EV ZXA1

Yea, I've been looking at them for a while now. I'm actually supposed to go to the store today to pick up a pair to try them out. I've played them in the store - they have a lot of highs and mids, and ok bass (understandably). The bass sounds good at moderate volumes, but when you crank them up the bass doesn't sound as great again. At stage volumes (a LOUD drummer was playing while we were testing) they should be ok. I normally chop off bass generously live anyway, so I don't see an issue. I'm going to pick them up in about 12hrs, so by tonight I'll give an update. I think there are some users on this board who used them live already?
 
P.S. they worked really well for vocals....REAL well....so if you are a singer too, these really pack a punch! :D
 
I tested the zxa1's against the liveX 112's that seems to be one of the popular accepted standards. Both were powered versions of course. Both were run in stereo, at LOUD volumes - they actually came in the store and told us to turn it down :eek:

Overall, the 112 sounded better, but not by much! :eek: It had a fuller sound (obviously) but there was a definition in the zx's that was not noticed in the 112s. LOTS of bass in the 112s, but like I said, I chop off bass frequencies like if my life depended on it - everything from at LEAST 80-100hz gets chopped off, whether I'm playing guitar OR bass!

The zx's crapped out at much lower volumes, but still sounded pretty good, even when clipping, which was kinda shocking......you can obviously tell that they're clipping, but it's not as bad as you'd expect. The 112's were REAL loud....and had LOTS of headroom.....LOTS!!! I can't see you needing much more power than that live to be honest, unless you're playing stadiums....

initially I had run some pink noise into the zx's to see the response, and they are pretty flat!! :eek: dropped steeply off somewhere between 50-80 hz, but I chop that freq off anyway - it's more felt than heard. I didn't get the chance to do the same with the 112s, but the response was very close to the zx's, so I can imagine that they're just as flat, or flatter. At lower volumes, it's hard to tell which is which.

Initially I was going to go with the 112s, but when we turned up the bass on the zx's, I was really impressed! Those little boxes have some SERIOUS punch! :eek: Can't go too loud with them before they start to clip, but at decent volumes they proved to be great! I think by adding in some bass in the global eq that you can get a VERY flat response from them. Vocals seemed to favor the zx's as well. Oh, and when I say decent volumes, all these tests were done with TWO drummers pounding away in the back!!! And the store is in the middle of a VERY noisy family entertainment complex.....so for the guys in the loud rock bands, these should still work pretty well.

If you add a sub to the zx's, (they actually have a feature to cross over to sub as well), I think they might actually sound better than the 112s.

I plugged them into my system home, and compared them with about 3 PA's. They did better than I expected, and I am eager to use them now

So which did I chose? Well I have one of the zxa1's home right now, and I'm going to get another to run in stereo....can't live without stereo! LOL The nice thing is that they are so light and compact that you can walk with the pair to a gig, and have everything in full stereo, which I intend to do....one trip to/from the car with both of them. Awesome! ;)

Hope this may have been some help to anyone else thinking about them.
 
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Great review, matches my experience. I would just add that the ZXA1s have an immediacy, snappyness and punch that I did not hear the same in the 112s. An 8" speaker is probably quicker to move than a 12", maybe. Two of them in front of me and I´m swimming in greatness and I´ve still got headroom.
 
yea snappy and punchy are the words indeed! ;) Even the DRUMMERS that were there preferred the sound of the zx's! :eek:

yes, the DRUMMERS!!!! :eek:
 
Do you think the ZXA1's would work well for monitoring yourself (similar to how a real combo amp would in a live show; you use it to hear your guitar better, but its mic'd so the FOH is obviously for the audience)?? Thats what im looking for, a small monitor that I can use in my little corner of the stage just to hear myself/get that surround-sound behind me, while the Axe-FX would send a direct signal to the board..

(sorry im new to PA gear, trying to use as much laymen-terms as possible to get my point across)

im slightly concerned with the bass response, but I plan on getting a real 2x12 cab also so I figure I could get away with the ZXA1 for everything besides metal/rock, and just bring the 2x12 when it needs that heaviness..

