FRFR Alto TS112a or TS115a???

jzacharia said:
Picked up a TS112A. I've tried the Mackie HD1221, and although there IS a difference between the two (The alto has a bit more high end 'clankiness' to it, can easily dial it out though), the Alto just wins in terms of the budget-to-quality ratio. You are paying approx. 500$ more for a MINOR difference in the Mackie. Don't fall into the hype though, the Alto IS budget, you CAN hear a difference, but I can assure you that your audiences won't ;)
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Very cool! are you in the position to make a good demo vid?
 
I just picked up a pair of the TS112A's and I can say a few things on the subject. I spent a couple hours at the GC and went through Mackie, Yamaha, QSC and JBL. The build quality is pretty good in comparison. I like that the weight is low and they are very portable. As far as sound I will say the QSC's were the best I heard that day the JBL's were a close second. I would say that the Alto's were as good or better than the Mackie's. The Alto's were absolutely worth the money I spent ($600/pair) and I am happy with my purchase. At no point, even with as much as I liked the QSC's did I ever think that they were worth the extra $1200.00 I would have had to spend for a pair of those. After a few days of doing some EQ'ing to my patches I have been able to get some really great tone from the Alto's. The Alto's are extremely flat response maybe slightly more mid range which I think makes it more versatile for guitar/AXE FX applications. I A/B'ed it with a Randall 4/12 Kirk Hammett edition cab and like the ALTO's better they sounded fuller to me. Which is kinda what I wanted, more portable but a fuller sound. I would recommend these speakers as a good/better than average set of speakers that are worth the money.
 
I work at a fairly large music store... And before I bought my FRFR setup, I tried EVERYTHING! But the Alto's were by far the worst. They sounded awful. I ended up buying 2 K12's because the cost/quality ratio was perfect. But yeah... The Alto are terrible, as are Behringer, Harbinger, also.
 
FWIW, I just had a month-old QSC K12 die on me today.:evil Absolutely no sound out of the 12" speaker, just the tweeter. I'll be calling Musician's Friend shortly to get an RMA, after I decide on what to replace it with.
 
Sorry to necro this threat, but I just got an Alto TS115a and I think it sounds great. I guess some people just like paying for a name.
 
Ok guys just my opion here. I think it all depends on what your using them for? If your like me and have 2 FRFR speakers for home practice and playing live? Then the Altos are a no brainer! I have 2 TS115a,s and they are perfect for practice and playing live. Why I say this is because playing at home for practice your most likely not going to be blairing really loud and IMO you dont really need to spend 1400.00 for a pair of practice speakers but thats my opion? Playing live is the same reasoning, why? because, whats so great about the axe fx is the fact that playing live we can go direct to FOH and let all its awesomeness come thru the house and sound right as 99.9% of house systems dont use lower end gear? For me anyways I use my FRFR speakers for nothing more than monitoring my sound volume to be able to hear myself. The biggest reason I stand by this point of view is because all the places I have played here in the states,,both big and small it has always been the same!!! You are never! going to be able to hear your guitar on stage with that recording quality sound that a K12 will give you compared to what your audience hears period. Dont get me wrong, if your playing major arenas or TV or touring with a very well signed band, then yes Ive seen where sometimes, it does make a difference such as ear monitors ect. As far as you using powered monitors for your PA for your band then that as well is a no brainer! You must spend the extra money to have the best and better quality speakers that you can afford? I even saw Scott Peterson make a comment on this very subject. He uses just one monitor on stage just so he can hear himself and feels good about it knowing that his audience hears what matters? Your audience does not hear your stage sound and never will.....so I guess what Iam trying to say is why are alot of us guitarist soooo worried about having a flawless monitor sound on stage? Ive been playing almost 30 + years and Ive yet to have a great monitor mix or guitar mix on stage LOL!!! Theres nothing wrong with getting the Altos for the axe fx!!! My 2 TS115a,s are perfect for me and has saved me alot of money to buy cables,strings,straps, whatever. But this is just my opion! Oh... and by the way, Alto,s Parent Co, who owns them is the same Parent Co. who also owns Akai,,and Alessis. Not so low end!!
 
