At long last...Titan 48/DR280 rig

[JazzyRick]

This has been a long time coming!

I bought the plans probably 2-3 years ago and had to get updates to the DR280 before I built them for sure. I finished the wood on the DR280s probably nearly a year ago, but the empty boxes sat in storage until about a month ago.

I had a gig on a Saturday and finished up the DR280s Friday night, but alas the tweeter section didn't work. I thought I might even have to rent a couple tops for the show since it was 11 PM Friday already. Saturday morning I woke up motivated and figured out that I just plain wired the negative coming off the crossover section to the wrong terminals on the tweeter section. I have 11 Piezo flat array on the DR280s as I wasn't quite up for the complexity of the melded array at the time I built the boxes a year ago. I had been using Tuba 30s a full 30" wide with JBL TR125s for tops for quite some time before this new setup...so on to my first impressions.

I run a simple bar rig. Mono mains with 3 aux returns, A&H Mixwizard WZ3, Lexicon MX300 effects on aux 6/5 running it dual mono with a verb and tap delay, DBX EQs, and one DBX compressor(dual channel), a couple QSC PL236 amps, and hopefully a Peavey IPR series amp whenever they start shipping(September? Really? Now I hear January....maybe!). So in the mean time I am borrowing another amp for monitors.

The one thing I'll say about the old JBL tops is they could take a beating and still rock. I regularly had to run them into slight clipping to fill up a 150-200 capacity bar and they never blinked...they are probably 10 years old, but I just ran out of juice most of the time.

First off the Titan48s kick the Tuba 30s pretty easily it seemed to me. These are the 3rd BFM design I've used for subs. I started with a pair of Tuba 24s...the old style with the HL10C driver. I then traded a local DJ who built some Tuba 30s for his business, but they were too big for his trailer even up. I used each of those for a couple years each. They were both OK matches for the JBL tops. Then I made the jump to building my own from scratch and decided on Titan 48/DR 280 combo. In hindsight I'd probably pick a smaller top if I were to do it over again(DR250 probably, but maybe even the 200 or OTop 12).

The DR280s got plenty loud, but I don't have a processor for them yet and there were a few "harsh" frequencies I had trouble with in the 3-4k range with a male vocalist that had a pretty edgy tone to start with. I'm picking up a BBE DS48 that I will be able to process them with and that should help a ton. It wasn't unlistenable at all, but a little "edgy" for my taste. The opening band sounded much better as the vocalist didn't have nearly the edge on his voice and it actually sounded pretty damn good for not being familiar with the speakers at all.

The nicest benefit to me was running at or over 100dB at the mixer about 30 feet out and checking my amps. They were probably running 10-15 dB below clipping and I had gobs of headroom. It sure is a long way from blinking the clip lights regularly with my old setup, both subs and tops. I don't think my Titans weigh much more than my DR280s even with 4 casters on them. I have the heavier Delta Pros in the DR280s and the lighter Deltalite 15s in the subs. I would estimate maybe 70 lbs. for the tops and 90lbs for the subs...if that.

I still have some finish work to do on the tops as I forgot to put foam in the speaker chamber. That might calm them down a little?

Overall I'd give the initial run a B. I think the processing and finishing up the tops will bring them up to a solid A.

The subs now make great load in/out carts as well as great sounding subs. I have 6 total pieces to roll into a gig now...ALL ON WHEELS!!! 2 subs, 1 amp rack, 1 FOH rack(which my 16x4 snake lives in as well), 1 cable trunk, and a heavy duty hand truck that folds into a cart for whatever monitors/tops won't roll in on top of the subs. Unfortunately lights are another story, but luckily I only run my light rig at half my gigs or less.

My next gig with the PA won't be until Halloween, but I'll try to get some pics for those that are interested. Thanks for the great efficient designs Bill!

[Chris_Allen]

It took me at least 4 gigs to figure out how to treat the speakers, but I couldn't be happier.

Glad it is going well for you - really which I had a van or a car big enough to fit some 280's...

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

[Scott Brochu]

Sounds like another love story to me

I love to hear stories like this so when I get my 200's done I know they'll be fine.

[LelandCrooks]

Nice to see you back Rick.