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Speaker Question...Active/Passive
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what is the difference between Active and Passive speakers for a PA? I'm shoping for some good speakers for vocals and dont know the difference. Ive got a Yamaha 66 PA head and looking for maybe some yamaha 12" from musician friend....
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Active speakers are nice for people without a lot of space who don't want to carry a lot of gear around. However with Active speakers you are kind of ham strung into how much power you have. As the room fills with people you may not have enough to cover whereas with Passive speakers an an outside amplifier you will usually have more power (headroom) to achieve more volume before distortion.
It all depends on your needs my friend apples and oranges.
Mackie's are my favorite Active Speakers.
EAW's my favorite Passives. However an EAW array will cost you what some car's cost. EV, JBL, Yamaha etc. all make decent PA gear.
JBL even has a blended system with passive mains and a powered sub. This can be advantageous as well.
Which ever way you go leave room in the end for a sub. The bass drum and bass player drive a mix and subs can really add to your over all punch.
-dm
Mackies are, indeed, probably the best consumer/semi-pro active speakers out there. I use them a lot in my company, and they are phenomenal. JBL makes an active series called the "Eon", which are okay. I think the Mackies cover the room better. I know that other companies (Yamaha, Behringer, Samson, etc) are making copies of these speakers, but I can't speak for or against their quality. They are much cheaper. The Mackie SRM 450 is a great deal for the price, they're built like a tank, they're easy to use, and sound great. Very acccurate. Plus, they tend to have very good feedback rejection (meaning they don't feedback as much) compared to other speakers, especially passive speakers.
One quick recommendation: Get something with a 12" midrange driver, or woofer. The 10" drivers tend to be inefficient and quiet, whereas the 15" drivers are boomier, but lack clarity. The Mackie SRM 450's are 12" woofers, with a tweeter, and 400 watts of power (300w for the 12", 100w for the tweet). They produce all the way down to 75 hz! Check them out:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=031019225658150131025216218149/g=home/search/detail/base_id/40081
Or:
http://www.mackie.com/products/srm450/index.html
These would be pretty damned sweet, if you had the money:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=031019225658150131025216218149/g=home/search/detail/base_id/40285
Apparently, Mackie is coming out with a smaller speaker for smaller venues (especially for a guy with an acoustic-electric and a vocal or two) with a 10" midrange. That would work really well as a floor monitor, as well.
Passive speakers are great, too, just not as portable and can be more difficult to mix and match. JBL makes probably the best passive speakers in the consumer/semi-pro category. Yamaha's are good, too, and even Peavey PA speakers are pretty decent. Since you have a powered mixer, you'll probably want to go with passive speakers to save money (since you already have the amps built in). But make sure you match your speaker's power and resistance (watts and ohms) to the amplifier. The specs for your mixer/amp are 300 watts, and either 4-8 ohms or 8-16 ohms. So if you got speakers with 8 ohms and 300 watts of handling, you'll be alright. This speaker looks like it was designed for your powered mixer:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=031019225658150131025216218149/g=live/search/detail/base_id/60311
This is the floor monitor version:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=031019225658150131025216218149/g=live/search/detail/base_id/60313
Good luck...
those last two links are the exact speakers I am going to go for. Seriously i really appreciate the help you guys give here. You dont know how much this helps out.
I was going to go for the 15" yamaha due to the $20 difference but after reading your review of 15's vs 12's in clarity im going to go with the 12"
2 of those and then the floor monitor.
thanks again,
-low
1) Reverb shall forgive all sins.
2) Ask and ye shall recieve.
You can't go wrong with the Yamaha speakers. They aren't Arena-quality, but they'll work for a club or bar gig. If you're just running vocals (and maybe an acoustic-electric), you could use that for a full-on rock band with no problem. And I'm glad to hear you're sticking with the 12" mids, they're the way to go. Just be careful not to run too many things through there (you only have six inputs, so you should be okay). The fewer things in that system, the cleaner and clearer it will be. Bass and kick drum especially will muddy it up. Tell the drummer to either play harder or get his own damned PA! No, you can add stuff in there, but keep it to a minimum for best results.
we use this for local gigs that dont have their own PA. only. and Practice.
places we play that need anything more already have it. like the ridglea theater has a professional setup and their own PA. they mic drums and etc etc. so we never have to worry about the drums at all in the venues we need it. i am just a person that believes that the voice and words need to be heard live or your just another band clanging around on your instruments. and the vocals have been muddy in the last few shows due to inferior equipment.
so im trying to remedy this
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I like the Yamaha's in clubs too. With just vocals and guitar they should sound great. The last band I heard through Yamahas was Drivin N Cryin in a tiny bar with 3 marshall stacks on stage cranked. Arena volume club size, way way to loud, but the vocals came through nicely (well as nicely as you can bring out Kevn Kinney's voice) The Yamaha's are just good for the money I think and they sound good with subs too.
Much more tuneable than Peavy or JBL SoundFactor's