You're talking quantity vs quality in most live/ home comparisons. As hlide46 said, I get better sound in my living room than I do at many venues. As mentioned, try some horns...
Line Array VS Traditional Box Speakers, Why not just get the line array ?
I am sure this question has been posed many times over but I am curious as to response from the current active crew here. Since I attend live music on pretty much a weekly basis for the most part I always come away with the same. I actually need that line array at home thought. Even if its not the band but the music between sets , I still need that line array.
We all spend good money on trying to recreate the live sound at home. Why not use the same pro gear that bands do, DJs, Clubs etc...for a fraction of the cost of some of the crazy systems you guys have. I have heard systems that cost ungodly amounts of money and no home system at any amount of investment that I have heard truly sounds like the real deal. Some folks spend stupid money on AMPs, cables speakers and the sound is amazing but again it doesnt sound like it really does live. For a fraction of the cost you can get you the real pro AV sound.
I look forward to the responses as I know a bunch of the cats on here are musicians as well.
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Sounds like a good horn loaded speaker system is what you’re looking for. They can offer the dynamic range of a live performance like no other type of speaker can. They can play very loudly without heroically priced & sized amps, start & stop very quickly & can sound much better than most amplified concerts I’ve heard that are so hard with minimal clear frequency extension at both ends. But, you often can be subject to horn colorations & “honkiness” that are often a byproduct of their design. They also can be very large & dominate a room. A really good balance I’ve recently found & own are the Volti Audio Rivals. They’re not huge, beautiful, natural looking cabinetry, very efficient & dynamic & most importantly sound excellent with even modestly powered tube amps. They’re not fatiguing at all which to me is a real test of a system & w/ a good recording, can put you 10 rows back in a live performance. Lots of fun! Check them out. |
Good stuff guys. I guess if you do not like live music then you would search for more sterile recorded audio but in the end all musicians are trying to get that performance to come across as if they were playing to you. Hence that is what I would consider the perfect system. The soundstage that presents itself like the folks are in the room. For sure some systems sound better then some rooms as acoustics are not the best at many venues I have seen shows at. Places like Royal Albert Hall, The Beacon, The Met , Carnegie Hall and many many other small theaters I have seen shows at have incredible acoustics if you are in the right location in the venue. The old Palladium, The Lone Star, CBGBS, Commack arena just to name a few Horrible acoustics. Yes rooms all differ, acoustics all differ and some venues are absolutely horrible, outdoor shows are not going to provide solid acoustics as well. As noted , I already have horn loaded Klipsch Fortes with a few choices of amplification. I know Klipsch strives for the live sound and they get pretty close . At low volumes just incredible accurate sound out of my Fortes. I would go for La Scalas if it could fit them as maybe I need that to get to where I want to I will look into some of the other speakers mentioned as well but still have the question, why not a small array for home? There is a guy that built a mini wall sound and now is building another larger one. The mini system probably would be something I would dig. It is built for instrument separation as was the original wall of sound. If you haven't followed that its pretty cool . Do some searches
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@johnk —
Exactly. |
If you are interested in achieving live sound in your home I think that your instincts are good, but I’m not sure that actual, pro line array speakers are necessary unless you have a large room and are looking for exceptionally loud volume. There are other things I would look at first such as multi-amping and active crossovers. At the very least a live audio engineer has separate control over the bass and the mid/highs. This helps in tuning the system to the venue acoustics as well as styling the system to the type of music being reproduced. This would be the same as adding a subwoofer system with an active crossover to your main system in home audio. The other thing that is very important in live audio is dealing with venue acoustics, by far the biggest challenge, especially for traveling shows since using room treatments is not an option so they have to do it electronically. Also, all of their gear is electronically balance using the AES48 standard. This may not big the biggest difference maker, but is still part of the equation of what makes live sound what it is. If you still think using line array speakers is the answer I would be looking at Meyer Sound. https://meyersound.com/product/leopard/ https://meyersound.com/download/leopard-datasheet/?wpdmdl=1992&masterkey=58b9e691f3002 https://meyersound.com/product/x-400c/ https://meyersound.com/download/x-400c-datasheet/?wpdmdl=2535&masterkey=58b9e786b6403 |
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