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Joined: May 2000
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Many of the speakers we get in for repair or even warranty replacement aren't blown by the music content.
They get blown by people making foolish mistakes.
**The guy who can't hear it at all, so proceeds to turn Volumes up ALL THE WAY and then proceeds to start checking cables. Finds the misconnected or nonconnected cable and shoves it into the jack. BOOOWOOOOOM! There is absolutely no need to turn volumes up all the way. Especially when troubleshooting a no sound situation.
**A LOT of drivers get blown due to underpowered amplifiers. Far too many do not understand this situation. "This speaker is rated for 400W and I was only running a 150W Power Amp!" -- A recipe for Clipping, which means more ON TIME, which translates to more heating of the Voice Coil and can lead to Voice Coil failure. it is up to the user to be able to hear Clipping in the audio and not try to send a boy to do a man's job here, if you only have that 150W available, don't try to make it perform as if it was 400W.
**Bad Connections. The guy who has a bad cable and continues to use it because if you bend it a certain way it starts to work. Good way to get into a situation where you pop a speaker when that cable cuts out, in the heat of performance he turns the output up because it isn't as loud as it was before -- and then that cable gets moved or vibrated back into a working state. If a speaker cable, it can also SHORT inside, which may blow the outputs of the Power Amp.
**Active speakers outdoors in the hot summer sun. This one comes around every summer here near the ocean. Dark speaker cabinet, a physics prof's "black box" as far as being able to absorb more of Old Sol's radiations, stuck up on a pole for an hour or two before even being operated. Internal temperatures soar from the absorbed heat. Most of those active speakers do not contain fans to cool the power supply and power amplifier inside them, they depend on the action of the working woofer cone to move air in and out of the cabinet. Just sitting there idling in the hot sun can cause internal temperature to soar way above the design constraint. And then its their turn onstage and they kick it off, asking the overheated components to suddenly crank it out. Transistor junctions fail due to the heat.
Just as with so many things that I try to point out in my posts, the care and feeding of your music equipment is just another topic where Knowledge is Power.
--Mac
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Joined: Oct 2008
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Good information Mac! Thanks!
One problem with a solo act is that you end up doing some very important things that may not be your forte. Even if I can play the instruments, sing the songs, buy the gear, learn the software, record my trax, mix them , work the crowd etc etc... I can still screw it all up if I make a brain dead move out of ignorance and undermine my own gear
One more reason why you add such value to the forum.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 483
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 483 |
"It needs a special rig to move it, or 2 strong people." Or 4 old people  I have moved these beasts up and down stairs, up and over piano bars. More than I would like to remember in the 60's and 70's. But as a sax player it was always my favorite when there was a great B3 player on a gig.
Last edited by jazzsax; 02/06/13 11:43 AM.
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Joined: Jun 2005
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Quote:
I'm def checking out the L1 with B2 bass. But funds do not permit that at the moment and to be honest I cannot justify the cost because I'm not gigging yet. When I do, depending how that pans outs will determine the purchase of L1 but they do impress. I get the I impression the bose L1 with subs is akin to Hi Fi sound?
Paul, I've been gigging for 40 years and have used everything under the sun for it. I NEVER buy anything music related brand new. Never. There's way too many idiot wannabe's who walk into a music store all wide eyed knowing squat about anything and buy the wrong stuff. They discover they have no talent and no gigs and it just sits gathering dust. Finally, they sell it used for less than half what they paid new.
Three names, JBL, ElectroVoice and RCF ART. RCF is Italian and while I've not heard them they're readily available in the UK and have a stellar reputation as good bang for the buck.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=752230&Q=&is=REG&A=details
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/electro-voice-elx112p-active-12-loudspeaker
http://www.frontrowelectronics.com/rcf-a...CFUlxQgodd2UANA
I have the EV 112P. I picked it up used from a wannabe DJ less than a mile from me I saw on Craigslist for 380 USD. Any one of these speakers by itself will absolutely blow the windows out of a small venue and I use mine for keyboards including playing organ bass with a small jazz group. I also play with an 18 piece big band and use it for piano. My EV is just a killer speaker and it weighs 36 pounds. There is NO WAY I'm paying Bose money for about fifteen $100-200 gigs a year.
Around here you see JBL and EV everywhere and from reading lots of keyboard forums I know for a fact RCF is well known and liked in the UK. All three are the pro's choice for both keys and PA work.
Trust me, if a speaker set up works for keyboards it'll work for you. Keys are the absolute worst thing for a powered speaker. They go from thundering bass to hf synth and flute type stuff and usually all at the same time. Among other things I do some gigs using an arranger keyboard where I'm the one man band behind a sax player and vocalist. His two powered JBL Eon's sound just great. True, maybe an L1 would be a bit better but not for that kind of money. His Eon's are at least 10 years old are only worth now maybe $300 each and still work great. I was on a cruise a couple years ago and every venue on the whole ship had Eon's from the main 600 seat theater to all the little lounges with either a single or duo playing. There were also about 8 of them around the main pool for the band that was playing there. Nobody had individual instrument speakers, everything went through the JBL's. JBL's and EV's are the industry standard for PA work. Oh yes, QSC too forgot about them. They're a bit more than the others but very good also.
I rarely see Bose anywhere most likely due to the price but the vocalist did bring his L1 to a big band rehearsal, he set it up behind the band and it cut through and sounded great. I have no quarrel with the Bose sound quality, just the price. JBL and EV have been at each others throats for at least 40 years. I've heard them in every type of venue from a huge Elton John concert to small clubs my whole life. If they're good enough for everybody else, they're good enough for me.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Joined: Sep 2003
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I looked at cheaper model wives, in the end, after one experience with one, I went for the up market, musician with an education and experience in a wide variety of activities, who's father had boats and motors and cabins and no son in law to share them with. :-). I could have got another one from a pub, but hung out at concerts instead. Then, thinking about my experience with low end stuff, I got a Bose. But the expensive wife was worried about the expense of the thing, but then realized I get out of the house...yada. Not much anymore, she has to carry it.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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XPro & Xtra Styles PAK Sets On Sale Now - Until May 15, 2026!
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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Check out this forum post for "One Stop Shopping" of our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Videos!
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Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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Holiday Weekend Hours
As we hop into the Easter weekend, here are our holiday hours:
April 3 (Good Friday): 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM PDT
April 4 (Saturday): Closed
April 5 (Easter Sunday): Closed
April 6 (Easter Monday): Open regular hours
Wishing you an egg-cellent weekend!
— Team PG
Update to Build 10 of RealBand® 2026 for Windows®!
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Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
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