Peavey bad, why?

[3guk]

The attitude that anything that doesn't cost loads is crap, is one that really does annoy me in the industry. A decent sound engineer can make anything sound bearable, ok Peavey has nothing on L'Accoustics, but that said, look at the price difference.

 

Being an owner of some JBL JRx115s, I know that with a little bit of EQ they can sound superb, and at a fraction of the price. It all depends on how you use it, like its been said already, its much harder to make a Nexo or L'Accoustics system sound crap but it doesnt mean that the alternatives are automatically rubbish, it just means they take someone with a little bit more experiance to get them to sound nice !!

[drowner77]

I'm not sure if anyone said that anything that does not have a high price tag was rubbish. The question was in regards to Peavey. Now if you want to talk about modestly priced gear that sounds great my vote goes to FBT, which I think are terrific for the moeny and blow the spots off of anything that Peavey makes. Also, I think that Eccler make very good lower ranged amps and they go great with the FBTs.:huh:

 

I also played through a set of EV's last night that I thoght kicked butt.

 

However, I don't think much of JBL.. :unsure:

[Chris Hinds]

Peavey is good for its price bracket and lest we forget without their efforts we probably wouldn't have anything like the market that there is now for Behringer et al, because Peavey really were pioneers in bringing affordable audio to people for Sound Reinforcement purposes. It's not the lightest, it's not the best sounding, but for the money that it costs it's good value, good quality and has many features that are highly valuable, like the UL series protection circuits (using a car sidelight lamp to protect the driver) or the FLS system for the EQs which is significantly better than Behringer's feedback thing, which doesn't seem to be able to discern between feedback and a continuous synth tone etc. If you think of Peavey as just speakers then I understand why you'd think they are less than amazing, if you think of the rest of the gear they make too... well they earn more respect from me than a few of the 'me too' drivers in a box brands.

 

Regards

 

Chris

[drowner77]

To be fair Chris, I have only been referring to their Speakers and amps.

 

I too hate the Behringer Feedback destryer. I used it once then never again. I was not aware that Peavey made a similar device/

[MarkPAman]

Things may have changed, but Peavey used to give much more "honest" specs for their speakers than many of the cheaper brands do now. If it said it could handle 150W then it could, for years.

[Panzerman]

The only good thing I can say about Peavey PA stuff is that you can always punt it on second-hand, from churches to Dave Doubledecks, some mug, erm, discerning individual with a limited budget, will take it off your hands. But that's when you come to sell it - you have many gigs of heartache (and ball-ache) lugging it round first. Though if it suits your budget, and will make the right return on the investment for the application you have in mind, you could get worse! (Like some of the stuff pouring from China)

 

And slightly OT, I know, just as a counter to Peavey bashers in general, remember the following:

Their 5150 guitar amps (and cabs) are up there with the very best (for heavy rock/metal anyway) - I'd grudgingly give them the edge over my favourite JCM2550 Marshalls. Just.

Peavey 70's and 80's bass heads (can't remember the model) absolutely kick serious arse, far superior to stuff like Ampeg of it's day - justified by the amount of heads you see changing hands for serious bread these days.

Peavey were the first company to mass produce guitars on an industrial scale, manufacturing necks on their cnc machines. The theory that there was no such thing as a "Friday afternoon" guitar was Peavey's - wherever you were in the world, you would be able to buy one off the peg, and KNOW it was going to play exactly like every other one. (Try doing that with other mass-produced guitars like Fender!) The Jap companies like Ibanez of course beat them comprehensively at their own game, but the idea was Peavey's first. Not saying I'd buy one, mind you!

 

No comment either on the word "Crest" .........

 

Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure if you drop their speakers, it will knock them off-centre. Only one way to find out!

[Bad_Rock]

You are right Panzerman. As I said in my previous post there was a time where you could buy Behringer mixers for over 20 k's when they were made in Germany. I have a very old Peavey amp ( from the 80's ) made to use with the HDH series of speakers that weights a ton- seriously it should weight like 60 pounds and it's only 400+400w at 4ohms :S

[ThomJ]

Ok I could be (possibly should) starting a new string? But:

 

Explain: No comment either on the word "Crest" .........

 

and (having just invested in them on someones say so)

Whats wrong with the Behringer Feedback Destroyer (assuming you mean the Ultra Curve Pro)

 

:blink:

Thom

[Bobbsy]

1. Crest has a poor reputation for reliability...deservedly so in my opinion but, as with just about any sound gear others have differing opinions.

