Mackie SRM450 V2 vs RCF ART 710A

[sam.spoons]

I tried a dozen 12+Horn actives from Alto Truesonics at £250 to Art722s at £1100 a couple of months ago (and also a few 10+Horn ones). I have a single EV SbA750 sub and bought QSC K12s for FOH and a mix of Yamaha DXR10s and Alto Truesonic TS110As for monitors. The most disappointing box I auditioned was the SRM450mk2 (I've used mk1s for several years at work and liked them) they just sounded poor, almost slightly distorted at all levels compared to the others, even the cheapo Truesonics sounded nicer. Give the DXR10s a serious listen, they have a couple of dB in hand over the ART710 and sound very good indeed. They do cost about £50 more but look significantly more roadworthy and have a 7 year warrantee.

[OneEng]

Hello welcome to my first ever post!!

 

I own some Mackie SRM450 V2's and was thinking of upgrading to RCF ART 710A's

 

My question is how do they compare for sound quality etc and would this be much of a upgrade ?

 

The Mackie is a 12'' and the RCF a 10'' but the specs for frequency response are 55Hz @ -3db for the Mackie and 50Hz @ -3 db for the RCF !!

 

Does the RCF really have better bass response than the bigger Mackie ?

 

If the bass was just hype, I could add a RCF 902as sub to help the little RCF 710A's

 

Another option would be to just get just 2 RCF 722A's and make do without a sub

 

The wild card option and most expensive option is to get 2 Verse insider 10 speakers and a Verse 15 Sub ???

I like the look of these, as they look more life HiFi speakers than PA speakers but cannot find much about them on the net

 

My aim is to build a high quality lightwieght system

 

Any advice or other options would be most welcome

 

many thanks,

 

Philip

Hi Philip,

 

If you are playing back music as a DJ, I would keep your Mackies and get a sub. Most definitely a sub..... maybe two ;) While you may find that many people have differing opinions on various speakers and manufacturers, I think you will find universal agreement that for playing back dance music, the sub is going to be the best investment you can make.

 

Getting a sub does more than just add bottom to your mix, it also relieves your tops of the frequencies they don't have the umph to handle anyway. You will get more out of your tops without the <100Hz signal going to them. I guarantee your audience will approve ;)

 

 

 

[Terry Steward]

1 Year on,,RCF's Still sounding good,after about 120 gigs,,,but to be fair,the Band who bought my Mackie's,are still using them !!!!,,,my duo partner has packed in,,and I am using dep singers,,he used to bring his own Powered cabs,we would have my RCF's behind us,as a "Band" behind us,,for monitoring and mixing our own sound,,,Without his Loud voice,and his Various Instruments,,the RCF's are sufficient for most my duo gigs,using just a singer that doesn't play an instrument,,even when they are staying behind us,but up on stands,and to the Far left n right,,in the smaller venues,it's a great sound,I can hear my cues,and they project still to the Audience,and no feedback issues,,,,BUT on some larger gigs,I need a 2nd pair of speakers,as I need the RCF's up high,and in front of us,,but can't hear my cues,nor mix the sound,,,so I am in the process of buying a pair of Alto TS110 Speakers,,as they seem to have the biggest bang for buck,,and in the event an RCF fails,,,the Alto's will get me Through a gig.

[mal421]

I do exactly what you do. I have been running a small dance in similar size room once a week for the past 12 years and have been through this. My solution was a pair of Wharfedale Titan 8's and for my larger dances I used a pair of 15" Eons. However I didn't like lugging the Eons around so I bought an RCF powered sub (Art 800) and use that with the titans for my larger dances and have no problems with lack of power etc.

[John M]

As Paulears above says you cant depend on specs - they are so misleading. Forget watts and think SPL - but is it measured SPL, calculated or some other method. The new JBL EON 615s quote 1000 watts output and yet the SPL is lower than the 650watt EON 515xt. and then the 650 watts 515xt appears to use the same bass unit as the 450 watt 515!

 

Then there is the input sensitivity - many people complained that the JBL 515's were underpowered but if you pushed them up to the limit led coming on they would be as loud as SR450's when that was hitting the limit led so not underpowered just not very sensitive

 

 

I think overall its the acoustics of the room that alter the sound more than anything else. Its really only when you play in a large room, marquee or outdoors that you become aware of the shortcoming or not of the speaker.

