Powered Speakers

00584060_2 The borrowed PA in the practice garage went away so I reached into the vast (vast!) Brad Sucks war chest and bought two 270 watt Peavey PR10PN Powered Loudspeakers. Despite forgetting my mixer at home they did a nice job at rehearsal last night. Very clear and full sound, plus I have them up on stands now which I think helps them stand out from the murky low frequencies.

I knew nothing about monitors or live sound before. I did a lot of reading and here uh are some... knowledge:

  • People on live sound forums are kind of annoying, possibly worse than recording forums. God forbid you not want to outfit your garage with multiple $1500 JBL's.
  • Powered speakers are now a viable alternative to a powered mixer + passive speakers and offer more flexibility. But they're newer so they're hard to find used.
  • The Peaveys have optional brackets to position them as floor-wedge monitors.
  • The Peaveys actually have three inputs on each speaker. Two quarter inch and one 1/4"/XLR combo. All have level control, which is impressive.
  • With powered monitors you can use a regular passive/unpowered mixer, which are cheap and plentiful.

The other point of this was to make it easier to integrate the laptop into the full band, which so far has been a huge struggle technology-wise.

GeneralBrad Turcottebought, gear, live, tech4 Comments