It'd be nice if the ZXA1 could keep up in practice jams too though; I try to only play with solid musicians who understand volume control so no one gets in volume-pissing-wars; so technically it should work.. I used a Roland Cube 30 successfully with a rock band because the drummer and other guitarists realize there are more people in the room than just them and dont totally crank it lol.
 
yup, should work perfectly! ;) If you're concerned about the bass response, you can always turn up more bass in your monitor mix - use out 1 for FoH and out 2 for the zx's and add some more bass in the global eq for out2 - should get you there pretty quick. add some of the bass at 63 and 125hz and you should have all the palm muted chunkiness you want! lol
I prefer having a 31 band eq or a parametric eq to help, but everyone works things out differently.
As for stage monitoring, that's pretty much what I got them for! ;) I can walk with a pair of them and run in full stereo. I don't remember if we tested only one of them at a time with a drummer or not, but they are pretty loud by themselves, and once you're not going volume-pissing-wars like you said, all should be well. Even if you get into that, you can mount 'em on a stand and it should help a lot. If the cube 30 worked, this should more than work as well ;)
 
thanks; Its a tough choice because no local stores near me (Eastern Canada, like past quebec) has anything except Yorkvilles and Yamahas basically so I can't test any of these myself.

I want to keep the size as small as possible, like under 12" depth, so thats where the ZXA1 and K8 win out for sure, but when you have a similar price point on others like the RCF ART310A, its a tough choice.

Does the 8" speaker sound decent/"guitar like"? Do you feel you are missing anything using an 8" over a 10 or 12? (other than the low end bass, but even then you said you boost it with an EQ anyways so the frequencies should be similar when going through the speaker)
 
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nah, I don't feel like I'm missing much of anything if at all. Although there is some more depth with the 12", there is more high end, definition and detail in these boxes. They have a kind of 'warmth' to them...makes me forget I'm using a FR speaker lol When cranked, they have a little more honk.....good for vocals or cutting thru a mix. I prefer them at lower or moderate volumes tho, that's where they really shine for me (think jazz band volumes, not rock band).

Do any stores at all have them that would ship to you? They're VERY light - about 20 lbs, so you could prob get one shipped over for you to test, and even if you don't like them, you can always ship them back with a minimum of expense/hassle.

I also forgot to add - at lower to moderate volumes, I had to constantly ask which monitors we were going thru! :eek: Sometimes I SWORE we were on the top ones and when I checked we were on the bottom ones and vice versa :eek: This was at pretty decent volumes - moderate loudness....as we turned up to rock band type volumes, the difference was obvious....but even so, when we added some bass to the zx's the difference became less pronounced again. If you get the chance, there's a video on youtube when they released the product - they had it disguised in a 'trojan horse' kind of 112-looking box, and were fooling everyone! haha!
they opened the 112 'box' after to reveal these tiny little boxes - what a trip! :D
 
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The one concern I have about the EV's is how people say its not as loud as the K8 or not loud enough to really do anything in a live situation even as just a monitor.. Can anyone comment on this aspect?? Has anyone used it as a personal monitor when playing live??

Is there any other high-wattage but small-package amps like the ZXa1 or K8?? It can even be a 10" or 12" speaker, as long as its super small and loud enough like those.

Ultimately; how much wattage is needed minimum to cover this situation? Could I get away with something like the RCF ART310 or etc with ~300 watts?
 
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jon said:
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So it's been a month...what's your thoughts on the ZXA1's now? I'm either buying the passive ZX1 or the passive ELX112 this week. You seem to have very favorable review, but now it's been a month what's your thoughts? I've watched about every video possible for both of them, and in the live situations I'm in it seems the ZX1 would be fine for me, and if not i have a 4x12 for any super loud show i had to play (for stage volume only, will go direct live, but this will just be for monitor. I have a Jeep wrangler (back seat must stay in = NO SPACE FOR GEAR, so really leaning toward the ZX1, but thought I'd ask for your 1 month in review.
 
Well after a month...I have TWO ZXA1s!!! :D I run in stereo now, and the sound is HEAVENLY! :)

What's your style? If you're playing loud rock music, you might be better off with the 112s. If you play anything else that doesn't need ear splitting volumes, or you like quality sound, the zxa1s will likely win you over! ;)

As always, everyone will hear things differently, so YMMV. However, everyone that has heard these so far have had a head-turning moment....as in 'what's that? that sounds great!'. There's a level of detail there that reminds me of a well mic'd high end acoustic in a quiet room with a good condenser - probably a very bad analogy, but when I play thru them, that's the feeling I get!

There's not the 'oomph' and thunderous rumble that the 112s have, but there is more detail in these that the 112s do not capture to my ears. If you're a heavy or detuned metal player who likes chugging palm muted riffs, you might prefer the 112s because of that thunderous low end.
My style is more clean/crunchy/mildly driven tones, almost country in nature, but I DO like some drenched searing leads as well from time to time.....I also like playing all those kinda strum-my folk/country sounds, and the zxa1s are GREAT to my ears for it!
Over the past month I've been comparing them to any other system I can, but they almost always win me over. Up to last night I was comparing them to a carvin PA and a fr cab - I ended up playing the zx's for most of the night! :)

If weight and form factor are a concern - these will ease your mind - they're VERY light, and you can carry TWO of them with ease - one under each arm. They will fit comfortably in just about any vehicle out there - hell, I can prob put them on a bicycle tray and go to a gig!

