Compare EV, JBL, QSC, MACKIE DJ BAND KARAOKE SPEAKERS

The biggest problem that people overlook is the long-term evaluation of a product.  When it comes to EV, JBL, QSC, MACKIE, PEAVEY.  One could put a blindfold on and most often any of these brands would make one proud to own them. 

As with ANY product there are pros and cons to EVERYTHING.  Here at MADPROAUDIO, we do not believe any of these brands truly deserve the title of king as they all have their moments.  Many times, the actual application determines the direction one might take.

The most exciting news we experienced was when EV released their ELX LIVE X series speakers.  They took EV (one of the most famous speaker names EVER!) (Over 80yrs.) and personally oversaw the development of the LiveX series.  Are they the BEST speakers?  NO, do they deserve a place in history for a company who combined an unbelievable price point to quality ratio? YES! 

Mackie and JBL are household names and in the overall scheme of things, very successful pick for anyone.  Then you have the QSC brand which is famous for their power amplifier.  Their jokes on what
their name means is legendary.  QSC has been said to mean Quit Selling Cr@w#.  Or Quit Selling Cr@p.
Yet actually means Quilter Sound Company.  (Hmmm, I still have the Quilter QSC amp bobble head).

QSC came out with their K series speakers and EV came out with their Live X series and that’s when the real debate began.  For the most part, many found at comparable prices, the QSC and EV where the best pick and we would have to contend that we feel the same way for the most part.

You sometimes hear people brag that EV Live X is better than QSC K series, yet that is actually not a fair statement.  1.  QSC is much more expensive and we personally believe they edge the EV over the actual sound quality.  YET that in itself is not a fair comparison. If you were to create a fair comparison based upon specs and price range.  You would have to put the EV ZX series up again the QSC K series and we would have to bow to the EV in this respect.  YET make no mistake about it, the QSC K series in our opinion is a better sounding cabinet than the Live X series. 

Now let’s add another factor into this.  For the consumers that cannot afford the QSC K series.  Then that’s when the Live X becomes the NO 1 choice every hour of the day, every day of the week, and so on.
We swear by EV even though we sell many other brands and not for one second does this take away from the other brands.  Sometimes you are just forced to narrow down your choices and we erase the BS marketing and give you our genuine opinion to try and help you as a person, not a customer.

Now let’s talk about the sub’s.  Many try to compare the higher priced QSC K sub to the ELX118p EV sub and that is not a fair comparison.  The EV sub is the best pick because it meets many more people’s expectation of what a sub should sound like for them.  But that does not mean that it is actually better. The Ksub is better, just does not fit the needs of many of the customers we have spoken to.  Now if you are talking about the QSC KW series sub, then we have a winner over the live X.  Yet once again as we bounce back again to EV.  Just the mere fact that EV gives you a price point that hits the best of the best sweet spots.  That alone is why they edge out the other brands for what they give you.  So you can’t go wrong buying EV , JBL, QSC, Mackie or other higher priced speakers.  It’s a matter of preference, budget, your perception of value.  OVERALL:  EV Live X,   WOW!!

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Now onto another brand that is super popular and much cheaper than the higher end models.  The Gemini GVX series.  YES, we know they do not deserve to sit in the same room as the other brands we just spoke of.  YET it still goes back to budget, overall value, etc.. 

Let’s say you are a dj just starting out and you just do not have the money to get the EV’s, etc. Do not feel bad about choosing a cheaper model Like Gemini GVX or even Alto Truesonic series speakers.  They are awesome for the money.  And yes, the veteran dj’s who have built a more expensive speaker will make fun of you because they think you are inferior to them, yet that is actually a very unfair position to take.

My brother started DJ’n 20yrs. ago and he started out with Gemini, WHY?  Because he barely had 2 pennies to rub together and had to take the first steps like many other people do.  He purchased a few Gemini speakers and loved his setup because he balanced his budget with overall quality for that budget. YES, the gemini delivered quality for the price.  YET no where near the quality of the higher priced EV, JBL, etc.

After a few years in the business, he had money to expand and sure enough.  Where he only spent maybe $350 on a pair of Gemini speakers, he was now spending over $1,000 on a dual 18 EV sub.
Guess what happened to my brother?  He became part of the few dj’s that spend the money to blow away the competition.  And you know what he then thought of his Gemini’s?  He would always joke that they were now toys compared to what he upgraded to.  Yet never losing site of the fact that the Gemini’s helped him build his business, gave him a start at a cheaper price.

