PA speakers for home HiFi use

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Hi all,


After having worked for a large PA company I came across a few PA speakers that sounded good enough on my test system to be used for home hi-fi use.
One was a DAS audio coaxial top box and a other a Peavey HiSys xx with the big horn and two black widow 15 inch speakers.
One that I started to use at home was a EV Sentry 4 studio monitor.
I liked that one very much and had it for many years.


So are there any more of those speakers out there that can be used as such?
Would be very happy to know about them.

Regards, Veeren
 
I'm quite happy with the Peavey SP2 which has one BW 15" and a 1.5" driven horn tweeter. It tops out at 14 khz which is where my ears roll off, also. My ears confirm the specified Harmonic Distortion of 2nd Harmonic 20 db down all frequencies @ 1W. Pianos and tinkly bells sound as good as anything built of wood and brass in my music room. Bass organ and low piano notes are good down to 54 hz, which is A1 on a piano. (A0 is 27.5 hz). Bass drum hits are time aligned, compared to say, Klipschhorn the folded horn model.
I suspect the equivalent JBL and Yamaha 15" plus horn tweeter models are as good, but haven't run across any in a suitable listening environment to audition them.
Somebody said Klipsch La Scala was the reference model in this design, but I haven't had a listen to any of those either.
These are all copies of the classic Altec Lansing Voice of the Theatre, which sounded so good in Long Point Cinema in 1967 that my band director suggested we go listen to a movie on them. Which have origin in the original Bell Labs designs.
By contrast I had a friend with a pair of Bose 901's behind a Heathkit AR15, which did not impress me as being realistic.
 
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I have jbl cabaret 4623 refurbised and modified filter with hypex ucd400 amps build in. Plays all the music except modern deep bass.
 

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"After having worked for a large PA company I came across a few PA speakers that sounded good enough on my test system to be used for home hi-fi use."
Hard to understand the question.
How can any Pro speaker (I mean pro speaker, not cheap'n'loud-speaker) be NOT "good enough" for home use?
Pro speakers have the efficiency. They are designed for a certain coverage angle and frequency range.
In contrast, "hifi" speakers are the ones, where the efficiency is low, and most of the money goes to some rich self-proclaimed gurus peddling BS like "oxygen-free" cables, expensive shielded AC line distributors, ressource-wasting sound-distorting tube amps, standoffs to prevent speaker wires from touching the oh-so-terrible floor, "audio grade" electrolytics at the DC rails (where only capacity, lifetime and equivalent series resistance is what really counts), the "service" to "burn in" cables, which are said to be "directional" etc.......
(Sorry for my disgust at the "hifi" world. Trust me, I am an engineer...)
 
Very nice, thank you all so far for contributing!


@ViennaTom, the only reason I can think of is that PA loudspeakers may not do low level detail as good as some HiFi speakers.


But then again the trend towards more and more audioph(ool)ile detail seems to get in the way of the music and it seems only be done to satisfy the reviewers that test them..:confused:


The Peavey SP2 with the rounded horn flare looks very much like the HiSys but without the second BW.
I remember bending the voice coil tinsel wires solder tabs back on those BW`s as the wires are short and can be ripped out from the solder lugs or break there.


I have heard the Tannoy Pumas and thought they were good as well.


Again thank you very much and wishing you all a great turn of the year and a Happy New Year!
 
My brother has a pair of active yamahas DSR215 (2 * 15 and a horn). I have to say they actually sound pretty good, impressively good. Clean top end and pretty decent bottom end too considering they don't have a sub. I prefer these to anything else Ive ever heard from the prosumer range (RCF, JBL, Mackie, etc). He said that during testing the DSR112 actually sounded better in the midrange but lacked bottom end, which is why he chose the dual 15 version.
 
The main problem I see with pro speakers is that they need to be big to do the low end.
Too big for most domestic situations.

Not too worried about low level detail. It seems to be related to Qms as in high Qms good for detail (in the bass), low Qms not so much but again pro speakers are usually higher Qms than home HiFi ones.


Damo s? Any inspiration taken from the japanese singer of a certain german band?
 
The main problem I see with pro speakers is that they need to be big to do the low end.
Too big for most domestic situations.

Not too worried about low level detail. It seems to be related to Qms as in high Qms good for detail (in the bass), low Qms not so much but again pro speakers are usually higher Qms than home HiFi ones.


Damo s? Any inspiration taken from the japanese singer of a certain german band?

nickname followed by first letter of surname. thats about as exciting as it gets
 
Depends on what you define as "low end". If 40Hz is your goal, you can get away with maybe 2 x 8" + 1 x 12" sub. If you insist on 20Hz, of course you 'd be looking into the double 21" cabinet range....

Depends on the levels you want.

For my bigger gigs, I use 8x 15"s to get to 40Hz, although it is pretty loud at that point.
For 20Hz, you want the M-Force stuff.

Chris
 
Thank you all but can we get back on topic again?


Would prefer passives in this setting, some actives are a bit noisy close up.


What I look for is experience with passive PA loudspeakers like the Peavey SP2 that sound great at normal non PA levels
and better than most HiFi speakers.


A lot of speakers are now designed to to have WAF witch is not a good thing per sé for sound I believe.


I have read about the Danley`s very promising but pricey!
Any more Tannoy lovers for a home low powered setting, low end extension is not required 50-60 Hz is enough for me.

I am wondering why there is so little input from Germany , France and Italy all have great loudspeaker manufacturers.
 
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