Two 15's or Two 12's + Sub?

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Best setup for small bars, private parties, charity events, and weddings under 250 people.

  • Two EKX 15's and no sub

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Two EKX 15's and two EKX 18" subs

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7
The Go rack is a piece of junk, my opinion. A good quality compressor is what will make the difference. Biggest thing, the 166xs has an "over easy" mode that makes it more like a mastering compressor. No pumping/breathing and it tames the transients right down, giving you a big increase in headroom.
Agreed, a full on compressor is going to blow the Go Rack out of the water.
 
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JeJeff made a great point. If you don't have the right gear you shouldn't do the event. Some will not have enough gear to use and to try to make up for what they lack and pushing gear beyond what it was intended to be able to handle and can easily damage things.
 
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We do about 100 wedding gigs a year personally and do a lot of traveling. We usually have somewhere between 40-150 guests and have decided to downsize our speaker inventory and rent speakers if we need them for a larger gig. I just recently demo'd (is that a word?) the RCF J8 and ordered a pair. They sounded better and are more practical for travel than my K12.2s with stands, and I think they will hold their own against or at least be close enough to my K8.2's with KS112 subs. I'll update after I blast them for a few days.
 
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You're correct Mix.... and too often I get a little ahead of myself. I was trying to keep my speaker purchase around 3k... and with that I initially looked at ZLX 15's and EKX subs. I do like quality sound though.... so keeping with that budget, maybe I'll just start with two ETX 15's. That should be plenty for what I'm doing at first.... then maybe add a sub down the road if the need arises.
With $3K to spend I'd go with a pair of QSC K12.2's and a KS112 sub.
You can use just the 12's with up to 150 people and use the whole system for larger events. I've used this system for a long time and never run out of headroom.
 
With $3K to spend I'd go with a pair of QSC K12.2's and a KS112 sub.
You can use just the 12's with up to 150 people and use the whole system for larger events. I've used this system for a long time and never run out of headroom.

Anyone out on Long Island that is interested in picking up a barely used KS212? I have a good friend that has one and he absolutely hates it.
 
I always prefer 12s (or even 10s) for tops over a 15. When you're running a sub, you're just not asking the tops to produce those lower mid and low range frequencies, so there is no need for it. And for the gigs where I wouldn't bring a sub, I'm not that worried about hard hitting low end. I'd rather have nice punchy mids from the tops and whether it's in my head or not... I think the 12 is going to be better in that range.

I agree with @ittigger that you can start with one sub. I ran K10s over a single 181 for many years as my primary rig. And I rent or borrowed other 181s when I needed to go bigger than that. Easy to scale up when it's needed.
 
I always prefer 12s (or even 10s) for tops over a 15. When you're running a sub, you're just not asking the tops to produce those lower mid and low range frequencies, so there is no need for it. And for the gigs where I wouldn't bring a sub, I'm not that worried about hard hitting low end. I'd rather have nice punchy mids from the tops and whether it's in my head or not... I think the 12 is going to be better in that range.

I agree with @ittigger that you can start with one sub. I ran K10s over a single 181 for many years as my primary rig. And I rent or borrowed other 181s when I needed to go bigger than that. Easy to scale up when it's needed.
You remind me of why I picked the Yamaha DSR 115's over others I heard at Guitar Center. I'm a high fan myself. I love highs. That's how you hear the vocals in a song clearly. I also picked them because of the brand name. I knew they were quality boxes. We still use them and have no plans on getting rid of them. I took all the money I had at the time and bought them. I don't regret one bit leaving GC spending all that money. I don't understand why they discontinued them other then the weight issue.
 
You remind me of why I picked the Yamaha DSR 115's over others I heard at Guitar Center. I'm a high fan myself. I love highs. That's how you hear the vocals in a song clearly. I also picked them because of the brand name. I knew they were quality boxes. We still use them and have no plans on getting rid of them. I took all the money I had at the time and bought them. I don't regret one bit leaving GC spending all that money. I don't understand why they discontinued them other then the weight issue.
Ross's point was why NOT to choose a 15" (because of the high's) - and you agreed (because of the high's), but you instead chose the 15".
 
Ross's point was why NOT to choose a 15" (because of the high's) - and you agreed (because of the high's), but you instead chose the 15".
I see you missed what I said. I bought those because I loved the highs vs. others I was listening to. I understand a lot of DJs on here would choose 12's over 15's. Not me.
 
I see you missed what I said. I bought those because I loved the highs vs. others I was listening to. I understand a lot of DJs on here would choose 12's over 15's. Not me.
I see you missed what others said - they would not buy a 15 because it drowns out the highs. You must have been comparing them to 18's, which would make your statement true - 15's are better than 18's for highs.
 
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JBL has better highs than Yamaha
 
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JBL has better highs than Yamaha
That's your opinion and you're welcome to it. All I know is I bought the Yammies and have no regrets. Besides with 15's at certain events the punch from the bass will be good for events where a sub is not needed.
 
Thanks for all of the feedback guys. I found a pretty good package deal yesterday so I pulled the trigger today. I went with two ETX-12p's and two ETX-18sp's. The four speakers, 4 speaker covers, a rock-n-roller cart and a mic in the package and saved me about $500.

Now I just have to hope I still have enough muscle to get those subs into my truck. LOL
 
Go big of go home! little tree guy went big!! You going to be very happy with your ETX
I use the EKX 12 & 18 and there nice . Plenty of head room.
 
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