Small good quality powered stage monitors?

[KevB]

Our singer stands out front so he can interact with the women...err, [i]audience. [/i]This means he gets to hear what he sings plus the mix from the backline pretty well. All good for him, the rest of us backing singers mostly can't hear what we are doing at all. I have a nice powered monitor (1X12 wedge by MAJ) but he won't entertain it coming anywhere near him and we play such pokey stage areas that there just isn't room for it and his ego despite it being a reasonably compact enclosure for a 1X12 wedge.
So I'm asking for recommendations for a monitor that will primarily be for vox but might also be used for midi keyboard pedals too in future. Would a 1X8 give enough frequency range? The main thing is to keep the overall external dimensions down and a reasonably punchy clear output (my current monitor is 75W at 8ohm and is plenty loud enough). Also preferably one that is avaialble as a non powered slave version too in case I need to run another one to the drummer.

[The Dark Lord]

I created just such a thread a while back and ended up buying one of these:

[url="http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-sound/behringer-eurolive-b205d-active-pa-monitor-speaker-system--71188"]http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-sound/behringer-eurolive-b205d-active-pa-monitor-speaker-system--71188[/url]

Perfect for the job (three piece loud pop rock band).

[KevB]

Cheers, probably should have done a search before starting the thread. Looks like it'll be around the £150 mark so may pick one up if they really are up to the job. I don't hold with all Behringer gear self destructing within 6 months of purchase

[The Dark Lord]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1373621533' post='2139691']
Cheers, probably should have done a search before starting the thread. Looks like it'll be around the £150 mark so may pick one up if they really are up to the job. I don't hold with all Behringer gear self destructing within 6 months of purchase
[/quote]

Well. If you lookie here, you will see something curious:

[url="http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Mackie-SRM150-Compact-PA-System-single/8GK?origin=product-ads&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PLA+Mackie&utm_content=AqYwn3qH%7Cdc_pcrid_31405737559_plid__kword__match__"]http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Mackie-SRM150-Compact-PA-System-single/8GK?origin=product-ads&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PLA+Mackie&utm_content=AqYwn3qH%7Cdc_pcrid_31405737559_plid__kword__match__[/url]

What looks like the same product but badged as a Mackie for £100 more. I have a general "no Behringer" rule myself. Most of their stuff is too low budget for me. But this little thing just fitted the bill. I mount mine on a mike stand at head height to the left of me behind the PA stack and only me knows it's there.

[Ghost_Bass]

Had the Mackie version of this. I can say it's very good for self vocal monitoring. It can even take a guitar but with bass and low freqs in general it will struggle and the speaker will fart. I also used it as a monitor for home practise with a mp3 player and sounded very good.

[JTUK]

We use 2 Mackie SRM150 for BV only. The keys and gtr still run seperate backline.
The lead vox uses a powered 15" wedge because he needs the spread of sounds and moves move
and swapped from a mini wedge also because volume was an issue.
The grt and keys BV's are more static.

Anything more than BV's in the Mackie mons..?? NO..!!

[Ian Savage]

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1373628705' post='2139823']
Well. If you lookie here, you will see something curious:

[url="http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Mackie-SRM150-Compact-PA-System-single/8GK?origin=product-ads&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PLA+Mackie&utm_content=AqYwn3qH%7Cdc_pcrid_31405737559_plid__kword__match__"]http://www.gear4musi..._kword__match__[/url]

What looks like the same product but badged as a Mackie for £100 more. I have a general "no Behringer" rule myself. Most of their stuff is too low budget for me. But this little thing just fitted the bill. I mount mine on a mike stand at head height to the left of me behind the PA stack and only me knows it's there.
[/quote]

Hmm, not sure that's so much a 're-badging' as Behringer pulling their usual trick of ripping off someone else's design and building it down to a price point using their economies of scale and labour exploitation - that said, the ones they're ripping off now tend to have the same EoS and exploitation so there's no reason for the Mackie to cost a ton more :s

Yeah, be worth swallowing your scruples and having a look at the Berry, should do the job nicely...

