I did a shoot out on Friday night (before the show, very small group) and there were lots of people doing their own shootouts on Saturday (I got to hear the EAW's but not after the volume discrepancy was solved) and then the 'field trip' version on Sunday that the Axe-Fest group did with camera's (for video) and the Zoom HD rolling (for sound).
My take away was that any of the speakers could work for any given person. At the same time, you get what you pay for with these speakers. Truly. The value speakers there were good for value speakers.
Quickly: The EAW's ($3K each? DANG!) were monsters in every way - big, heavy, loud and GOOD. The JBL/Matrix rig was very 'tight' and even. Very accurate, but $2K each for a passive speaker? Better be accurate. (They were; also noted that these are what Cliff uses to dial in the direct-to-FOH presets). The RCF's NX 12SMA were my personal faves; I just felt they sounded 'right' to me. I will note that might be personal bias, I've used these speakers now for a year and am very comfortable with them; they just sound 'right' to me. I was HIGHLY impressed with the RCF NX 10SMA... that's really impressive. One 10" speaker holding up very well there (see guys, you don't need stereo to sound good after all... told you! LOL). The value RCF speakers sounded like good value speakers. Of the K-Series, I prefer the 10 over the 12. The 10 sounds more balanced of the 2 QSC offerings to me. The Matrix CFR sounded more like a conventional guitar speaker; for the money, a great value and quite loud. There was some mention of a 'smeared' mid; I felt they exhibited a boxy sort of sound. They were located between the RCF (around $1600 each street price (though contact Mike Pyle before you pay that!) and the JBL $2000 each passives. The Matrix speakers are considerably more affordable than either of those (though you do need a separate power amp). The FBT 12ma(which I admit to maligning quite frequently - sorry Tommy!) just have too much bass around 100Hz for me. (*Note I owned and really LOVED the FBT 8ma though!!!). The EV has a similar character IMHO to the QSC; it's got that 'hot' upper mid thing that grates my ears at volume over time (but I did recommend it to my Keyboard player and he bought one, uses it and loves it).
Here are some pics from the Sunday version of the shootout:
Special thanks to Tommy for setting that up - sourced the tones from one Axe-FX, volume balanced across all of them. Absolutely the most informative FRFR shoot out I've ever heard in my life. Kudos!!!!!!
Short version: I'm not buying or selling anything FRFR related other than what I own. I'm happy. Other speakers held up very well, each had their own character but any would work given enough time and work into EQ'ing them. The value you get for your money spent with any of these speakers seemed to match up with my general opinion of them. But I still like mine... and that's good. I'm too poor to go buying more speakers!
The wildcards still out there is both the powered Matrix and the much anticipated Atomic CLR. I hope to personally try them (and anything else that comes out too!).
FWIW - freaking love this stuff.
) Verves, so ask away if you have any questions. Btw, it was probably mid-day Saturday before I got the EAW's under control by putting a small mixer in-line with them. Before then they were just massively louder than the rest of the systems when switching around. We also had a pair of Event BAS 20/20 studio monitors, 11 systems available at the touch of a button in all. They were roughly level matched using a phone on Friday night.
