New DR280 and extra something

[producerd]

Just finished two newborn DR280s. Man they sound great. So now I have a full family to take to my gigs



http://www.erg-blog.com/wp-content/uplo ... 0004-2.jpg

[gdougherty]

I'd love to hear the rig sometime. I've been thinking about pulling a pair of 2512's from a mostly unused pair of ot12's and building dr280's. Have you done a stack and seen how they improve with two together?

I'm in Thornton. Where are you?

[Grey Owl]

Hi there. Sweet looking set up I musy say. Feel a review coming on please? Cheeers

[Scott Brochu]

Nice looking PA package.

[producerd]

Hi there. Sweet looking set up I musy say. Feel a review coming on please? Cheeers

First of all let me tell you why I decided to build those. I had a couple of Peavey SP3 that I used for tops. I didn't have any documentation for it but marking on the back that states 800Watt made me fill secure to run them with two 20" Titans 39 3012LF loaded. Considering that Peaveys (Scorpion) had 102 db sensitivity and "supposedly" 800WAts power handling, it was plenty enough for indoor gigs that I usually have while powering it with Crown xls802 (500w per ch @ 8 ohms). Than I had to move them outside for funky church outreach. Yes, we had it around 110 db before limiting, measured near the board that was 80ft away from the stage. But not for long I crawled to the end of the gig with subs and HF drivers and nothing in between. So Scorpions were toasted. When I've ordered new replacement baskets for those Peaveys, I was surprised by explanations of my unfortunate experiences written in the attached piece of paper where "800watt" was stated as "peak" power, but continuous was only 200. Enough is enough I thought to my self. Bought some Baltic birch, Kappa drivers and whole box of piezos, and went for two and a half weeks journey of swallowing saw dust toward what you see now on the picture. Man, was it tough From what I've built already, these were the hardest.
I didn't have a chance to test it at war volumes, but turned it on right after sealing last whole and was impressed with intelligibility and definition of its sound. Even while the cabinet is ported, it has rather week response in the lower range (below 90hz), but I think it will improve when driver break in. On other hand it is not really important because I plan to use it with subs.
I have a gig on Jul 10 in Estes Park Co. with band from Chicago. They do 80's 90's top 40. Never worked with them before but according to their web site they like it loud, So, when I am done with them, I will write detailed review.

[Zack Brock]

I like the red line on the front, nice touch!

[Ron K]

Hi there. Sweet looking set up I musy say. Feel a review coming on please? Cheeers

First of all let me tell you why I decided to build those. I had a couple of Peavey SP3 that I used for tops. I didn't have any documentation for it but marking on the back that states 800Watt made me fill secure to run them with two 20" Titans 39 3012LF loaded. Considering that Peaveys (Scorpion) had 102 db sensitivity and "supposedly" 800WAts power handling, it was plenty enough for indoor gigs that I usually have while powering it with Crown xls802 (500w per ch @ 8 ohms). Than I had to move them outside for funky church outreach. Yes, we had it around 110 db before limiting, measured near the board that was 80ft away from the stage. But not for long I crawled to the end of the gig with subs and HF drivers and nothing in between. So Scorpions were toasted. When I've ordered new replacement baskets for those Peaveys, I was surprised by explanations of my unfortunate experiences written in the attached piece of paper where "800watt" was stated as "peak" power, but continuous was only 200. Enough is enough I thought to my self. Bought some Baltic birch, Kappa drivers and whole box of piezos, and went for two and a half weeks journey of swallowing saw dust toward what you see now on the picture. Man, was it tough From what I've built already, these were the hardest.
I didn't have a chance to test it at war volumes, but turned it on right after sealing last whole and was impressed with intelligibility and definition of its sound. Even while the cabinet is ported, it has rather week response in the lower range (below 90hz), but I think it will improve when driver break in. On other hand it is not really important because I plan to use it with subs.
I have a gig on Jul 10 in Estes Park Co. with band from Chicago. They do 80's 90's top 40. Never worked with them before but according to their web site they like it loud, So, when I am done with them, I will write detailed review.

Those SP3s should have been Black Widow loaded and should easily have handled 500+ watts.??? You sure they weren't PV115s or something other then SP3s?

