didn't mention the model of your Alto subs but most powered subs have a high-pass output connector so you could go into one sub from you mixer and then out of it to your tops. Many powered subs on the market are what are known as "1-note wonders" with just a big peak at 60 Hz. I don't know if the Alto falls into this category. However, I suspect the Harbinger's bass driver extends up to several hundred Hz. That should let you use them with the Alto subs.

If you notice a problem when doing this, try the polarity switch on the sub. You can also experiment with the output crossover frequency, if the sub gives you that control. The Alto TS315S changes the crossover frequency by selecting which top it is to be paired with in the DSP settings. Selecting the smaller tops will raise the crossover frequency and vice-versa.

I have the older TS215S. I did notice they have a hi-pass filter on them, so I'm planning to do some testing this evening, after my tours are done.
 
I'm taking the MLS1000 out this evening for a test run. Should be interesting. I'm playing bass with a local theatre group and next month we're doing a 50s musical. Full band and 15-20 singers. For tonight's rehearsal, I'll likely run a couple of keyboards into the rig. For vocals tonight, I'm using a single hanging choir microphone and single Shure Super55 (Elvis mic) on a stand for the soloists. Will likely hang a 2nd choir mic for performances. The room is small, probably 75-100 seats so I'm only using a single column array. Wish me luck.
 
UPDATE: Used a single MLS1000 last night at a theatre company rehearsal. 12 singers, 1 choir mic, 1 dynamic mic and 1 keyboard thru the system. The rest of the band was bass (amp), elec guitar (amp), sax (no mic) and drums. Barely even had the system on, tons of headroom. One thing, that system really has a lot of air (high eq) and the choir mic had really high pitched feedback when turned up. The tone is really great but on other types of speakers I've always gotten a mid to mid-high feedback. The Director was well pleased and asked me to bring the 2nd system for performances (even coverage on both sides of the room). We should have about 18 singers so I'm planning to use 2 choir mics for group and 2 Shure 55 mics for soloists. Sure did get a bunch of nice compliments last night.

Next up is a band gig at my venue on Saturday. Planning to stack these 2 systems on top of my Alto subs (TS215s). I believe these systems would make a great wedding DJ rig, even without the extra subs.
 
UPDATE: We had a band gig (5-piece) at my venue on Saturday. The plan was to use my yammy mixer and send XLR to my subs (Alto TS215s-1250 watt), then stack the MLS1000 for the top end (using the contour button on the Altos to only send highs to the MLS1000's built-in mixer). In short, it failed miserably. At first, I made the mistake of having the 1000 in mic mode, huge clipping. I then flipped the input to line. It helped, somewhat, but I was still getting enough clip lights to make me uncomfortable. Had to pull them down to 25% to get rid of the clip lights, but that did away with the volume. I ended up re-routing the highs to the Alto 12" speakers I have perm-mounted. Worked like a charm. In hindsight, I'm gonna go back and try a compressor in the chain. I had this same problem with my Yorkie LS801 subs (it would start clipping anywhere past 25%) and the compressor (in overeasy mode) gave me a huge bump in headroom. Now before anybody says it, yes, I already know the MLS1000 is a cheap rig. I spent $700 each on them. They do sound great for DJ or singleact things, but with a full band, they just didn't keep up. FYI