My complaint is where the handle is - it will be VERY easy to slip out of your hands if you're a butterfingers kinda guy like me. I carry them under my arms tho - no worries. Would have preferred a better carry handle tho :/

Also keep in mind that my reviews are for the POWERED versions - I don't think that passive ones are much different, but there's a LOT to be said for matching amps and enclosures, but that's a topic all its own.....

What amp do you plan to use? I'd prob advise a matrix or high quality amp to bring out the best sound.
 
I've got an ART-SLA 2....and due to budget, that's about all i can afford to keep at this time, and selling that won't really get me anything nicer for the same cost....I need a separate power amp from the speaker due to the sometimes gigs of running my rig through a 4x12 when i let my buddy borrow my axe to run his hard/hard rock gig, and a 4x12 onstage is a must.

I play all styles of music, aside from heavy metal(and when i do, that's what the 4x12 is for anyway), sparkly clean (EJ Clean) , blues, to the 80's soaring leads(not alot of lows, or dist) with some crunchy power chords from time to time for depth(AC/DC or Zeppelin heavy). The main job of these will be my personal monitor at gigs, not to fill as back line (4x12 for that need, yes will lose my cab sims, but i haven't actually had to use my amp as back line at a gig in like 6 years, even the shitty clubs here have a mic slot for the amps.)

so i think I'll be good with the zx1. I can't imagine the difference between the 112p and zxa1 being all that different than the 112 and zx1 when i use the same power amp with each, so i think i'll just have to take a gamble. The local music store doesn't carry the passives, so no comparison is really possible. I think i might just take a fling at the zx1. Worst case, I'm out $20 or whatever to return it if it doesn't sound good enough to me. Thanks for the detailed response, and all the info in this thread. The size/weight, is such a bonus for my situation that it could win even if it just sounds "Really good" and not "great"
 
Heard a lot of guys getting great sounds from the sla1 and 2, so not much worries there. Based on your style, you might enjoy the zx's a lot! :D Your friend into the hard rock might not dig them as much if he has to compete with the rest of the band. As monitor tho, they work perfectly, and you get some more depth due to coupling with the floor. The weight and form factor really DO make a big difference - even if they didn't sound as great, I'd still prob use them because of that alone. I sometimes have to do a lot of 'one off' type gigs, where I go, play and leave quickly to go to the next one - normally I'd just walk with the axe and my guitar, but these make great monitors, sound great, and are no hassle to pack up in the car after you're tired gigging all night.

If you get them, post up some of your findings, so others in the same situation can gain some insight too! ;)
 
just bought one, good deal at samash.com, had to pick up a banana to speakon cable too, since it shows they are only speak-on inputs. I'll definitely post what i think when i get it.
 
So, i got my Speaker, EV ZX-1 (passive), Saturday, and spent about 2 hours playing it. Very cool. Super light, perfect size for my set-up. Sounds way different than my Rokit 5's, which makes me slightly nervous as to which i should design my sounds on (probably a mix of both i guess, if it sounds pretty good on both, it should sound good on any main speakers as well.) The cleans all transferred remarkably well, but the distortions are a bit fizzy. However, no tweaking has been done to them yet, and i think a few patches haven't even be tweaked for 3.02 yet (tube hardness settings are likely culprits)

I have a little over 2 weeks until a rehearsal with a band i am sitting in with for a set on NYE, so we are hooking up full PA in a big warehouse. I'll have a chance to see how it works in a live environment and test all my tones. So far i am very happy with my purchase. But i have a few weeks to really push my self and get my 10 presets sounding awesome for the songs i'll be doing. Hopefully this little speaker works out (i am pretty sure it will) for the price/size/weight, this things rocks.
 
Nice! Glad to know you're diggin 'em! :D

I had a similar issue - the zxa1's sounded very different from anything else - I started to wonder which I should trust - them or my monitors or one of the several PA's I use - I ended up going with the ZX's - there was a level of high end that everything else lacked a bit - could be some of the fizziness you're hearing - do you have the hi-cut on the amp blocks to a high value? Try reducing them to say 6-8 kHz - should cure the fizziness. Remember to break in the speakers too - they sound VERY different after lol
play some Nightwish thru em - works wonders! LOL :p
 
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