Well, the day for the first "gig" arrived... It was more like a party (12½ years wedding anniversary) for 60 -ish people. I was invited (with speakers AND wife), but unfortunately I was already invited to another event. That didn't mean that the speakers couldn't go.
The party was in the same facility where I had made the speakers (only in the other end of the building, and NOT in the work shop
), and the room was around 2.000 sqr feet (200 m2). Surely the TAT's would have to work HARD to fill the room with bass...!
So I did the set up Saturday afternoon, and dialed in the DCX to meet the specifications of the VIFA driver in the TAT's. Wanted to protect the small woofers to the best of my possibilities, I set a HP to 40 Hz 48 dB/oct. Made the x-over point at 100 Hz 24 dB/oct. This should give them something to do, but still protect them pretty good if some drunk idiot messed up the faders on the mixer...
Placed the cabs next to each other as close to the wall as possible, and turned up the volume! THEY SOUND NICE!!!
Moving them around a bit, turning them towards the wall, stacking them and laying them on the side, I didn't notice any big change in the way they performed; a very precise tight bass, which due to the 40 Hz HP, didn't go too deep, but still deep enough to match any vented cab with the same drivers!
The output however was impressive..!!! Having some 1.200 watts in the amp to get the juices flowing, there was never a lack of control from that department, so when the "compression" from the cabs started to be noticeable, the amp was still running on app. -20 dB.
After an hour or so, trying different things and set ups, I decided that it would have to do for this first set up. The sound pressure I have had during the test, was surely quite a bit higher that it would be during the party later that day.
Driving home I noticed that I had this familiar feeling in my ears after you have been subjected to a high sound pressure with no distortion for a while, and then suddenly all sound is muted... Like being "a little numb in the ears" - kind of feeling. (?) Guess the sound level was quite a bit higher than I had expected..?
The tops are not BFM design (sadly! Love the compact SLA PRO PA TOP), so I will not get in to much details there. Just mention that they can take quite a heavier beating than the "small" TAT, which are not intended for this (ab-)use.
Next on the TODO-list is finish and pimping with RGB LEDs to make them the ultimate "Party Pack".
