JBL CBT 70J-1

[WK154]

Anyone have hands on with this speaker system? Love to hears from you.

[Sting]

Anyone have hands on with this speaker system? Love to hears from you.

My band is looking for powered speakers but don't have a clue where to turn?  I am hoping guys will offer advice.

[WK154]

Stay away from the new Mackie's and Bose L1 and you'll be fine. The rest depends on your genre and personal preference. JBL, QSC, RCF, EV, and others make good product. Best to hear them in a realistic environment. I was thankful to get a demo from AMT Systems on the JBL's that I could test in the target rehearsal hall (very live) and they sounded great and that was from at least 20 critics out of 60 that voiced their opinion. The genre is a Capella (female) which requires a different approach than a band. The range being from 123 Hz to 880 Hz in the fundamental, no bass or kick drum to consider.   

[RoadRanger]

My band is looking for powered speakers but don't have a clue where to turn?  I am hoping guys will offer advice.

What do you use now? What kind of band, instruments and size of venues?

[Sting]

We are hard rock, pretty loud.  Mostly play smaller clubs, bars.  In the summer an occasional outdoor gig 300 people or so.  I am thinking one pair of tops and 2 or 4 subs depending.

[RoadRanger]

If you need loud and thumpy it gets expensive quick. IMO if you are going to be playing less than 20 gigs a year it's cheaper to hire sound. You don't want to be playing through some cheap stuff where you don't sound good and then have trouble getting gigs because of that do you? You have to include the transport in the cost - plus all the extra time and hassle it takes to unload it, set up, run it, tear it down and pack it back up - and that assumes you can leave it in a dedicated trailer or truck and don't need it to rehearse, otherwise you have to do all of that back at your rehearsal spot too .

[Sting]

If you need loud and thumpy it gets expensive quick. IMO if you are going to be playing less than 20 gigs a year it's cheaper to hire sound. You don't want to be playing through some cheap stuff where you don't sound good and then have trouble getting gigs because of that do you? You have to include the transport in the cost - plus all the extra time and hassle it takes to unload it, set up, run it, tear it down and pack it back up - and that assumes you can leave it in a dedicated trailer or truck and don't need it to rehearse, otherwise you have to do all of that back at your rehearsal spot too .

  Good points.  We are right at 20 and a few are house sound.  The trouble is we live in a small town and renting is expensive because of the transportation cost.  The system we used before was a former members and it is 20 year old stuff and is sounds terrible.  I am the sound man and all the equipment I have is the DL.  The guy with the PA just left the band.  :-/

[RoadRanger]

The trouble is we live in a small town and renting is expensive because of the transportation cost.

How expensive? I've no doubt that you need a system that's going to cost you $6k a year in depreciation, upgrades, maintenance, transportation and interest or lost income on your savings spent - and that doesn't include labor and someone to run it. If you can hire sound for $300 that's cheap. Around here that wouldn't be a problem at all...

[WK154]

RR is the go to on the loud and thumpy stuff mine is more vocal. I'm currently engineering a sound system for the a Capella group. JBL CBT's no subs, nothing to cross over or control using a XAP800 mixer for KISS. All wireless Sennheiser and EV. QSC for power. Add it all up and it's $5k, still too expensive and I'm donating another $5k in TM.