Looking for some mentoring on a dream system

http://www.soundgear.co.uk/

Think something like this, but with 6 bass cabs positioned on there sides with the horns coupling.

If you are sticking with x1s there was a guy on the show of your soundsystem pages using a lot of them, if i remember correctly it was pretty awesome, could be worth looking to get some idea for mids and highs.

Its also worth mentioning that how you setup your system is probably more important that what its constituent parts are.

If body building is 90% kitchen and 10% gym, then top sound systems are 90% setup and 10% joinery skills.

Don't even try and learn how its done at a top level unless you have the time to commit your whole life to it. Just pay someone like Toasty Ghost, who has done this for years day in day out, to come round with his box of toys and get the best from whatever system you decide to go with. It will make much more difference than if you went for this type of cab over that one. So go with designs with the least THD and that are phase coherent over and beyond there intended bandwidth and all will be fine. Also make sure any design you use is able to maintain phase coherency at all output levels. Some very well know systems measure very well at low to medium SPL's only to completely change characteristics at high SPL's, thus making it very difficult to work or mix on.

It would also be beneficial if you used top grade amplifiers ideally with FIR processing capabilities. This would require you use a design that already has EASE data available, or you could do your own measurements. This does not require an anechoic chamber and a mechanised rotation arm, although it helps and is better if you do have this. There is a small DSP unit (300 quid) that can be used with the speaker outside on a day with zero wind and very low levels of background noise. You hook the box up to a PC and it tells you where to position the mic around the speaker. It will do this a lot of times, but after its finished all the measurements it will give you a file that can be used to generate another file that can be used in DSP software such as Armonia and others.

If you can get some FIR filtering on your system then what you choice to build is of secondary importance. Just as long as the designs hit your SPL and dispersion requirements, they have enough overlap between adjacent bands and have worthy phase coherence.

Aman Gebru wrote: Its also worth mentioning that how you setup your system is probably more important that what its constituent parts are. If body building is 90% kitchen and 10% gym, then top sound systems are 90% setup and 10% joinery skills. Don't even try and learn how its done at a top level unless you have the time to commit your whole life to it. Just pay someone like Toasty Ghost, who has done this for years day in day out, to come round with his box of toys and get the best from whatever system you decide to go with. It will make much more difference than if you went for this type of cab over that one. So go with designs with the least THD and that are phase coherent over and beyond there intended bandwidth and all will be fine. Also make sure any design you use is able to maintain phase coherency at all output levels. Some very well know systems measure very well at low to medium SPL's only to completely change characteristics at high SPL's, thus making it very difficult to work or mix on. It would also be beneficial if you used top grade amplifiers ideally with FIR processing capabilities. This would require you use a design that already has EASE data available, or you could do your own measurements. This does not require an anechoic chamber and a mechanised rotation arm, although it helps and is better if you do have this. There is a small DSP unit (300 quid) that can be used with the speaker outside on a day with zero wind and very low levels of background noise. You hook the box up to a PC and it tells you where to position the mic around the speaker. It will do this a lot of times, but after its finished all the measurements it will give you a file that can be used to generate another file that can be used in DSP software such as Armonia and others. If you can get some FIR filtering on your system then what you choice to build is of secondary importance. Just as long as the designs hit your SPL and dispersion requirements, they have enough overlap between adjacent bands and have worthy phase coherence.

kevinmcdonough wrote: hey The problem with this discussion is always that there isn't just a single "dream system", everyone's dream system is different.  For some people, a dream system is all about as much power as compact as possible. 2 super powerful 18" compact reflex subs, 2 super powerful mid hi's, that are all designed with the highest quality drivers and all built active so they can get the absolute most SPL out of a system that can still just about fit in the back of an estate car for their wedding band. For others, they might not be able to afford the absolute highest quality everything, but can afford space. So they can use slightly less powerful amps, less drivers etc, but can afford to have stacks of huge big hornloaded cabs to squeeze every ounce of SPL out of what they can afford.  So these are the kinds of questions you have to be able to answer in order to start to narrow things down, find out what is YOUR dream system.  Do you have loads of transport and friends to be able to help you move big bulky horn cabs? Do you have cheap space to store them? Do you want to keep it fairly simple and go 3 way (subs then a 2 way mid top)? Do you want to get a bit more complicated and go 4 way? 5 way?  And if so do you have the experience and equipment to measure it all and set up all the crossovers and delays accurately?  etc etc etc.