Dan Dare

Wood that be the Oddfellows, by any chance? I've played there a few times. Nice pub.

Thanks for the reminder. That was hilarious. Peely, bless him, was pretty much tone deaf. Couldn't carry a tune to save his life.

Bill's advice is good. Mini line arrays are great if you have a reasonable budget, but you really need two for all but quiet gigs, so the cost gets a bit steep. Quality 10+horn boxes on poles and a single decent sub on the floor will have minimal visual impact and can be very capable. Incidentally, Bose are not a true array, in that the drivers in the columns are angled to each side, rather than all pointing directly ahead, which gives good coverage at close to medium range, but lacks the 'throw' of an array. RCF are always a safe bet, as Phil suggests, for good but not pricey PA speakers. They occupy a sweet spot between budget and costly. For £2k, you could get a pair of RCF ART310s plus a 905 sub, which would be a very tasty system and would, I reckon, out-perform your Behringers, especially when it comes to clarity.

You could do a lot worse than a Bugera Veyron. I had one as a backup and it was fine. I didn't notice much, if any, difference between it and my Aguilar AG700. Get the mosfet version if you want a more neutral sound (handy as it's a bit cheaper than the valve - only in the preamp, not full valve - model). They're about £230 new, so used ones are not expensive. Ignore the ludicrous claims about 1000w output (you won't need anything like that with a couple of BF 110s, anyway). Half that is probably closer to the mark and the power reserves will keep it clean if you need to push things a bit.

Life's too short to get upset about it. If people want to make themselves look stoopid, it's a free country.

Sometimes, perhaps.

Once you've bought your reel to reel tape, you can have weeks of fun trying to find a machine to play it on that isn't either knackered or uber expensive.

Depends on the dimensions. If the driver in the photo is a 15, the cab looks to be about 19" wide by 12" deep by 24" high. That gives a cubic capacity of around 3.1 cu. ft, although the volume of the ports (which look a little large for the size Bill suggests above) will reduce that. It probably won't be that far off and certainly better than 4.7 cu. ft.

My bad, Bill. A thought occurs. Could @MostLow replace the baffle on one of his 4.7 cu. ft. cabs and add correctly sized port(s) and mount both drivers in it? I've done that before by cutting out the old baffle with a jigsaw, leaving and couple of inches of the edges of it in place to mount a new one onto. It would slightly increase the internal volume and get it closer to the ideal of 5 cu. ft. It assumes the cab is tall enough to accommodate two 15" drivers, rather than being deep, but with a small frontal area. Might that be relatively inexpensive and simple solution?

Have a look at the data sheet for the drivers on the Eminence website. That'll give you cab' capacity, port sizes, etc. Dave Green's Fearful 15 was designed for the Kappalite 3015 if you fancy building your own:

I loved Guy Pratt's story of the punk days, when everyone had adopted names like Rat Scabies, Fester Pustule and so on. People used to assume he had done similarly when he introduced himself.

Bit of a misleading question then, asking us "does such a thing as a decent, lightweight sub-woofer actually exist?". I took "decent" to mean "capable" (not an unreasonable assumption), but it turns out you don't actually need 'capable'. Silly me, eh? I'm impressed that you posted yesterday, then managed to do "a lot of research" and also buy a sub, all in the space of 24 hours. Why bother asking on here in that case? Had you told us you already had a MarkAudio sub', we'd have likely suggested sticking with that (I would). 23kg is hardly a behemoth. I'm 72 and have no trouble schlepping my Fohhn XS22, at 25kg.

How much do you want to spend? The rule is light, capable, cheap - pick any two. QSC, RCF, Yamaha and others offer quality lightweight subs, but they aren't cheap.

If I needed a stage name I'd call myself Barton Stacey, after the village down the road from me.

A further point in favour of the D4 is that it's likely to be easier to move on should you need to sell it. Its more versatile - could be used for small acoustic jobs and the line out means you could add a power amp and cabs for larger gigs. The Nano is very much a desk top only amp.

No, but wouldn't a fake name solve the issue?

If you cannot or don't wish to screw rubber feet to your cab, there's an alternative that is much cheaper than isolation platforms ands similar. Just buy one of those large heavy rubber tiles that are sold to playgrounds to place around swings and slides to stop kids injuring themselves if they fall. I bought three - one for each PA sub and one for my bass rig - for about £40 the lot. Each is half a metre square and they do a great job

X4 has a single 4" driver. Double 4 has two, plus an auxiliary radiator and double the output power. That suggests it will be more capable. I've never tried a X4, but I like the Double 4. I'm occasionally tempted by one for practice, but I have several PJB 4x5 cabs and one of those is compact enough, so it would be a bit of an indulgence for me to get one. Are you able to try them side by side? If not and you definitely want one or the other, I'd be inclined to go for the Double 4 because it offers more for not a lot more money.

It seems pop music has become more something people consume, as opposed to something they aspire to create themselves. I suppose that's inevitable, given the corporate takeover of much pop music.

I can stand that for an evening. The extra money weddings pay helps ease the pain...

Badly attended gigs are just part of life. No point in worrying about it. There could be a thousand reasons why few turn up, ranging from something good on telly to a major international incident. Just play the best you can for those who are there and move on. I've had people ask for our card at poorly attended gigs, leading to another booking, so it's not all doom and gloom. The thing to bear in mind at functions is that the band is not the main attraction. People have come to see the couple get married, to celebrate Fred's 50th, etc, etc. The band is just another part of the picture, along with the catering, flowers, photgrapher and so on. Tomorrow's another day.

Pleasure. Stick and sub systems can be very good, but as is always the case, the ones that deliver the goods aren't cheap. The NXL24s go down to 65 hz (on paper, at least), so shouldn't need a lot of low end reinforcement. If you do go for them, I's start with one sub. The RCF 905 is guaranteed to work with them and you can always add another in the future if you need to. However, I'd be surprised if you do. Modern subs are so much better - more efficient, cleaner and louder - than the old boom boxes. You don't need stereo subs. Very low frequencies are omni-directional and a single sub can be placed optimally more easily than two.

Absolutely. The worst-sounding venue I ever played in was an art deco style ballroom, which was shaped like half a cylinder (think Nissen hut). Hard plaster walls/ceiling, no absorbent materials or curtains and a hollow stage structure. The resonances and echoes were appalling and no amount of eq or tweaks helped. Despite our using high quality gear, the sound was dreadful.

Not really. It's mostly down to room acoustics, I'm afraid. Things like hollow stages act like giant resonators and will turn anything to boomy mush. I've heard Barefaced and similar quality cabs (including my PJBs, which are not noted for heavy low end) sound terrible in the wrong environment.

Thanks Phil. I didn't suggest any stick plus sub systems because the OP said he was old school and also because they can get pretty spendy, but you're right. FBT, HK, RCF and others offer excellent options. I'd add that one capable sub will always beat two less able ones. I find I need only one for probably 80% of the gigs I do (I sometimes wonder whether it was worth my buying two when one sits at home for much of the time). The RCF 8003 is very good, although it's a bit of a lump to carry around. The 905 is a little easier on the back. A pair on NXL24s plus a single 905 would be a pretty tasty rig and would come in under the OP's budget.