Got £700 for an active speaker- what to get?

I know it's not what everyone suggested but ended up getting an EV elx112p. Went to the local shop today & tried a few out (didn't have the RCF's but they're way above my price point at the minute). Really liked the EV, it was much warmer and didn't have the harshness the QSC K 12 had. Really pleased with it. Need to start to go to work tweaking the presets I got now to get them spot on
 
I'm in a similar postion now. I had thought the QSCs were the way to go and I'm suprised to read so much criticism of them. All the youtube vids sounded pretty good.

Basically I play a wide mix of stuff from prog to high gain, I should have an Axe II very soon and want something to handle those sounds. I'm concerned over hearing things like "harshness" and "brittle". I'm not a fan of deep flubby bassy guitar tones, I want some bite as I play a lot of lead but want some warmth and "sweetness" too.
I was going to try out a K10 and a 12 but now I dont know what to do. I can try the EV elxs out I suppose, I think the shop I'm going to (Guitar Guitar) has them in their London branch but whatever I ask for has to be shipped up here.
The RCFs I can not justify, they're too expensive. I really dont want to spend much more than £700 either.

You QSC using guys, can you confirm this brittle harshness?
 
Mazrim said:
I had thought the QSCs were the way to go and I'm suprised to read so much criticism of them. All the youtube vids sounded pretty good.
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But surely therein lies the problem..? Unless you're listening to the YouTube vids through some QSCs, then there's no way you're going to be able to preempt what they sound like when stood next to one!

We use QSC K10s for PA and Monitors - no separate mixes, just purely the FOH for everyone. They sound great to me, but as I said, that's when considering the guitars as part of the overall mix and not in isolation. That is the key consideration IMO - most will want a speaker solution to sound and feel like you're standing in front of a Marshall stack etc and that's not going to happen


As an example of how we work, this is a run at Muse's Uprising - it's a live feed taken directly from the desk and what we all hear / work with onstage
 
How is it different from a Marshall stack though? I mean, I get that you dont have 4 or 8 celestions moving air but if you've got accurately modelled cab impulses and heads and so on is it really that different?

I'm not really looking for a perfect likeness I suppose but I dont want it to sound too far away. I understand that they're designed to handle all sorts of sounds from a band or whatever but if they can handle everything, surely they can nail a guitar on its own with a bit of tweaking on the Axe? A lot of guys already state this, I know, and they love them, I just want to avoid a situation where there are frequencies I cant dial out.
I dont even understand how that could even happen with this set up? You have a supposedly flat response speaker system and a unit that can shape frequency patterns in every conceivable way.

I'm just trying to get my head around this before I start trying stuff out I guess.
 
Oh indeed Maz - it's not that it wouldn't 'emulate' the tone - I was merely making reference to that feeling of physical size and actual cab slap / thunk thing of a stack as opposed to a portable, powered full range speaker :)

I've commented before that in many respects, the beauty of the AxeFX is that it reproduces what would be 'real' amps which have been recorded / mic'd brilliantly. In the mix therefore, they sound fantastic and 'real'


Still, all that said, give the QSCs a try
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I think they are incredible for their size, but I do have to confess that in isolation and at close quarters at home, they don't sound that 'nice'. However, in a venue at average gig level, they do produce an excellent overall sound
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Cool, well to be honest I only really want them for studio and live. I reckon I'll be using headphones at home whilst recording direct into a PC. Or I'll just be using a Spider IV to mess around on.
Thanks for the advice.
 
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