Last week a longtime co-worker who plays in a band asked me to come check out his gear. We had talked about it often but I had never had the chance to give his stuff a listen. Anyway we get down to the warehouse where the gear is stored and start setting it up. All the while he's telling me that he's been quite disappointed with the sound and that the bottom end lacked punch and was muddy. Now just let me say that I don't pretend to be an audio expert by any stretch but I've gleened a lot of info from this site as well as others such as JBL's and my own personel "experiments" and experiences. So we finally get the rig set up with more boxs and cables than I ever thought was involved with Pro sound. 6 JBL loaded Martin W bins 2 Mid sections 2 JBL loaded horns, 4 800 watt H&H amps and a whole !@#$load of eq's and wire! A bit intimidating to say the least. On with the tunes, everything from Big Sugar to Rush. And yes it did SUCK! Big time. Loud and muddy, I was shocked and disappointed that anything JBL equiped would sound so horrible. Something was obviously wrong but what? Since pro sound is actively crossed that seemed like a good place to start. I had my buddie mute out the bottom and mids, tops was fine, same thing with the mids, then the bottom, it was bad, not that I've ever heard just a woofer by itself that sounded good but this was sad. So we start pulling the drivers out of the bins. 5 different drivers in 6 bins E-140's 2205's 2225's. Some were 8 ohm some 16. some out of phase . Basicly anything that could be wrong was wrong. We hooked up 2 Bins in phase and tried again, more punch but still muddy. Byron tells me that the drivers were "replacements" for 6 blown Guass 15" drivers that were had been in the bins when he bought them new but were destroyed by a overzealous "soundman" who couldn't get enough bass. The replacements were clearly recones which in it self should be no big deal but the whole deal thru the quality of the work in question. Anyway, I mention to Byron that I had 2 brand new 2226's at home that would be a drop in replacement. Besides I would love to give them a test drive. An hour later the new drivers are in 2 of the bins wired up by themselves. By this time a few of the other band member had show up to listen. What a difference! I still can't stop thinking about how powerful and clear the 2226's sounded. In fact everone present was shocked at what an inprovement there was not just in the bass but right up into the vocals. The other thing that struck me was how incredibly loud the 2226's were and that they seemed never run out of steam. Anyway the point of all this is that anyone considering building some professional Pi's will be very happy with the results. Even if you don't want to have concert level sound, they are crystal and very accurate. Can't say enough.Kell
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