[The Dark Lord]

[quote name='Ian Savage' timestamp='1373648604' post='2140250']
Hmm, not sure that's so much a 're-badging' as Behringer pulling their usual trick of ripping off someone else's design and building it down to a price point using their economies of scale and labour exploitation - that said, the ones they're ripping off now tend to have the same EoS and exploitation so there's no reason for the Mackie to cost a ton more :s

Yeah, be worth swallowing your scruples and having a look at the Berry, should do the job nicely...
[/quote]

Yeah. I see what you are saying. It's just if you look at the two units side-by-side, they are virtually identical in layout - so I assumed they were both using the same PCB - but they might be a copy. I don't really know.

I usually don't like the brand, but the B205D works just great. It's a price point where I can just buy another one if it breaks.

[Ian Savage]

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1373654593' post='2140325']
Yeah. I see what you are saying. It's just if you look at the two units side-by-side, they are virtually identical in layout - so I assumed they were both using the same PCB - but they might be a copy.
[/quote]

No, the control layouts are flipped if you look a bit harder - I suspect that's all they have to do legally to make it not an actionable ripoff. I used to work for a pro-audio company, we were tearing our hair out at how Behringer managed to do stuff so cheap; suspicions were that they didn't have an R&D department as such, just a bunch of guys tearing apart other manufacturers' equipment, working out the circuits and building them for piss-all in China.

Not that I'm bitter

[KevB]

Well I've gone for it, got one from Thomann for £133 delivered. The only problem will be the archaic and rudimentary PA it will have to work with, just a 4 channel mixer amp which has 'slave outs' for monitoring so I don't think I'll get a dedicated out just for my vocal. I'm hoping I can put my mic directly into this monitor and then send that signal out from the back of it into the PA so I can just have my vox through it. If I end up using midi pedals as well I'll just have to do the same for that and mix the two on the monitor, looks like it has 3 potential inputsso doable. It would be nice to have other vox through my monitor too but without a proper mixing desk on the PA with more sophisticated mon outs I can't see a way round it. My biggest gripe at the mo is I can barely hear what I'm singing at all as I'm behind the PA and the Behringer should do the job to address this. I'm hoping the equally archaic PA speakers pack in and we persuade the band leader to buy some powered speakers and then I can dust off my 16 channel mixer and loan it to him to have a far more versatile PA set up but I can tell he's one of those people that will do anything to avoid any sort of change in his set up which is the most simple thing imaginable but really inflexible.

[huwgarms]

we have those, awesome on stands fair play

[bertbass]

One of these is what you want. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Balanced-Microphone-Mic-Splitter-Transformer-Isolated-Output-Ground-Lift-/111004940746#vi-content

[Truckstop]

How does it mount on?

Is it like a clamp or a screw-on-to-the-top of a mic stand type job? If it's a clamp it'd be well handy to attach to the speaker poles of the FOH PA.

Truckstop

[KevB]

I think it looks like a screw onto the top of a mic stand type fitting, might make my side of the stage a bit more cluttered but will give it a go.

[gafbass02]

Yep, I've used a pair of these on stands on stage as monitors for a while. They're just great.

[The Dark Lord]

The monitor comes with an adapter that screws into a regular mic stand. Happy days.

[Truckstop]

Oh good, I've got a couple of spare Quiklok mic stands that'll do the job just fine!

Truckstop

[The Dark Lord]

If you look at this video, you'll see that there is a B205D mounted on a mic stand to our singer's right (although to his left in this video if you know what I mean). It's hidden behind the PA stack, so the audience don't get to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCVw2kaYL80

It's very small, and the big bonus is that it is very light and tiny ..... so easy to store and transport.

Works a treat for vocals - we take a monitor line out of the mixer.

We actually have two of these. One for him and one for me - I'm mainly backing vocals, but I sing lead on a couple of songs in each set. You can't even see mine - as I like mine lower (about waist height).

We link the two together. We take a line out of the singer's monitor to mine (they link together) and we end up with identical mixes coming out of the monitors.

Works great.

Edited July 14, 2013 by The Dark Lord

[The Dark Lord]

..... actually, you can see mine. If you look at 42 seconds in the video, you'll see it down to my left (look for the Behringer yellow triangle) ...... or to the right of me in the video .... again if you know what I mean. I prefer it there as it doesn't get in my way and it's angled up a bit anyway.