My new powered speakers

I decided it was time to upgrade my powered speakers.

First, lemme explain. Powered speakers are speakers with a built in amplifier. In my opinion, these make a great deal of sense for a karaoke DJ. Less stuff to haul around. If you want a little more information on powered speakers, the other options, and the pros and cons, have a look at a previous blog in my series "So you wanna be a karaoke host?")

I have a set of Behringer B212A powered speakers. I am happy with them, but... You always have to be buying bigger toys, you know?  I had a gig with about 75 people. I felt the B212As were adequate, but just barely. When put on some dance music with a good thump going, I couldn't quite push the bass the way that I wanted to. I mean, do I want to come out of a gig being told that I was "adequate"? What guy wants to hear that word after a performance?

Does this fit with the specs? Each B212A puts out 250W RMS. Figgering at 10W per person, (from a blog of mine on watts), I could make up to 50 people happy with these speakers. Ok, that explains why I only made it up to adequate.

I had an outdoor gig last summer, and that convinced me I needed a little more power. I used the B212A speakers. Since I was outdoor, I need to make up for the bass that was floating away. I pushed the bass all the way up and listened to 500 W of woofer farting.

One way to solve this outdoor gig problem is to add power where the power is needed, that is, to add a subwoofer. Subwoofers are nice, since you only need to have one. (The stereo effect just doesn't work at those low frequencies.) They can sit right on the floor. (Higher frequencies get lost when there are obstacles around, so you normally put them somewhat above people's heads.) Since they can sit on the floor, and they are big and heavy, you can often use the subwoofer as the base to a speaker stand.

But subwoofers are big and heavy. Here is a sub from JBL that is roughly a 2 ft cube and weighs 89 lbs.That's more than I care to carry around, sorry.

So, I started researching a set of bigger powered speakers. Here is my list:, along with some of the specs.
 

Manufacturer	Model	Watts	Woofer	Freq resp	Weight	Price
Mackie	TH-15A	200	15"	50 Hz	36 lbs	$350
Peavey	PR 15D	270	15"	47 Hz	52 lbs	$480
Yamaha	MSR400	300	12"	50 Hz	51 lbs	$500
Behringer	B212D	345	12"	65 Hz	32 lbs	$280
Behringer	BR215D	345	15"	55 Hz	45 lbs	$330
Harbinger	HP115	350	15"	58 Hz	62 lbs	$700
Mackie	SRM450v2	400	12"	55 Hz	40 lbs	$600
JBL	EON515	450	15"	42 HZ	32.5 lbs	$700
EV	SxA360	500	12"	60 Hz	36 lbs	$800
Behringer	B512DSP	600	12"	??	65 lbs	$400
Behringer	B815	850	15"	45 Hz	51 lbs	$550
QSC	K12	1000	12"	48 Hz	41 lbs	$800

My first decision was to eliminated any of the speakers under 400 W. Why bother with anything smaller? That reduced the list to the following:

Manufacturer	Model	Watts	Woofer	Freq resp	Weight	Price
Mackie	SRM450v2	400	12"	55 Hz	40 lbs	$600
JBL	EON515	450	15"	42 HZ	32.5 lbs	$700
EV	SxA360	500	12"	60 Hz	36 lbs	$800
Behringer	B512DSP	600	12"	??	65 lbs	$400
Behringer	B815	850	15"	45 Hz	51 lbs	$550
QSC	K12	1000	12"	48 Hz	41 lbs	$800

Another important criteria for me was the weight. The B212As weigh about 36 lbs. I decided I didn't want to go much heavier than that. This threw out two Behringer speakers. The specs and price on the B512DPS were impressive, but 65 lbs?

To make the final decision, I went to my local Guitar Center to listen to them. I heard the SRM450v2, the EON515, and the K12.

I was expecting that the EON515 speakers, the only ones with a 15" woofer, would have the deepest, richest sound. Comparing the three, the SEM450v2 was the first to be eliminated. It just didn't have as much on the bass end. This specs predicted this. The SRM450v2 will go down to 55 Hz, whereas the other two are rated at 48 Hz and 42 Hz.

I flipped back and forth between the K12 and the EON515 for some time. Guitar Center has a nice board where you can easily toggle individual speakers on and off. After listening a while I grew to like the K12. The EON515 did have a good bass, but - my opinion - it felt a bit muddy. I don't think the midrange of the EON515 is as clear as the K12.

I went home with a pair of K12s. I love the sound.

I used these for an outdoor gig. I had to push the bass, as I expected, but the speakers were right there. Plenty of power to fill the spacious backyard, and the speakers sounded rich and clear.

Here's another nice thing about the speakers. The speakers have a small mixer on the back. You have separate volume controls for two mic inputs, or a mic input and an iPod. One channel has a pair of RCA jacks for your iPod. How cool is that?