Small Sub for PA

[guitarmanUK]

First, the background. The band I play in is a function/wedding/party band. We comprise of drums, bass, guitar, sax, and female vocal with the sax player and me (guitar) also adding extra vocal. We often add a trumpet into the mix and he also adds some vocals. Occasionally we add keys to take us up to 7 (all depends on the client’s budget). Speaker wise, we use a pair of QSC K10s only, no subs, and it is used for vocal and brass only, with just a hint of guitar to add a bit of spread to the sound. Everything else comes from the backline, which we can do as we are not a loud band. All this is mixed through an Allen & Heath QU-16.

On Saturday we played in a large marquee with a DJ friend of our who happened to have a QSC KW181 sub with him. He allowed us to link one of the K10s in to the sub and the difference was night and day. The result is that we now want to get a sub.

The problem we have is transportation. All the kit is taken in individual cars, we don't have a van or trailer, so we are limited on size. Much as we would love a 15" or 18", we just don't have the space. We have the option to try a QSC KSub, which I think I can get in my car, but are there any other options people can suggest?

 

[Rich G.]

For our main system we run two KW153's over four KW118's. It sounds amazing and can easily handle rooms of 500 people.

There are times when I just don't need all that power... for example when I'm doing an acoustic gig. In those cases I a) Don't need the volume, and b) am often limited for space.

For those cases I use two KW152's over one Yamaha DXS12 sub. The DXS12 adds just enough low end where you'd know if it were missing, but yet it's not overbearing. I like the size too. It's small enough to fit in the back seat of a car.

Btw... back when I was picking out a small sub I put them all next to each other in SketchUp for a size comparison. The results are attached. Notice the K-Sub on the end is quite a bit taller than everything else. Subs are arranged according to height.

 

[muttonhead]

Electro-Voice used to make a small powered sub, sb122 and Yorkville makes a small powered sub, it is bigger than the EV.

 

[guitarmanUK]

For our main system we run two KW153's over four KW118's. It sounds amazing and can easily handle rooms of 500 people.

There are times when I just don't need all that power... for example when I'm doing an acoustic gig. In those cases I a) Don't need the volume, and b) am often limited for space.

For those cases I use two KW152's over one Yamaha DXS12 sub. The DXS12 adds just enough low end where you'd know if it were missing, but yet it's not overbearing. I like the size too. It's small enough to fit in the back seat of a car.

Btw... back when I was picking out a small sub I put them all next to each other in SketchUp for a size comparison. The results are attached. Notice the K-Sub on the end is quite a bit taller than everything else. Subs are arranged according to height.View attachment 33636

Rich, that is brilliant, and really useful as I have to try and get whatever sub we go for in the back of my car!