BillFitzmaurice.info

I'm going to be DJing in Manhattan this weekend, and instead of the nightmare of trailering my T60s into midtown, I'm going to be using the venue's house system (2x Mackie SR1530z and 2x SWA1801 to hold them up, only one of which actually works ).

I've been trying to read specs and whatnot on Mackie's site, but their stupidly casual writing tone must be way to hip and edgy for me, because it's doing nothing but frustrating and confusing me.. Anyway, what I've been able to decipher so far is that the tops have a range of 38Hz - 20kHz (-10dB), but optimal response is between 50Hz - 18kHz (-3dB), and the sub has a range of 35Hz - 120Hz (-10dB) with best response between 45Hz - 120Hz (-3dB).

My question is this: do I trust the sub's on-board 120Hz crossover and call it a day, or bring along my Driverack260 to split up the signal all fancy-like? Will there be an appreciable difference in quality/output potential?

My leaning is toward using the Driverack, and setting a nice steep HPF @ 45Hz (no mention in their literature of the sub even doing this), xover the sub and tops somewhere around 100Hz, and a LPF @ 18kHz for the tops, if for no other reason than the Driverack cost more than the whole sub ;p

I'd bring the 260 + all the cabling you need. Its tough to tune the system while fiddling with the knobs on the back of the active speakers, running out front to listen, then running back to adjust, etc. That and high passing the sub will give you some headroom and you will know you have a proper x-over between the tops and the sub. You will also have the option of the auto-tune feature and eq.

Yeah, you want to take control, specially with one of the subs blown already. You could take some long XLR and power cable to physically take the Driverack into the room while you're tweaking setup. You could just go with your crossover and highpass plans and be pretty damn sure it would be fine.

See if you can improve the placement of the working one too. If you got stands you could use them to separate the sub/stick/top abomination.

Maybe run test tones to see where the mackie actually begins struggling. Someone blew one already, could be they can't actually do 50hz loud.