Road Tests

Once upon a time the pastor of my church asked me, "What can be done so that I can hear the choir?" My response was, "With a rock band on the stage, the choir has no chance unless we put them in another room and give them a TV to watch the service."

All right, kids, the topic of today's story is powered wedges. I'll preface this with a small story. This test is a continuation of a small shootout that we did here at the shop a while back. The original shootout was between L-Acoustics, Turbosound, JBL VP and DAS powered wedges.

With all the new amplifiers coming out these days with all the bells and whistles, it just seems like something is missing on the market.  Half of the people who use these super lightweight amps with gobs of processing wind up using external processors anyway.  That is why we are going to check out the new “CC” series of amplifiers from Crest Audio.  These are just good rock solid amps that do just what they are supposed to, and at a very economical price point.

When you have been doing this music thing for as long as I have — as both a musician/bandleader and sound guy — you see a whole bunch of gear and countless numbers, types and brand of loudspeakers. Which makes it kind of nice to see one of the brands that defined live sound for a long time reclaim that pedigree after some time wandering in the wilderness.

The wireless thing has been an issue for a couple of years, and it has still not totally shaken out legally, but the live event audio world can count on a couple of things. A) When it comes to competing with the likes of Microsoft and Google we are going to lose, and, B) it will probably get worse before it gets better. 

This month we look at Mackie’s latest generation of powered loudspeakers, the HD series. Specifically, the HD1531 (there is also a HD1521). Mackie has been producing powered loudspeakers for more than a decade now. So I would expect these new speakers to be an improvement over past models, or less expensive, or both.

(Editor’s Note: This Road Test is in a little different format than what we usually run, but it is not your typical Road Test either. We got this because one of our FOH/PAS loyalists knew the guys on tour with the band Saliva and they were using the board and he got a chance to play with it in a real gig situation. Forcing it into our “standard” format just seemed to suck the life out of it. Open your mind… Oh and if you want to HEAR it, Mical has posted a video of a song from a Saliva show on ProAudioSpace.com.)

I have a great deal of respect for the QSC name. After all, they have been building rock solid amplifiers and gear for decades. The high quality of their products has made them one of the icons of the sound biz. That said, whenever I review equipment from the big boys I tend to put that gear under a microscope. So, now that you know where I am coming from with regards to this review, let’s go.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere for the last year or so, chances are you’ve at least heard about and probably have been impacted in some way by the changing regulatory landscape for wireless mics and monitoring systems.

I have been a fan of the X2 stuff ever since they were known as X Wire back in the 1990s.  The digital transmission — which meant no companding — offered a sound at least as good as a premium cable.

If you saw the June issue of FOH you may remember that we did a Buyers Guide looking at some of the “pre-packed” drum mic kits available out there. The bias against these kind of kits has been that they are just a way to package mediocre mics and that they weren’t really for pros. If that is your thinking you have not used the Earthworks Kits.

For all those sound persons feeling guilty about not stimulating the Elkhart Indiana economy, consider buying a Crown XTi6000 power amplifier. I got the blunt reminder after looking at the rear panel and seeing the decal with the U.S. flag and the words “designed and manufactured in the USA.”