 

2. Behringer actually make a specific feedback destroyer, known as the FBQ2496 (there's another one too, but this is the current model). Info can be found HERE.

 

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with the Behringer unit...at least nothing more wrong than there is with ANY feedback destroyer. The main thing with ALL this sort of thing is to run it, let it find a few of the worst frequencies, then lock it off. Leaving ANY feedback unit in auto-detect mode will eventually lead to things like guitar solos and synth notes being cancelled too. Personally, I'm not a fan of feedback destroyers but as they go, the Behringer is fine.

 

Bob

[jayselway]

I've used loads of Crest amps, from the lightweight series to the big ones in the CA series. Only had a couple of niggles with them - sometimes the protection gets "stuck" and won't come out of protect - clip light still on, although there is a mod for curing that problem apparently (/me gives amp to audio labs and says "sort it thank you") - similar with the soft start.

 

Aside from that, no issues - Peavey cabs got me started in the industry, I had a couple of Eurosys 4's, and then some Aerosys 5's. Then I had saved up enough and off we went down more pro kit routes. Having said that, I still have a peavey amp, the CS800s, which goes round most gigs with me, and is a backup. Nice and lightweight, reliable, sounds ok - enough to get me through a sticky one.

 

£0.02

[Panzerman]

He he, I had forgotten about those CS amps! I have one which has also got me out a tight spot or two down the line. Despite the Peavey-bashing, I have been pleased to see the old thing under the van seat when I've been in the mire!!!

[johnhuson]

1. Crest has a poor reputation for reliability...deservedly so in my opinion but, as with just about any sound gear others have differing opinions.

 

Sorry if were going wildly OT with this, maybe a new thread mods?

 

Interesting that you have observed that, from my experience the x001 series (i.e.8001, 7001 etc) were quite ubiquitous before the advent of the light weight amps we see today like Lab Gruppen, Camco etc. I came across them on many hire companies systems a few years back (SSE used to run there EV MT systems with Crest's for example) and apart from the huge in-rush current (a characteristic of many amps before switch mode supplies!) which often used to take breakers out they were solid, reliable amps. I don't know of any hire company who has invested heavily in a product which has a reputation for poor reliability.

[creedence0_0]

If anyone has read my previous post they'll know I've got a celestion system and am selling body parts to work up to a nexo rig (mmm pause for quick day dream ).

 

Now my 250rms full range tops are getting a caning with 650 at 4ohms going in and until fame and fortune come a knocking the nexo's will have to wait a while. So I've amps that give 650 at 4ohm and the best contender to replace the celestions looks like a pair of hysys 7's ? 700watt at 4ohm.

 

Now I keep hearing respected gents on this forum using the words peavey and bargepole in the same sentence. and I just wondered, Why?

Do they do somthing fundermentally wrong or is it somthing else?

THey just seem to incur the same respect the lampies have for behringer light desks. :unsure:

 

 

Peavey have their place in the market, they are (or were) strong, reliable and use reasonable components. Don't get hung up on names (JBL made the tr cabs and they were loaded with rubbish components and dropped to pieces within months) listen to them yourself and see if they will do the job for you.

I owned a pair of the early hisys 2s, (approx 1990) and they are still rocking with a local band.

 

Yes high end stuff can be great but costs more than the average house.

 

A good engineer will make most stuff sound reasonable.

A bad engineer will make the best stuff sound crap!

[Bobbsy]

A good engineer will make most stuff sound reasonable.

A bad engineer will make the best stuff sound crap!

 

No argument at all with what you said, but it got me thinking.

 

To take this slightly OT, I think that with REALLY high end equipment, it goes even farther that what you said.

 

As soon as you get into the realms of highly directional cabinets, line arrays, tri-amped systems with microprocessor controlled speaker controllers, etc etc., the capacity for a mediocre engineer to mess up rises on the same exponential curve as the prices!

 

Bob

[Rob_Beech]

Often with array technology of any form including (and most likely) line arrays.

 

You'll find that the setting up is most of the battle. Get that wrong (be it a miscalculation or just being a crap designer/engineer) and you'll not get the system sounding good. Or at least not as good as it can.

 

Get it spot on for the room (handy to know the room details in FULL before hand and you can do a bit of ground work before you even get there) and you'll find it will sound good and a half decent engineer can keep it sounding good.

 

Even with small scale arrays designed to be ground stacked. It takes alot of knowledge to set them up properly.

 

Rob