Which monitor??

jayo2004

am looking to buy a monitor for pub/wedding band using a 1200 watt pa (not shure if this matters). had a monitor before with graphics on it and didnt like it cause the sound coming back was not the same as sound going out. any advice on a good monitor and i dont mind spending as long as it does the job (same sound coming back as going out). seen some on Thomman website but not sure which one to go for thanks
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Savman

what's the band line-up?
live drums?

Savman

jayo2004 wrote:

same sound coming back as going ou

Now that'll be tricky unless you slave the signal from either your FOH speaker or Mono output on your desk. You'd also have to have near-exact same speaker manufacturer and model as your FOH speakers and tbh I don't see the point in doing it this way.

I've been researching stage monitors for the past couple of months so if you give a bit more info on your set-up it'd be easier to recommend a monitor...

jayo2004

There is no drummer just guitar and bass along with Backing Tracks. At times its very hard to play with the backing tracks as its hard to hear them so it ends up with us turning up and can be too loud at times. so its just the singing and the backing tracks we need coming back thru monitor. we use a dynacord 1200 watt mixer does that make a difference on the ammount of watts the monitor is??

Eoin Madsen

Not really, you can only power two speakers from the mixer, so you'll need an active monitor or to get a passive monitor and an amp to power it. Or, as someone suggested, you could divide the power from one of the main speakers. But if your present setup is properly matched then there's no way to do that without mismatching the impedance, which might be a bad idea. A monitor should usually only be around 300 watts anyway, which wouldn't make that last option ideal.

If you send via an auxilliary then you can control how much of each channel gets sent to the monitor with the corresponding aux control for each channel. If money is no object then fork out on an active Dynacord monitor, or something JBL or EV. The "Box" or Behringer are pretty much budget gear, so avoid.

Savman

jayo2004 an active monitor is definately what you want, you said in the other thread that €400 was your budget which puts you well away from Dynacords & JBLs.

But I wholeheartedly recommend anything by dB Technologies, absolutely super speakers for good price.

Example: http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_artikel-184540.html

Eoin Madsen

Just make sure it's actually wedge shaped (at least 45 degrees) so you can sit it on the ground. If the budget is that low I'd probably consider those "The Box" monitors.

steinberger

hi i currently use the same set up as yourself (guitar,tracks)..the way we do it is we position main speakers behind us and don't need monitors.you are probably sayin "oh what bout feedback??!"..well to be honest we never get feedback and at times we can be very loud..it is just a matter of positioning speakers properly-as in not have them directly behind a mic but a little to the left or right.i try and keep gain as low as possible and raise sliders to compensate.save yourself the expense and extra work of lugging monitors!!.unless you are unbelieveably loud this setup should work fine

Savman

Eoin Madsen wrote:

Just make sure it's actually wedge shaped (at least 45 degrees) so you can sit it on the ground. If the budget is that low I'd probably consider those "The Box" monitors.

I've heard 'em and I'd avoid 'em

Eoin Madsen

steinberger wrote:

i try and keep gain as low as possible and raise sliders to compensate.

Having really bad gain structure makes no difference to the feedback, that's down to net volume.

Eoin Madsen

Savman wrote:

I've heard 'em and I'd avoid 'em

I've heard them, and they sounded crystal clear. There was a graphic, and it was low wattage, but I'm happy enough that they don't suck.

Savman

There's no accounting for taste...

They're ok at best. If I was looking for a quality monitoring sound I wouldn't touch them but for simple applications I suppose everything has a place.

Eoin Madsen

Savman wrote:

If I was looking for a quality monitoring sound I wouldn't touch them but for simple applications I suppose everything has a place.

That goes without saying. Ideally, I wouldn't touch a Thomann speaker or one of those DBs with a ten-foot pole.

sei046

db are great

Eoin Madsen

I'm sure they're grand for the money.

HusseinSarhan

Ring Matamp UK, they have a number going on clearance at the moment. Supposedly only £100 each, although you should probably ring them up. They will be great quality and have a full lifetime warranty I am guessing according to Matamp's usual practise.

www.matamp.co.uk

go to the contact page and ring the factory asking about the monitors they are shifting. A guy called Jeoff will probbly be the fella to talk to.

Savman

sei046 wrote:

db are great

I'll second that. They are not cheapos, they are excellent sounding rugged speakers and are a level above "the box" and Behringer.

Savman

jayo2004 wrote:

am looking to buy a monitor for pub/wedding band using a 1200 watt pa (not shure if this matters). had a monitor before with graphics on it and didnt like it cause the sound coming back was not the same as sound going out. any advice on a good monitor and i dont mind spending as long as it does the job (same sound coming back as going out). seen some on Thomman website but not sure which one to go for thanks

Trying to stay on topic here before we descend into another "Battle Of The Brands". I'm offering my opinion based on your particular situation as I have researched and used a number of Stage Monitors to the degree where I can tell what's good and what's bad.

The Box are, in my educated opinion, budget speakers that I would only ever consider if I wanted a dirt cheap rehearsal PA or something for young or inexperienced bands to work with. In any kind of professional situation or paid-gig scenario I wouldn't use The Box because they are a shop brand and Thomann shove them in people's faces so much many sheep just buy on impulse, which is fine if you have a low expectation. In fact there is a better argument for the Music Store Koeln shop brands, and they also have exclusivity on Fame speakers in Europe which are a worth the consideration.

Dynacord are probably the better long-term option, many consider them to be way ahead but I think their competitors are catching up. Whatever my personal preference, you won't go wrong buying anything with Dynacord on it, it's great gear and will run and run for years, be warned they are very freakin expensive, their cheapest Active Monitor is the 300w AM-12 which is about €900+

EV have some decent speakers but again the prices are very high, the most notable is the SXA360 which is the Active version of the SX300's, I believe its 360w but it retails for about €1200!:eek: Remember the EV & Dynacord companies are both officially linked and many of their products are identical.

dB Technologies are italian made, they use a plastic material that is virtually unbreakable (I can vouch for that ) and their prices are well within range to put them as good gear in the mid-price range. Do not consider these as cheap or flimsy, the Managing Director of DB Technologies used to work for Mackie until recently and dB Technologies are almost an equal in the market. Ask any Musician who has ever used or relied on them, very few complaints I assure you and I know a few professional broadcasting companies who use dB. The best suited speakers are anything in the Opera Live range, simply great speakers.

Mackie offers the SRM350 (350w about €600) and SRM450 (450w about €800) both very versatile but primarily designed as FOH speakers. If you do a google search you'll read reviews that say they get very harsh in the high frequencies when you push them which is what turned me off them. But they are a great speaker. Mackie recently bought RCF which are also very good speakers, you'll find them on Thomann also).

HK Audio have super speakers although beyond you price range, they have the FAST (300w €600) and DART (300w €800), very little difference in the two apart from the price but I can assure you if you go HK Audio you will never look elsewhere again. Their speakers just sound so creamy for Vocals you will never want to gig without it - it should be noted that HK Audio are a branch of Hughes & Kettner who you prolly know make decent Guitar & Bass Amps.

Beyond those named above you're looking at the high end manufacturers like Nexo etc but you would need to quadruple your budget...

I'm sure a few will argue with the specs of different speakers, I've been there, done that and at the end of the day I know the difference between an SPL of 121dB and 131dB but that's just information. It's my ears I trust and I can only recommend what sounds good to me after hundreds of gigs.

Hope that sheds some light on few things
Happy shopping