New Product Review - Yamaha DSR112

S

stefenator

Inspired
okay, before I get into the product review, I want to mention that with my band, we normally run everything direct to the board. no amps on stage, no wedges on stage, everyone uses IEMs and we have been running that way for roughly 100 shows a year for the last 8 years. suffice it to say, it has been a while since I went "old school" with actual stage volume.

I was doing a trio gig with the rhythm section from Dread Zeppelin (talk about a really fun gig). Anyway, they asked if I could provide stage volume (use a guitar amp) for my guitar since they don't run guitar or bass through the PA. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to put the new Yamaha DSR112 through its paces. When I first setup my gear at the gig, I took the DSR112 and laid it down on its side (wedge monitor style) and set the Axe-Fx (in an SKB shallow X rack) behind it. turned everything on and we started the show. having played direct for so long and knowing how powerful the DSR112 is (1300 watts, 134dB), I knew I didn't want to take anyone's head off with the volume levels, so I started off with the levels pretty low. after the first song, they told me to turn up. I said okay, but still didn't want to kill anyone. after the second song, they told me I could turn it up more. since I was subbing and it wasn't my gig, I still didn't want to piss anyone off. after the third song they told me to CRANK IT! OKAY... (so I did)

Well, the rest of the show went great. packed room, full dance floor and a lot of happy people. I had some musician friends of mine show up and they stood in the back of the packed club. during one of the breaks they came over and said the guitar sounded amazing. I told them that it was amazing to me because the guitar wasn't going through the FOH, just this tiny little DSR112! My friends were in SHOCK! There were one or two patches that could have used a little tweaking, but I was more than happy with how everything sounded and by the looks of the club, so was everyone else. I'm not going to go into specs but here is the link if you want to check them out for yourself:

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/ ... sr112.html

I believe the street price is $799... (but please don't quote me. YMMV)

thank you,

Steph
 
Scott Peterson said:
Sounds like the gig went well and I've never heard of that speaker, so thanks for the head's up!
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Thanks Scott!

Yeah, the gig went great and the speaker (DSR112) is part of a brand new line from Yamaha. They just started shipping so I just wanted to pass this info along (from the "for what it's worth" department)...
 
Nice story. Love that band. :)

Good to see the FR market is expanding. More choices = good.
 
yek said:
Nice story. Love that band. :)

Good to see the FR market is expanding. More choices = good.
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Thanks Yek! those guys are so solid, it had to be the easiest subbing gig I ever did. I love the challenge of going up there without a single rehearsal and seeing what happens. it definitely helps keep your chops up!
 
Thanks for the review Steph.

Have you tried playing music through the DSR112 or compared it to studio monitors? I'm wondering how flat the response is.

Thanks.

Terry.
 
Tone Seeker said:
Thanks for the review Steph.

Have you tried playing music through the DSR112 or compared it to studio monitors? I'm wondering how flat the response is.

Thanks.

Terry.
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Hey Terry,

I haven't played any prerecorded music through it myself, but I did hear prerecorded music played through it at Summer NAMM. The DSR line is really designed for FOH applications more than studio applications, but I would be willing to bet that these things would sound great no matter what the application. This link has all the specs though:

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/ ... sr112.html

I hope that helps, but if not I would be happy to help wherever I can.
 
Thanks for the review. I've been waiting for someone to try this one out for a while. Any chance of getting a comparison with one of the other popular speakers? (Verve 12ma, HPR 122i, Atomic, etc.) Frequency response looks pretty flat from what Yamaha has posted, but who knows how reliable that is.
 
Stateless said:
Thanks for the review. I've been waiting for someone to try this one out for a while. Any chance of getting a comparison with one of the other popular speakers? (Verve 12ma, HPR 122i, Atomic, etc.) Frequency response looks pretty flat from what Yamaha has posted, but who knows how reliable that is.
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Hey Stateless,

Not sure I can help with that unless one of those companies sends me one to review. Plus, I think the ones you mentioned have been written about in this forum quite extensively. Of course, having the same person review more than one can be a good point of reference as long as that person is objective (or at least as objective as possible).

That being said, I've used (and still use) plenty of Yamaha products and one thing I can say for certain is that they are really good about their specs. One of the very few companies That I trust when it comes to specs.

The next phase of testing for me, will be to test these speakers with the matching subs for FOH use. After how well they performed for me, I'm sure the FOH use will be outstanding. I will post that review as soon as I have the chance to test them.

if you have any questions for me in the mean time, I'm happy to help wherever I can...

Thank you,

Steph
 
I wound a couple of the DSR112s up in my church against the RCF 310a... I found the DSR112s horns are really loud and bright. From a sound engineering point of view I don't like them, price for quality comparison isn't actually as great as people make it out to be. over here a DSR112 is $2700, a RCF310a is around $900. The horns are too much and they miss a lot of mid. I also dont like the Digital processing on them, the D-Countour trys working to bring clarity, but with the D-Countour operating effectively your desk EQ's would become useless because the speaker will keep trying to produce the sound it wants to produce. The HPF on the speaker knocks the low end off too fast. Also the speakers are being run at full volume next to the RCFs, the DSR112s are just over 1000w, the RCF is 350w. The rcf produce's a louder sound.
 
I just picked up a Yamaha DSR112 and I think it kills. I don`t know why people aren`t liking the ìn the room`feel of the 112 as I find it is just as big as a 4x12. I played it against a Mesa Mark V and a Mills Cab with a buddy and it sounded just as big. I play high gain and there levels are LOUD but it stands up with less volume from the AXE than I had with an ART SLA 2 and a 1960a cab. Thick low end but it stays tight at loud volumes. It cracks a bit on the high end at extreme levels but nothing out of the ordinary.
 
Having just received my Axe-FX II the other day, I figures it's time to upgrade my speakers as well, and I went and tried a bunch including the QSC, EV, and RCF, and the one thing I really liked was how well the clean sounds represented themselves - it was the only one of the bunch that the deluxe verb settings had a spring similar to that of a fender amp.....so I'm going to buy one, and eventually a second one once I save enough.......
 
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