PA Speakers in Home theater (1 Viewer)

[Abs]

I was trying to find out that do PA speakers like PEAVEY PVX 12 sound better than home theater tower speakers. I was planning to upgrade my satellite front speakers with passive full size speakers. Please help me figure it out.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thread moved to the "Speakers" forum.

Welcome to the HTF.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

PA speakers have different design priorities than home speakers. They have to be build tough enough to bounce around in the back of a van going from one gig to the next, and they have to be able to play for hours on end at ear splitting levels, gig after gig, year in and year out, as well as outdoors in heat, cold and humidity.

On top of that, PA speakers are not designed to sound their best at a distance of 8-15 ft., as is the situation for home listening.

Way down the list of priorities is sound quality. PA speakers that sound good enough to be in a residential hi-fi installation are few and far between, and the ones that do will cost you many times more than a home speaker that sounds as good as it does.

If $500 is your budget, there is no shortage of offerings from SVS, Axiom, Hsu, Paradigm et. al. that will sound better.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ArmSC]

I was trying to find out that do PA speakers like PEAVEY PVX 12 sound better than home theater tower speakers. I was planning to upgrade my satellite front speakers with passive full size speakers. Please help me figure it out.

What's your budget for this project?
How large is your room?
What AVR/amp do you have to push the speakers? (PA speakers normally come with their own amp but can be found in passive forms)
What speakers do you currently have?
What's lacking or what do you not like about your current setup?:

 

[Abs]

My room is 10 feet X 15 feet. My amp is Yamaha RX365 - 100W X 5. I have sonodyne genie2 satellite as front, full size center (DIY), sonodyne genie 1 for rear and polk audio PSW110 subwoofer. Front are not full range so was looking to upgrade with passive bookselves \ towers or passive PA speakers provided they sound better at a lower price point. Among PA speakers PEAVEY PVX 12 is in my budget.

 

[Mike Frezon]

But what IS your budget?

We can give you some good ideas for a traditional home speakers if we know how much you have/want to spend.

 

[Abs]

$450 for a pair of fronts.

 

[ArmSC]

$450 for a pair of fronts.

Are you in the US, UK, ect? If not what are some retailers that are available to you?

Are there any size concerns to be considered?

Are you wanting towers or bookshelfs? If bookshelf speakers are you going to wall mount?

 

[Wayne_j]

I use Behringer 212XL PA speakers in all speaker locations. $159 each and it plays clean at reference.

 

[Abs]

@ArmSC I am in India and speaker size is not an issue. Quality is more important.

 

[Abs]

@Wayne_j that's great......just fits in my budget.....is the bass response like home theater tower speakers ?

 

[Wayne_j]

You will need a subwoofer, set the crossover around 90hz.

 

[Abs]

@Wayne_j I have a Polk Audio PSW110.

 

[Dave Upton]

For $450 you have a few options. I'd steer you towards something a little more intended for home use like this:

http://www.parts-express.com/bic-rtr-ev15-15-3-way-biampable-floor-speaker--303-468

If you can find some old used JBL pro gear, that would probably be even better, but likely hard to find in India.

 

[ArmSC]

@ArmSC I am in India and speaker size is not an issue. Quality is more important.

I've seen some websites from India when they were provided. I don't recall what they were now. I have read about people using PA speakers like WayneJ has but I don't know that much about them. I would be more comfortable recommending home speakers vs PA speakers. However, I have read that they can be used to make a good system. They are just a good bit larger and not as attractive as most home speakers. (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder )

If you can provide me some links to websites that you can purchase from and you still want some recommendations I'll be happy to see what I can come up with. Then again if you're wanting to try the PA speakers go for it.

 

[utubecomment21]

PA speakers have different design priorities than home speakers. They have to be build tough enough to bounce around in the back of a van going from one gig to the next, and they have to be able to play for hours on end at ear splitting levels, gig after gig, year in and year out, as well as outdoors in heat, cold and humidity.

On top of that, PA speakers are not designed to sound their best at a distance of 8-15 ft., as is the situation for home listening.

Way down the list of priorities is sound quality. PA speakers that sound good enough to be in a residential hi-fi installation are few and far between, and the ones that do will cost you many times more than a home speaker that sounds as good as it does.

If $500 is your budget, there is no shortage of offerings from SVS, Axiom, Hsu, Paradigm et. al. that will sound better.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

PA drivers are drivers like any other, sub, woofer, midbass, midrange, tweeter, super tweeter except with different parameters. One would never ask a subwoofer to do what a tweeter does and visa versa. The only main difference PA has from Home Audio is that PA drivers often have lower xmax, lower QTS, higher sensitivity, higher BL, higher FS, However, they are still a driver and there's nothing to say that PA drivers are or do sound worse than any other type of driver. One can say that about any driver! We have the same problem in car audio, with SQ labelled brands and SPL brands. The truth is an SQ driver can be loud and an SPL driver can sound good.

In terms of bass (frequencies below 100Hz) going by specs/T/S paramters:
PA drivers/subs seem to be prominent around 50-70Hz
Car Audio around 30-50Hz,
Non sub Home Audio speaker (bookshelf) claims of around 50-70Hz @ -3
Sub/Home Theatre sub 20-40Hz

In terms of PA subs, personally one can build an enclosure to hit low enough if that's the desired effect. In terms of building home audio speakers I like things to hit in the low 30's subless, like this

As for high sensitivity, being loud or using a long throw design in your lounge, you can, but it might be overkill. Like stuffing a car with a 200mph, 1,000 hp engine, one can still drive to the shops at 30 mph, but remember that you have another 170mph on tap, So using a PA driver at normal levels is doable, but just know that you can also deafen the neighbours 10 houses away is also doable. Just as having a 200mph 1,000hp car doesn't mean it's comfortable or reliable, but neither does driving a 78hp Nissan Micra! Using a PA driver in home audio use doesn't add up to a PA speaker necessarily sounding bad. I believe there are too many other factors involve that will do that, which can also be associated with any speaker/driver in any environment.