The old SP3s had the 100 RMS and 200 Peak rating on the input placard using a scorpion driver for the lows.Is it that older box you have? The SP3 G and X models also use the Black Widow but it's de-rated to 350 RMS.

[producerd]

Those SP3s should have been Black Widow loaded and should easily have handled 500+ watts.??? You sure they weren't PV115s or something other then SP3s?

The old SP3s had the 100 RMS and 200 Peak rating on the input placard using a scorpion driver for the lows.Is it that older box you have? The SP3 G and X models also use the Black Widow but it's de-rated to 350 RMS.

These are the older ones with Scorpions 15"

[Turntablist]

but I think it will improve when driver break in.

Try to break in the driver now. The response will improve a lot if you do.

Nice looking cabs! I can't tell that you struggled with them.

[doncolga]

Just finished two newborn DR280s. Man they sound great. So now I have a full family to take to my gigs



http://www.denver-audio.com

Very nice man!

[Ron K]

Those SP3s should have been Black Widow loaded and should easily have handled 500+ watts.??? You sure they weren't PV115s or something other then SP3s?

The old SP3s had the 100 RMS and 200 Peak rating on the input placard using a scorpion driver for the lows.Is it that older box you have? The SP3 G and X models also use the Black Widow but it's de-rated to 350 RMS.

These are the older ones with Scorpions 15"

Thanx for the clarification.Peavey recycled that name but it's probably not a good idea since the newer product is quite a different box compared to the old one.

Nice builds as well.

[producerd]

So I had them on the gig. Was pretty impressive. First of all they don't FILL that loud as it is due to low distortion levels.(I am talking about DR280 now). That was a wedding with a 80's rock band in 90' by 70' room. The board was all the way at the back wall to leave some space for the party. So, somewhere close to the end of the first block, when the crowd was crazy enough, I noticed "clipping" LED blinking on my Crown XLS802 that was powering DRs (didn't have time to set limiters). I didn't fill too loud though. I went up front to adjust the limiters at driverack and took a Db meter with me. In the middle of the house it measured 126db C weighted at times when slight clipping occurred. Interesting enough that I EQd the system at home a day before the gig and the balance between the tops and subs was just fine (Checked with Phonic analyzer), but just for giggles decided to test how far two paralleled Titans powered by one channel of Behringer ep4000 can go I set up limiter for tops, added another 4db on subs and went back to the board without setting up limiter for subs. Till the end of the gig never seen red led on Behringer flashing anyway. (subs was standing upright next to each other in the corner facing the audience) . Monitors; The band was playing with click, keyboard and back vacals track on the background, fully miked drum set, front man, two other vocals,(Sm58) base and guitar feeding directly to a snake through the amp simulators. On stage was two Wedgehorn 8s at the front on one aux and two Wedgehorn 10s deeper to the stage separately fed from two other auxes. The band was already satisfied after front line was tuned up even before I turned the back on. I just gave guitar in one and bass into another. Through the whole gig only one feedback when singer stick his mike into monitor while attempting to hand it to a girl in the audience. Other than that the sound on the stage was like in the studio (but 10 times louder)
Just one question. I was thinking that two 20" Titan 39s will not be enough for two Dr280 kappa loaded, where I was wrong

[SeisTres]

Were they indoors, coupled, and corner loaded??? that might helped out the subs BIG time. Run them outdoors without any barriers and the subs should start struggling.

[producerd]

Were they indoors, coupled, and corner loaded??? that might helped out the subs BIG time. Run them outdoors without any barriers and the subs should start struggling.

Aha. I wasn't suspecting that this would make that much difference, but now I see it could be up to 9db difference. I had these subs on parking lot coupled with plate and pushing them at 110db before clipping measured at 75'. Not bad I think. The best part is that it had deffinition even 150' away without blending into muffled noise like it often happens with direct radiating boxes. Still didn't have a chance to test DR280 outside, but I am sure it will be just fine.

[Robby Hoinsky]

This is almost the exact system that I plan on building for my band later this summer. From how you describe it, it will perfectly meet my needs.

Sorry if I missed it, but I'm curious what you are powering everything with?


Thanks for the review.

Robby