Budget Powered Speakers

[Stub Mandrel]

Not all of us can afford or justify expensive PA speakers/monitors, so I thought I'd share my experience of the cheap Thomann 'Fun Generation' powered speakers and invite anyone else to share info on other low-cost options.

 

This is the 15" option, they also do 12" and passive versions of both.

 

https://www.thomann.co.uk/fun_generation_pl_115_a.htm

 

 

With refreshing honesty they rate them 600W peak/140W rms.

 

I bought two 15" powered ones as cheap monitors. I regularly use one as a monitor and aside from not being suitable for putting my foot on, it's always delivered without fuss in many different situations. 

 

Thrre are two 'mic' channels with xlr and jack inputs. Annoyingly, line in uses phono sockets, but I just use the mic channels with the gain down (never had distortion issues). There's basic bass/treble eq, 90% of the time I leave these at 12 o'clock.

 

I discovered the back plates with the amp, inputs and bt functionality are interchangeable between 15 and 12, passive and active. Just rewire the connections to the crossover.

 

I swapped one over to make a 15 active and a 12 passive.

 

That gives me the flexibility to use 2x12, 2x15, or one or two 12+15 pairs.

 

I have used an active/passive 12" pair as PA for lectures with ease, and once or twice as a small pub-size vocal PA when our vocalist's Mackie powered speakers weren't available. 

 

It's not clear what the real world power of a single cab is - do you need the extension cab to achieve 140W or does that deliver a bit more?

 

They are loud enough and the audio quality is good enough to be usable in everyday applications. I think the audio is at least as good as my 8" HH monitor. I would invest more if looking fo a small full-time PA, however. 

 

Despite the 'fun generation' name they are a different league to the cheap but similar looking 'party speakers'. I suspect they are sold with other name badges.

 

Importantly they are robust, reasonably light and easy to use.

 

Two powered 12s or even one powered, one passive would meet the basic monitoring needs of many bands for under £200, and they could save a small gig if your main pa goes down.

 

[Jack]

That's really good to hear, thanks for sharing. The Thomann own brand stuff usually punches well above its price point, just look at the praise that Harley Benton basses get. I've got a suspicion that the dsp and dsx range from 'the box pro' are probably as good as some of the offerings from qsc and rcf but I've never chanced the £250 to find out. 

 

I do love my Thomann Mix Six though! 

[tauzero]

I use Alto TS308s for FOH and TS408s for monitors. I did have them the other way round but the 408s are better shaped for floor monitor use and for some reason it seemed to improve the situation with feedback. When the speaker failed on my bass amp, I put the bass through the PA and it was fine, which was rather impressive - didn't want to make a habit of it though.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 minutes ago, tauzero said:

I use Alto TS308s for FOH and TS408s for monitors. I did have them the other way round but the 408s are better shaped for floor monitor use and for some reason it seemed to improve the situation with feedback. When the speaker failed on my bass amp, I put the bass through the PA and it was fine, which was rather impressive - didn't want to make a habit of it though.

 

The smaller Altos are another 'affordable' brand. Our club uses bigger Alto powered speakers andcthey sound find and have proven vastly more reliable than HH.

 

Last night we had a drum machine and then a guitar through them without backline no problems (except the guitar turned up far too loud).

[tauzero]

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The smaller Altos are another 'affordable' brand. Our club uses bigger Alto powered speakers andcthey sound find and have proven vastly more reliable than HH.

 

Last night we had a drum machine and then a guitar through them without backline no problems (except the guitar turned up far too loud).

 

One of the guitarists goes through the PA sometimes. On one occasion he'd somehow turned up his volume vastly, and the sound from the Altos was both mind-buggeringly loud and very clear. I put a limiter on the mixer after that.