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Flight316 said:
Ok guys just my opion here. I think it all depends on what your using them for? If your like me and have 2 FRFR speakers for home practice and playing live? Then the Altos are a no brainer! I have 2 TS115a,s and they are perfect for practice and playing live. Why I say this is because playing at home for practice your most likely not going to be blairing really loud and IMO you dont really need to spend 1400.00 for a pair of practice speakers but thats my opion? Playing live is the same reasoning, why? because, whats so great about the axe fx is the fact that playing live we can go direct to FOH and let all its awesomeness come thru the house and sound right as 99.9% of house systems dont use lower end gear? For me anyways I use my FRFR speakers for nothing more than monitoring my sound volume to be able to hear myself. The biggest reason I stand by this point of view is because all the places I have played here in the states,,both big and small it has always been the same!!! You are never! going to be able to hear your guitar on stage with that recording quality sound that a K12 will give you compared to what your audience hears period. Dont get me wrong, if your playing major arenas or TV or touring with a very well signed band, then yes Ive seen where sometimes, it does make a difference such as ear monitors ect. As far as you using powered monitors for your PA for your band then that as well is a no brainer! You must spend the extra money to have the best and better quality speakers that you can afford? I even saw Scott Peterson make a comment on this very subject. He uses just one monitor on stage just so he can hear himself and feels good about it knowing that his audience hears what matters? Your audience does not hear your stage sound and never will.....so I guess what Iam trying to say is why are alot of us guitarist soooo worried about having a flawless monitor sound on stage? Ive been playing almost 30 + years and Ive yet to have a great monitor mix or guitar mix on stage LOL!!! Theres nothing wrong with getting the Altos for the axe fx!!! My 2 TS115a,s are perfect for me and has saved me alot of money to buy cables,strings,straps, whatever. But this is just my opion! Oh... and by the way, Alto,s Parent Co, who owns them is the same Parent Co. who also owns Akai,,and Alessis. Not so low end!!
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+1. What you hear on stage has no bearing on what the audience hears. I went to the store to buy the Yamaha DXR speakers, but went for the Alto 115's instead. I also auditioned a bunch of Mackies, Yamaha DSR's, and others that I cant remember. The money I saved went towards buying a new wireless and Adam studio monitors, which I use at my home studio, and to set my tones - speakers dont get flatter than them. I dont have to worry about spilling beer on my Altos, and the number of people who've complimented me on my live tone is testament to the fact that I made the right choice.
 
Hello, I have listened youtube comparisons and Alto 115W really interests me. I am Karaoke DJ, I have Alto L-16 mixer and I need good active speakers for weddings on tent and small bars or out door stage at lake ports. Would you recomment these speakers for the price/quaulity? The 115W really interest me because it has bluetooth connectivity so I can put my speakers nearly everywhere and just do DJ gig with tablet when I need.

 
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This is just a quick dirty review on the Alto TS112 and a Mackie Thump. Based on some of the info read here I found a good deal on a pair of TS112's and went out and bought two Re-maned TS112's with full warrantee from PSSL for $399. I also bought a Mackie Thump (1) 15" from a local music shop for $265, this was done for a friend of mine that just married his daughter off and needed inexpensive PA. He already had a Mackie SRM 450 V1 that I had played through before and sounded ok, a little woolly in the low end when compared to what I have dialed in using my studio monitors but nothing you can't EQ out.

To my surprise the Mackie Thump sounded pretty close to the SRM it just lacked the headroom so for the money the Mackie Thump was not to bad in the bang for the buck and it was lighter then the SRM to boot. Program music sounded decent as well, typical Mackie powered speaker sound that you hear just about everywhere you have an out door event so not really going to get into it about the Mackie.

