DR200 Review

[Ken Lustgarten]

Two weeks ago on Sunday was the first time that I got to use my DR’s. I built 6 but only took 2 along for this small church. There was a piano, keyboard, 4 singers, and 2 violins. Additionally some of the songs had a CD accompaniment. The system preformed beautify the sound was very clear and clean. There were a lot of complements on how good the sound was, one of the strongest complements was from an owner of a music school. It really is amazing how well these speakers fill a space. I even tested just a pair in a 700+ seat auditorium and they were enough. Coverage was good everywhere without a bad seat in the house. I also stacked 2 per side and even though it was better 1 per side was all that was really needed. Remember that the music is conservative Christian and concert level is not needed or even wanted in this setting. For contemporary Christian music I would use a minimum of 4 but 6 DR200’s would be even better. BTW the Hotspots in the pictures are not mine. I do not like them as they are only good for personal monitors. I find that that with them people are always complaining that they cannot hear. Wedgehorns are on the schedule right after the T39’s.

Here are some pictures of the church and the setup.
https://picasaweb.google.com/klustgarte ... xeme2cChWw

Last Saturday I did a wedding. It was in a park and had to be run from a generator. I was able to place the generator about 300’ away (that’s how much 12G I had). This was enough to get it behind a good size piece of woods and along with some 4 X 8 foam sheets to help deflect the noise. It was very quiet at the wedding site. I ran 1 pair of DR200’s and the same small sub. I was very surprised at how well the sub did outside but I really need to get started on my T39’s soon. For most of what I am doing now 2 DR200’s and 2 T39’s will be overkill. There were 2 guitar players and one of them also sang plus prerecorded. The music was contemporary Christian but a single pair of DR200’s was more than enough for the event without pushing anything. About 120 people were present. Again there were lots of complements on the sound quality. Most had never knew that sound outdoors could be so good. Today I ran into somebody that was at the wedding and he told me that he was completely blown away by the quality of the sound outdoors and that he didn’t think that was possible outside.

Pictures of the setup at the wedding.
https://picasaweb.google.com/klustgarte ... OLG3erexAE#

I have to get some business cards made up soon. With a little care in setup and proper mixing these things practically sell themselves. In my area there are no live sound providers, just the low class DJ’s with $300 a pair speakers on polls that make your ears bleed. I will have a wide open market with no competition. Hopefully my name will start to spread a little by word of mouth. I do have one more concert to provide sound for at another local church on July 24th. I am going to try to have a pair of T39’s ready by then (maybe). I have a pair of Lab 12’s and a pair of BP102’s. I was going to build for the Labs first but I have changed my mind and am starting with the BP’s (wood for a pair is rough cut). They will cover my needs for the immediate future. Later I will add more pairs Lab 12 loaded.

[Tom Smit]

[Dantreige]

Nice! Always have buisness cards ready!

[Ken Lustgarten]

Just a short update: I have had the chance to use the DR200's a few more times now. Every time I use them I hear nothing but compliments and praise for the sound quality. Most are saying that they have never heard better anywhere. The only bummer for me is that I haven't had an event yet that required more then a single pair (150 people max). I am just dieing to try out all 6 together. One of the events I recently did was an outdoor movie night. The DR's were killer for that application.

I am very happy with the choices that I have made. I originally wanted to go bigger on both tops and subs (DR250/T48) and had even bought drivers, but since I am a one man operation I went with smaller cabs and will scale up as needed. In the future my plans are a total of 8 DR200's and 8 T39's. Currently I can not envision this system not meeting my needs but you never know. "If" that day comes I will build a bigger system for large events (DR300's and more subs) but for now my back is thanking me for going light and scalable.

[osse]

How complicated and time consuming are the build? Ive built 2 t30 and im thinking about.. maybe dr200. Right now ive got jbl eon15's g2 which are great tho.. would the upgrade be worth the effort?

[J_Dunavin]

YES it is sooo worth it.
As far as the complexity or wood working skills... ya just have to tackle one step at a time. I would go out to the shop every night and say OK I'm just going to do this one step and before you know it you have a set of DR's. Took me about a month to 6 weeks to build four of them.

[el_ingeniero]

Just a short update: I have had the chance to use the DR200's a few more times now. Every time I use them I hear nothing but compliments and praise for the sound quality. Most are saying that they have never heard better anywhere. The only bummer for me is that I haven't had an event yet that required more then a single pair (150 people max). I am just dieing to try out all 6 together. One of the events I recently did was an outdoor movie night. The DR's were killer for that application.

Just use all 6 anyway and turn down the amps

[osse]

YES it is sooo worth it.
As far as the complexity or wood working skills... ya just have to tackle one step at a time. I would go out to the shop every night and say OK I'm just going to do this one step and before you know it you have a set of DR's. Took me about a month to 6 weeks to build four of them.

Actually that's not very time consuming, or Yee a fast builder

Did you work full time or beside regular work?

I can finish one t30 in about 25-30 hours maybe.. in a fast pace