Schollaudio
Active Member
Sure, JBL PRX, Cinema and SRX series are all awesome and can be had in good used condition (with patience) for a few cents on the dollar. This may be man cave gear. DIYers can make nice boxes.
This is actually an issue: PA speakers are for big rooms (like a warehouse), while HiFi are for small rooms (like US midwest living rooms). PA speaker construction does not consider the room acoustics of small rooms.Professional Audio Speakers are generally designed for a different application, which is to distribute live sound to a given audience in rooms that are normally much larger than where we will listen to at home.
Even a cheap 12-inch or 15-inch woofer probably distorts way less at home audio levels than an expensive 6.5-inch woofer.The focus is more on getting louder and covering further. The lower priced stuff will have much higher levels of distortion as a sacrifice to getting louder volumes.
Yes, this is true, and I think the full-range array is already a concept that's explored in some home setups (that $1M setup Fritz guy kinda had one?).Agreed. This is why I wonder if the Bose-style array of full-range drivers might work better-than-we-think. Still, the 15" PA speakers aren't too different from someone owning the JBL 4367 or Klipschorn.
Good point, when I was looking at them I figured I'd want two of the 16s for stereoThe Bose is very different than a magnapan. The Bose L1 (as I understood it many years ago when I sometimes installed its cousin, the MA12) has several full range 2" drivers. I believe they are turned left and right in the enclosure in order to maximize the horizontal dispersion, which is around 180 degrees. This is much wider than what you want with home speakers. It's also mostly run in mono, which will not sound good at home. The multiple 2" drivers are a line array which couple as you get further away. The point is to try and cover the room evenly (not louder in the front and quieter in the back). When I've heard them, they are quite good at that. The Magnapan speakers are an electrostatic speaker which is completely different. They are not designed to throw far and they would probably not do well with live inputs.
The size of the Bose was part of what made them appealing. If I could get used to the black pole sticking up that high, they would stand out less than a lot of regular speakers.
- Size is a much more important constraint for home vs. stage use.
That gives me an idea. Companies like GIK Acoustics make sound absorbing panels where they print your artwork on (mostly) sonically transparent fabric. I could take speaker grill cloth and print artwork on it and turn speakers into decorations. However, I can't think of a single pair of images I would want closely flanking my TV right now at eye level. Perhaps the spines of books like I'm looking at library shelves. I'm sure someone would want their cats on them.Make fancy fabric grilles that look like the Beolab 90? We have wood and leather cases for iPhones, aftermarket wraps or faceplates for gaming consoles…
I use 90 and 110 degree horns with very good results. I like those more than Wavecore and SEAS tweeter which I still like alot too.This is actually an issue: PA speakers are for big rooms (like a warehouse), while HiFi are for small rooms (like US midwest living rooms). PA speaker construction does not consider the room acoustics of small rooms.
Even a cheap 12-inch or 15-inch woofer probably distorts way less at home audio levels than an expensive 6.5-inch woofer.
Wouldn’t this be a good business idea though? Rehouse cinema speakers in more elegant exterior? Make fancy fabric grilles that look like the Beolab 90? We have wood and leather cases for iPhones, aftermarket wraps or faceplates for gaming consoles…
It would be silly in that people spend ridiculous amounts for cables because they look cool, but maybe spending ridiculous amounts of money for beautifying something makes a lot of sense?
Back in the 1950s, you would buy drivers from JBL and run them full range or buy crossovers and put them into your own box. You could buy a L88 and which was a 2-way L100 and then later upgrade to the L100.
I've wondered often about Bose 901's EQ'd with Dirac rather than the Bose made EQ component. How does that work in practice?My own home theater system mixes Meyer Sound Amie for the center and Bose 901’s heavily EQ’d for Dirac for the left and right and I genuinely enjoy it more than the JBL 708P for left and right.
I bought an EV Evolve 50m for an upcoming wedding and to use for outdoor parties etc. EV’s data:
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From listening to it beside my Genelec’s, it sounds quite balanced and I don’t hear anything that makes me doubt EV’s graph…but these PA manufacturers max spl specs are pure fantasy imo.
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I've wondered often about Bose 901's EQ'd with Dirac rather than the Bose made EQ component. How does that work in practice?
1.) If this kind of sound is what you are looking for, you can just buy slightly more domestically acceptable speakers from JTR.
How so? Last time I checked PA speakers could be had as 2 and 3 way with or without horn in various sizes and shapes. Just like residential speakers. And what is reasonable price point? Do you suggest that you get much better speakers for your domestic home the more you spend?Most PA speakers at any remotely reasonable price point are going to have poor in-room performance in an actual domestic space.
Apples and oranges I should think. The Bose EQ is really a frequency response thing. Dirac/Audyssey are supposed to be more time-based, but a 901 is not designed to have good time response at all, it will have a very mixed time response. Now could you run the Dirac just for the lows? Probably since you can in Audyssey and ARC. That should get more even bass response than the Bose EQ.I've wondered often about Bose 901's EQ'd with Dirac rather than the Bose made EQ component. How does that work in practice?
We used to laugh at soundbars and their small woofers, but maybe the tech is getting to the point where we can do a lot more interesting things.
Agree. But you get spins on the JBL professional PA stuff so you know off axis performance and many of the other speakers show you details.As a side note, users of this forum should know much better than to rely on an on-axis frequency response graph to judge speaker performance, especially when they are obviously heavily smoothed with poor resolution.
Apples and oranges I should think. The Bose EQ is really a frequency response thing. Dirac/Audyssey are supposed to be more time-based, but a 901 is not designed to have good time response at all, it will have a very mixed time response. Now could you run the Dirac just for the lows? Probably since you can in Audyssey and ARC. That should get more even bass response than the Bose EQ.
But aren’t PA speakers of 2024 different than ones from yesteryear? We love McIntosh for their history on stage and there was a great period where JBL was running beryllium diaphragms on their flagship PA speakers. Looking at the specs of today’s mid and premium level PA speakers, it looks like it could work wellNo we shouldn't. Leave PA speakers where they belong.