SJB
Inspired
Hi All -
I put "review" in quotes because what I can say is fairly limited (please see caveats at the end). Let me also say, that I have no connection to EV or any other professional audio business. I'm not trying to sell anything, just relating my experience, in hopes of helping someone.
I bought two EV zlx 12p cabinets. These are powered FRFR speakers (1000 W) with a 12" driver (EVS 12K) and horn (DH-1K). I ordered them from Amazon,com, because it was the best price ($349.99 US), and I am already an Amazon Prime member, so I paid no shipping. They took four days to arrive. The packing was solid, and secure, and the boxes arrived unblemished. The speakers come bare, (no covers, those are ordered separately) and with a single mains power cord, which is comfortably long (about 8 feet).
There are two line or mic inputs (you can dial the gain between mic and line input levels), there is a single balanced output for daisy chaining, and of course a receptacle for the mains power cord, and mains switch.
The speakers have some presets to choose from. These are accessed through a DSP, viewed on an LCD on the back panel. You can adjust input level (it tells you if you are clipping at the input), you can boost bass or treble (default is 0 db for both). There are three location presets (Pole, Monitor, or Bracket), and there are four audio modes: Music (for playback) Live (for voice and instrument) Speech (for vocal optimization) and Club (for a$$ thumping bass). The different modes have slightly different frequency responses. You can view those responses on page 18 of the manual which can be found at the bottom of the following link:
http://electrovoice.com/downloads.php?type=Manual
One of the things I liked a lot, was that EV has the cojones to publish their frequency responses - something I couldn't seem to find for many of their competitors. In any case, after reading the brief owner's manual and looking at the frequency responses (on Pg 18) I decided to set the speakers to "monitor" and "Live". The manual is not clear about what the location choices actually do - however, since I was not going to put them on a pole or bracket, and, being a law-and-order kind of guy, I chose "Monitor". Of the four frequency responses the flattest appeared to be "Live" - it doesn't appear to vary more than a couple of db from 90hz to about 15KHz. So, I picked "Live".
Hooked everything up, dialed them in, and of course they worked immediately. Relative to my presets, they sounded a little dark (probably because my last system was a little bright), so I spent a few minutes brightening up my personal presets until I really liked the sound. Didn't take long. A little treble boost, a little presence, a bright switch here and there (depending on preset) and I was done. They sound great, and I spent the rest of the day just playing, and listening to the awesome combination. I compared headphones, and factory presets, and they all sounded good to me, and comparable between phones and speakers. However, I've been at this for a long time, and maybe don't have the ear sensitivity that I used to, or that some of you no doubt retain. I tend to find tones that I like and stay with them, until I get bored, and try something different.
For my purposes, these EVs will do nicely. We're talking home studio, various (usually small) practice rooms, and gigs from small clubs to big bars. I suspect they are of higher general quality than our band's PA, so as others have said, I'll leave FOH to someone else. Here's the best thing: the enclosures are made of polypropylene. They are light (34.3 lbs), easy to set up (the presets you choose are remembered at subsequent power-up), and have a variety of handles for convenient manipulation. They also look great - very professional, clean lines and modern looking. I got two of them for flexibility: single cab, mono, for practice and small clubs.... two cabs, stereo for larger gigs, and to play around with at home.
I am thrilled to have made this purchase, and I really like them, pretty much out of the box.
Caveats:
1. Again, I tend not to obsess about tone, as long as I hear something pleasing to me (and I have a wide "pleasing" range). Others may have a very different perspective, and that would be expected. I'm reminded of my job, where two reasonable individuals can observe the same events and draw diametrically opposed conclusions. It happens, and its OK.
2. I do NOT have access to higher end systems (CLR, Xitone, Matrix... etc...) so I cannot compare the EVs to those systems. I'm certain I would hear a difference, I don't expect them to compete with high-end. If there is anyone in the general vicinity of NW Arkansas who wants to try a shoot-out, drop me a line.
3. I can say that I compared these to several other in-class systems (JBL, Harbinger, QSC, Mackie) using a familiar CD, and clearly felt the EVs sounded better in A/B testing.
4. There is probably a better more formal way to examine the response of these speakers. I have read some threads that mention "sweeping" the system - if someone wants to point me to some resources, I am willing to give that a try and report the results. However, this may be pointless, since the frequency response is published.
Also, I'm happy to answer questions, if I can. Hope someone finds this helpful.
Steve
PS. I loaded the factory Friedman HBE preset, and turned it up. Wet my pants. These things sound good. Real good.