Ok now the Alto TS112's I didn't get these in time to use as PA for the event so when they showed up 3 days late having paid for 2 day air to get them from Cali to Washington because of time constraints so UPS got to eat the shipping ($160).

I set these up in the living room and hooked them up as if I was going to use them as my own personal monitors in stereo. At first they sounded pretty good but then I noticed something in the upper mids that sounded a tad stuffy. The highs weren't razor blades but lacked some clarity that my cheepo studio monitors had.

The low end was fine no problems there. I then ran some track music through them using my computer and basically the same result but not quite as noticeable due to hearing an entire mix at once somewhat covers it up. I then played with the tracks using the 2nd input and again it was not so noticeable. I went back to just using the Axe and did some minor EQ'ing using the Global EQ and it was able to clean it up a bit.

The coverage of the speaker isn't to bad ether but close in you get the same phasing effect you'd expect from a typical horn and driver construction so not to great for use as a monitor if your standing right over it. The weight is really nice as well right there with the Mackie Thump.

For what I paid for the speakers if you can get the same deal 399 + ship they aren't to bad for a budget box. Only time will tell in the reliability department so I can't really comment on that. Knobs and input connectors are typical construction, the inputs use XLR/TRS combo connectors and the box has a pass through for a sub or daisy chaining.

I hope this helps out some that are in the budget speaker market that are just looking for an inexpensive speaker to kick around or don't have the coin to drop on a better solution at the moment.
 
larryseyer said:
I did about an hour at the local Guitar Center with every FRFR monitor they had there.

These included the QSC K12 (which I had read on the internet were not very good) and a host of others including Yamaha, Mackie, JBL, Behringer, and many others that I don't remember the brand names of. I believe I tried 7-8 of them while I was there.

What I came to understand from that day is that the internet prejudice against the QSC K12 was totally unwarranted. It sounded better to my ears than everything else there.

Granted, it wasn't perfect, but it sounded better than everything else there to my ears - and I had basically made up my mind to buy something OTHER than the QSC K12 before I walked into guitar center. I was really surprised.

So a visit to Guitar Center and listen for YOURSELF is highly recommended.

I was also able to try one QSC K12 on a gig shortly thereafter and it sounded ok to me - but didn't make me want to spent the $1000 for it.

So I ended up not buying ANY of them from Guitar Center - and instead have decided to purchase a pair of the RCF NX12 SMA's which I will be ordering next week when I receive some funds allotted for them.

Why?

Even though the QSC K12's were the best sounding FRFR systems that Guitar Center had there, and even thought it sounded ok on a live gig, there was something about the high end on it that was a little 'fuzzy' to my ears (for lack of a better way to describe it).

I can't share how the RCF's will compare to the QSC's yet since I haven't even ordered them yet.

But from what I've read elsewhere on this forum (and other forums) they should blow everything else away.

Given my experience with internet forum's knowledge of FRFR speakers, I'm not going to hold my breath nor be surprised if they do NOT live up to my expectations.

But at least, I know I will have given my best shot at the FRFR issue. (Guitar Center did NOT have the RCF's there for me to compare with the QSC's). But the knowledge that I learned from trying those FRFR systems out there helped me tremendously in determining what I did NOT want.

I have to admit, I'm excited about getting the RCF NX12 SMA's though.

L
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I have one of these and am extremely pleased. I bought it used on this forum for $850.
 
I still would need to have toughts because my musician friend said that YAMAHA PSR 400 are lowest professional sound speakers and they cost at thomann.de about 468€. How ever I have seen many reviews about sound quality of Alto TS115A and seems those speakers have very good audio response at paper in recoarding that I am Electronics engineer. But I woul need live performance experiences. Specially using them as MAIN speakers for audiences. I mean Karaoke, Disco, indoors and outdoors. How well these speakers handle inprofessional work?

I can see that atleast there is users who bought 3 years ago these speakers on this forums so could somebody give live perfomance experiences?

Found this already: Live Sound: Road Test: Alto TRUESONIC TS115A - Pro Sound Web
 
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