Column/Array systems - small band

[Jack]

40 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

If you had the K8 or K10 speakers, would they then be as easy as the Mauis to cay around and set up, especially if you didn't need to take the sub, which to be honest isn't a fair comparison with the Mauis?    

 

I'm running just a pair of K10s (no sub) with a 4 piece Americana band (inc drums) and I've not needed the sub for most of those situations (the genre of music dictates the type of venue).  

 

It'd be interesting to compare the Mauis V K12 no sub.

 

Good points. I don't want to hijack the thread but I got the 12s because their primary use case was/is to be a 'bass wedge' on stage. However, even for that I overbought and I would absolutely go for the 10s if I was to do it all again. The Mauis are 3x8" speaker per sub (so six drivers in total) and then all the tiny mids, so maybe they would be more capable than I think. Needs some testing for sure.

[Woodinblack]

I would point out that both of my Evox 8s are second hand, so between them they were less than 1k. The XR18 is now cheap as anything. 

[Chienmortbb]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I would point out that both of my Evox 8s are second hand, so between them they were less than 1k. The XR18 is now cheap as anything. 

I did look at buying SH but all the sellers mucked me about or just wanted too much. Had I gone for a system it would  have been the RCF EVOX. 
 

 

[Chienmortbb]

3 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

 

If you had the K8 or K10 speakers, would they then be as easy as the Mauis to cay around and set up, especially if you didn't need to take the sub, which to be honest isn't a fair comparison with the Mauis?    

 

I'm running just a pair of K10s (no sub) with a 4 piece Americana band (inc drums) and I've not needed the sub for most of those situations (the genre of music dictates the type of venue).  

 

It'd be interesting to compare the Mauis V K12 no sub.

 

Those QSC speakers are well respected so unless you are desperate to “update”, I would look at adding a sub that you can take along only when you need it. 

[Dan Dare]

10 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Those QSC speakers are well respected so unless you are desperate to “update”, I would look at adding a sub that you can take along only when you need it. 

 

Good shout. Adding a sub and taking some of the heavy lifting from your top boxes can give a surprising improvement. You can drive the tops harder if they don't have to cope with the low end and get a lot more out of them.

[LawrenceH]

6 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 Others, like my Fohhn system, enable you to mount the columns on stands and place them and the sub(s) wherever you like.

I nearly mentioned Fohhn as being the ones I'd consider - really, really excellent speakers! As you say though the price is a fair bit higher than something like a DXR8 or similar...

[Dan Dare]

2 hours ago, LawrenceH said:

I nearly mentioned Fohhn as being the ones I'd consider - really, really excellent speakers! As you say though the price is a fair bit higher than something like a DXR8 or similar...

 

They're great, but at a price, as you say. I thought hard about getting them and decided in the end to bite the bullet. I'd taken early retirement from my job when I decided to upgrade my PA, so was able to spend some of my pay-off on them. Haven't regretted it so far. If you own a quality PA, people suddenly want you in their band, which is nice.

[Jack]

42 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

They're great, but at a price, as you say. I thought hard about getting them and decided in the end to bite the bullet. I'd taken early retirement from my job when I decided to upgrade my PA, so was able to spend some of my pay-off on them. Haven't regretted it so far. If you own a quality PA, people suddenly want you in their band, which is nice.

I prefer to get into bands on the quality of my playing. Which is why I've been bandless for almost two years.

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, Jack said:

I prefer to get into bands on the quality of my playing. Which is why I've been bandless for almost two years.

 

I feel your pain. I originally bought a PA because I got fed up with having to get someone less than ideal on board because they had a PA. So I decided to become that person 😁

[Steve Browning]

I own the van and the PA. I've got them by the nadgers!!

[andybassdoyle]

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

I own the van and the PA. I've got them by the nadgers!!

The alpha!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

19 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

 I originally bought a PA because I got fed up with having to get someone less than ideal on board because they had a PA. So I decided to become that person 😁

That's how most of us ended up having the PA. Nobody else wanting to do it is also how many of us ended up playing bass. But that worked out pretty well for Macca, so we're in good company. ☺️

[Suburban Man]

On 19/02/2026 at 10:18, Jack said:

Subbed as I am curious where this goes. My new country band has access to a pair of LD Maui 11 arrays, we'll test them out at a technical rehearsal but I am a little dubious. It's not just that they're column arrays, it's that they are 'sensibly priced' column arrays.  

I think that if you want to get creative you can separate the Maui columns from the bass speakers with 4core speaker cable. You obvs need stands for the columns but it gives a lot of flexibility to the stage setup and allows best use of the column sound dispersion. 

[Phil Starr]

On 19/02/2026 at 10:18, Jack said:

Subbed as I am curious where this goes. My new country band has access to a pair of LD Maui 11 arrays, we'll test them out at a technical rehearsal but I am a little dubious. It's not just that they're column arrays, it's that they are 'sensibly priced' column arrays.  

I've done a couple of reheaersals with these and my mate who does a solo act uses them for his PA. They are kind of typical of these systems, they don't go as loud as you are used to and the sound is OK, cleanish in the middle, not a lot of top end sparkle and bass is very much there but a bit wooly. They aren't completely awful and you could gig with one of the quieter sorts of music but they wouldn't be my first choice for versatilty of anything you'd describe as rock music. If you wanted to do recorded music at a party they'd do fine so long as you were satisfied with less than nightclub volumes.