I put "review" in quotes because what I can say is fairly limited (please see caveats at the end). Let me also say, that I have no connection to EV or any other professional audio business. I'm not trying to sell anything, just relating my experience, in hopes of helping someone.
I bought two EV zlx 12p cabinets. These are powered FRFR speakers (1000 W) with a 12" driver (EVS 12K) and horn (DH-1K). I ordered them from Amazon,com, because it was the best price ($349.99 US), and I am already an Amazon Prime member, so I paid no shipping. They took four days to arrive. The packing was solid, and secure, and the boxes arrived unblemished. The speakers come bare, (no covers, those are ordered separately) and with a single mains power cord, which is comfortably long (about 8 feet).
There are two line or mic inputs (you can dial the gain between mic and line input levels), there is a single balanced output for daisy chaining, and of course a receptacle for the mains power cord, and mains switch.
The speakers have some presets to choose from. These are accessed through a DSP, viewed on an LCD on the back panel. You can adjust input level (it tells you if you are clipping at the input), you can boost bass or treble (default is 0 db for both). There are three location presets (Pole, Monitor, or Bracket), and there are four audio modes: Music (for playback) Live (for voice and instrument) Speech (for vocal optimization) and Club (for a$$ thumping bass). The different modes have slightly different frequency responses. You can view those responses on page 18 of the manual which can be found at the bottom of the following link:
http://electrovoice.com/downloads.php?type=Manual
One of the things I liked a lot, was that EV has the cojones to publish their frequency responses - something I couldn't seem to find for many of their competitors. In any case, after reading the brief owner's manual and looking at the frequency responses (on Pg 18) I decided to set the speakers to "monitor" and "Live". The manual is not clear about what the location choices actually do - however, since I was not going to put them on a pole or bracket, and, being a law-and-order kind of guy, I chose "Monitor". Of the four frequency responses the flattest appeared to be "Live" - it doesn't appear to vary more than a couple of db from 90hz to about 15KHz. So, I picked "Live".
Hooked everything up, dialed them in, and of course they worked immediately. Relative to my presets, they sounded a little dark (probably because my last system was a little bright), so I spent a few minutes brightening up my personal presets until I really liked the sound. Didn't take long. A little treble boost, a little presence, a bright switch here and there (depending on preset) and I was done. They sound great, and I spent the rest of the day just playing, and listening to the awesome combination. I compared headphones, and factory presets, and they all sounded good to me, and comparable between phones and speakers. However, I've been at this for a long time, and maybe don't have the ear sensitivity that I used to, or that some of you no doubt retain. I tend to find tones that I like and stay with them, until I get bored, and try something different.
For my purposes, these EVs will do nicely. We're talking home studio, various (usually small) practice rooms, and gigs from small clubs to big bars. I suspect they are of higher general quality than our band's PA, so as others have said, I'll leave FOH to someone else. Here's the best thing: the enclosures are made of polypropylene. They are light (34.3 lbs), easy to set up (the presets you choose are remembered at subsequent power-up), and have a variety of handles for convenient manipulation. They also look great - very professional, clean lines and modern looking. I got two of them for flexibility: single cab, mono, for practice and small clubs.... two cabs, stereo for larger gigs, and to play around with at home.
I am thrilled to have made this purchase, and I really like them, pretty much out of the box.
Caveats:
1. Again, I tend not to obsess about tone, as long as I hear something pleasing to me (and I have a wide "pleasing" range). Others may have a very different perspective, and that would be expected. I'm reminded of my job, where two reasonable individuals can observe the same events and draw diametrically opposed conclusions. It happens, and its OK.
2. I do NOT have access to higher end systems (CLR, Xitone, Matrix... etc...) so I cannot compare the EVs to those systems. I'm certain I would hear a difference, I don't expect them to compete with high-end. If there is anyone in the general vicinity of NW Arkansas who wants to try a shoot-out, drop me a line.
3. I can say that I compared these to several other in-class systems (JBL, Harbinger, QSC, Mackie) using a familiar CD, and clearly felt the EVs sounded better in A/B testing.
4. There is probably a better more formal way to examine the response of these speakers. I have read some threads that mention "sweeping" the system - if someone wants to point me to some resources, I am willing to give that a try and report the results. However, this may be pointless, since the frequency response is published.
Also, I'm happy to answer questions, if I can. Hope someone finds this helpful.
Steve
PS. I loaded the factory Friedman HBE preset, and turned it up. Wet my pants. These things sound good. Real good.
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