Power Amp or Active Cabinet?

[D3a5v1e]

I tried posting this last night, but I don't see it in the forum...

I am trying to put together a stereo speaker system to be used in a martial arts setting. It's for a friend and he gave me about an $800 budget.

Initially I was going to go with a modest 200 rms stereo watts per channel stereo amplifier, and two modest JBL passive cabinets. I am curious as to whether or not I should look into a set of active molded cabinets. The JBL EON's, which I have heard and sound pretty good, are out of the price range. I keep reading about the Behringer EUROLIVE B215A active cabinet. They are modestly priced at about $250 a piece, which would sit us well under the budget, but I know that in the world of Audio, you usually get what you pay for.

The speakers get most of their use at high volume, so sound quality is important, but we won't be using the setup to try and reproduce Yanni's finest recordings. The best sound quality for the budget, as always, is desired, but I know that we're on a tight budget and I just want to make sure that he gets something he can turn up and enjoy the music. Metal and Rock will be the music of choice.

I am more familiar with the power amp + passive loudspeaker setup, and I think I can meet his budget, but if the Behringers are a decent substitution that will same a few hundred dollars, all the better. I am just not familiar with the active cabinets and cannot afford to waste $500 on something that will not do the job.

Lastly, I was planning on using the unbalanced 3.5 mm TRS output from a computer sound card to deliver the amps audio signal. Will this be an issue if I need to transmit about 15 - 25 feet to an active speaker? If so, would stepping up to a 1/4" TRS right out of the card provide a significant advantage? And in the case of using a power amp, I don't want to use a mixer, for monetary reasons. Has anyone experienced significant noise in the signal with 1-3 feet of unbalanced cabling? Are there options for providing a balanced TRS signal from a comptuers sound card?

Lots of questions, I know, and I would appreciate any suggestions you all might have.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[tubesaregood]

Behringer's stuff is usually pretty good. At that price point, however, you do run the small risk of getting one of a few bad pairs of speakers. I have their 12" bass combo, and the output transistor blew a couple years ago (I have since fixed it). However, not many other people seem to have huge reliability issues with them.

Running unbalanced cables for 25 feet to a pair of active speakers should present no problem. A well shielded unbalanced cable should work just fine.

As far as whether to go with active or passive speakers, that's up to you. Chances are the Behringer speakers would be good and reliable. Active speakers usually sound better, too, in my opinion, because the amp and the speakers are (theoretically) designed for each other.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I'm not sure what type of sound quality you are looking for. Most of my friends have gone with simple setups in their school's. They take a basic reciever and run some used (cheap) DJ type speakers directly off the reciever. Then they feed MP3's or cd's via the schools computer. For the intended use it has been more than adequate.

One of my friends just used his iMac and plugged in some basic external speakers, but added the Apple subwoofer (usb) to it for that thump. It sounded fine for its application. (small school)($0 cost, he already had everything)

Bear in mind this is not for audiophile or anywhere near to it sound quality, but for a martial arts school where music is being used to keep the energy levels up it works fine.

See if any of his students are currently or used to DJ. They may have equipment laying around they will donate to the school.

Also, the size of the workout area is important. If he is in a 6,000sf space his needs will be dramatically different from if he is in a 1,000sf space. It may help to post the size.

Jack

 

[Jack Hammer]

Oh, I forgot, if he is friendly with other schools, he should ask around at tournaments and see what other schools are using. He may be able to pick up stuff cheap from them that they have laying around or they may be able to tell him where to get stuff cheap.

Jack

 

[D3a5v1e]

Yeah square footage would have been a good addition. We're dealing with about 2000 open square feet. About 50X40.

We will not be using a stand alone subwoofer, although he has an old 300 watt 15 in cervin that would do the trick. But I wanted to add a clean amp to really get the most punch out of the speakers. I'm looking at getting the Crown Xs500 power amp which I can land for about $400, and then just grabbing a pair of passive Behringer B1520 Pro Eurolive 15" cabinets that would only set us back about $450. Right on the budget sans cabling.

The crown amp will give the Behringers plenty of power, and if the speakers crap out after 2 years, at least we'll have an adequate powerplant for a future upgrade, which will make room for a nicer set of loudspeakers in that budget. The crown comes with a tastey 3 year warranty.

Thanks for the input and more is welcome,

Dave

 

[dave1490]

Yeah square footage would have been a good addition. We're dealing with about 2000 open square feet. About 50X40.

We will not be using a stand alone subwoofer, although he has an old 300 watt 15 in cervin that would do the trick. But I wanted to add a clean amp to really get the most punch out of the speakers. I'm looking at getting the Crown Xs500 power amp which I can land for about $400, and then just grabbing a pair of passive Behringer B1520 Pro Eurolive 15" cabinets that would only set us back about $450. Right on the budget sans cabling.

The crown amp will give the Behringers plenty of power, and if the speakers crap out after 2 years, at least we'll have an adequate powerplant for a future upgrade, which will make room for a nicer set of loudspeakers in that budget. The crown comes with a tastey 3 year warranty.

Thanks for the input and more is welcome,

Dave

i beleive in always leaving your upgrade options open.