 

I did a comparison before getting the first pair of mid price range speakers and to my ears at that time Turbosound sounded best then Yamaha and then JBL - But JBL were much lighter so for me they were the best choice

 

But.... My old Thoman PA302a's still pump out a decent sound although they weigh about 24Kgs so a bit heavy. They are now about 10 years old and have not failed. My son uses them for his mobile disco and they get a good blasting 2 or 3 times a week. Interestingly the Thomann speakers use the same HF unit as Mackie SR450. The diaphragms are interchangeable and cost about £15 from thomann. Only difference is that to change the diaphragm on the SR450 there are about 20 difficult to get to screws that needed a non standard screwdriver to remove opposed to 4 alum keys on the Thomann unit!

 

The good news is that prices seem to have dropped all round. EON 515s were about £640 4 years ago and now the 515XTs can be got for less than £400 same goes for Mackies although not quite such a large cut in price.

 

It would be interesting to see some sort of chart that indicated what was actually inside each speaker box eg make and model of bass unit, HF unit, amp module. My guess is that many are using the same components - most come out of China and I am pretty sure that if any were using speakers of real quality they would advertise the fact. But thats just my cynical view!

[oldskoolhead]

As Paulears above says you cant depend on specs - they are so misleading. Forget watts and think SPL - but is it measured SPL, calculated or some other method. The new JBL EON 615s quote 1000 watts output and yet the SPL is lower than the 650watt EON 515xt. and then the 650 watts 515xt appears to use the same bass unit as the 450 watt 515!

 

Then there is the input sensitivity - many people complained that the JBL 515's were underpowered but if you pushed them up to the limit led coming on they would be as loud as SR450's when that was hitting the limit led so not underpowered just not very sensitive

 

 

I think overall its the acoustics of the room that alter the sound more than anything else. Its really only when you play in a large room, marquee or outdoors that you become aware of the shortcoming or not of the speaker.

 

I did a comparison before getting the first pair of mid price range speakers and to my ears at that time Turbosound sounded best then Yamaha and then JBL - But JBL were much lighter so for me they were the best choice

 

But.... My old Thoman PA302a's still pump out a decent sound although they weigh about 24Kgs so a bit heavy. They are now about 10 years old and have not failed. My son uses them for his mobile disco and they get a good blasting 2 or 3 times a week. Interestingly the Thomann speakers use the same HF unit as Mackie SR450. The diaphragms are interchangeable and cost about £15 from thomann. Only difference is that to change the diaphragm on the SR450 there are about 20 difficult to get to screws that needed a non standard screwdriver to remove opposed to 4 alum keys on the Thomann unit!

 

The good news is that prices seem to have dropped all round. EON 515s were about £640 4 years ago and now the 515XTs can be got for less than £400 same goes for Mackies although not quite such a large cut in price.

 

It would be interesting to see some sort of chart that indicated what was actually inside each speaker box eg make and model of bass unit, HF unit, amp module. My guess is that many are using the same components - most come out of China and I am pretty sure that if any were using speakers of real quality they would advertise the fact. But thats just my cynical view!

 

I did say we a/b'd those 3 speakers mackie rcf and qsc, we a/b'd them in a huge warehouse famous for its massive wall of guitars, the rcf creamed the lot, having heared many systems I wouldnt go near jbl eons at least they sound garbage to put it mildly, the yamahas are also garbage once turned up and will quickly destruct themselves

 

and to answer a few of your q's the mackie srm450mk1 was made in italy with RCF drivers there were also some USA made mk1 mackies that had eminence drivers, the newer mk2 and above mackies made in china have P.audio drivers, the reason you dont hear what model is because they are popriotary drivers designed specifically for the intended speaker making it more likely you will have to return to the dealer from which you obtained the speakers to get a repair but often if you do your research you can find a driver that best matches and sometimes improves the speaker especially in the case of subwoofers, for tops I wolud seek the original drivers or diagphrams where possible

 

the reason the prices have gone down is because manufacturers have stopped using neodymium so much and started putting ceramic magnets in instead being they are much cheaper and the only difference is weight, as a magnet is a magnet and the technology in switchmode amps has come on to produce much lighter amps using smd's and smps so most of this extra weight has been saved here instead and being lighter and smaller amps material costs are saved here as well, they are also more efficient and produce less heat allowing for smaller fanless heatsinks, all this ammounts to cheaper to produce speakers of equal quality (in most cases) and also more reliable when used as intended as they are more efficient turning power into sound instead of heat which is a killer in electronics.

 

I know this is an old thread but im still interested in what the OP went with and given the test of time what he thought, I still have a pair of mk1 710a's and an even older mackie swa1501 (I hear you can improve this sub with an eminence driver but I forget which one having never needed to replace the original)