Now fast forwarding to 2012.  Local dj that we have known for many years and is a very modest man who lives paycheck to paycheck came in and purchased the Gemini GVX18 subs off of us.  We let him make payments to help out.  He LOVED his subs.  He was educated to the fact that you get what you pay for in life and in the case of the GVX series, he was getting a little more for the money yet never to forget that it is only solid entry level and worth every penny in our eyes.  1 yr. later he teams up with a nightclub owner who was sold a set of speakers from another store that claimed they were top of the line.  How about
“are you kidding me” when we found out what speakers they were sold”  And without saything the name of the speaker this other company mislead the customer on, we can tell you that they sell for $199.99 each online and are dual 15’s.  SORRY, $199.99 and dual 15 will NEVER equal quality to us.  Can it be worth the $199. YES.  Would we still be embarrased to sell such a speaker, YES!!!

Needless to say, We sold 2 EV ELX118 subs.  Until he heard them, he kept asking me how it compared to his Gemini GVX18 subs.  (EV’s are $2-300more each).  For the price hike, it was a WOW experience. 
the first second they heard the subs, they knew they had amazing quality for the money.  We even told him that the live X series is EV’s economy line and that if we sold them the more expensive EV’s, they would even go future with their WOW experience. 

Now after this guy owning the Gemini GVX18 subs and now hearing the EV Live X subs.  I think we can all guess what he said about the Gemini’s.  The GVX18 subs that he loved for the money now looked like toys to him.  He could honestly tell us that the Gemini was junk comared to the EV.  And still in the same breath agree with us that the Gemini was worth every penny and was the right choice for him money at the time. 

Well, we just ordered the club a pair of EV ELX215 dual 15 loudspeakers that they will run with a QSC RMX2450 (would of loved to have sold them a new EV Q series amp)  pairing them up with the EV
ELX118 powered subwoofers.  No matter how many years I have been doing this.  I am genuinly excited for every last customer that spends the time to share our passion and embrace products such as EV, QSC, etc. 

Remember: This does not mean that EV is the best.  It’s kinda like math.  Add up all the pros and cons and come up with average score for a paticular product that fits your needs.   Example;  We are going to have a couple speakers installed in our store (which is an old bar converted into a coffee shop/proaudio.) and we need super compact.  I really would rather have the EV Live X to save money and still have awesome quality for that money.  yet I may have to invest more and go with either the EV ZX series or QSC K series.  You see how Live X is our personal favorite yet does not always mean it is the best pick for a certain job.  Yet on the flip side, we have a guy that wants to really rock a club and try to keep the price down.  So without question, we wanted to hook him up with 4 EV amps, 8 18 inch ELX118 subs, 6 ELX112 loudspeakers  (Hmmm, notice we mentioned the 12’s instead of the 15’s) Ask us why.

Trust us, if we had our way, this blog would literally be as long as a bible.   PLEASE ask us any questions and we will write up a blog just for you!!

 

what’s the best karaoke system

what’s the best karaoke system

The sad truth is that too many sites that reccomend product are simply trying to sell their items and are not taking an unbiased approach.  Example; We see this one ad that talks about 53,000 songs and is the best karaoke player on the market and that is the furthest thing from the truth.  First off, it is a foriegn player that appeals mostly to (Other than American).  and there are at least 10 other players out there for that purpose that are just as good if not much better!  It is their marketing that makes you think it is the best.

Allow me to give you examples;  Let’s start with the home user.  Most often they will simply add a karaoke player to their existing home stereo system and call it a day.  YES, it is a solution, and NO it is not the best of the best for this approach.  The direction you take stems from the depth of your desire to create something as close as you can to the karaoke club.  So here are the stages based upon your budget.

1st. Stage:  Purchasing an Audio2000 or Cavs player is always the best overall purchase for just the karaoke player.  OR if you are Asian/Spanish, etc.  Then we typically prefer the JBK players for that type of consumer.

2nd. Stage:  This consumer will buy the player and then add a set of dual wireless mics.  Please note that we understand there are 4 channel mics out there and sell them as well.  YET we find that there are more problems when you exceed 2 mics in one system.  Not always the case, yet from our experience, very notable most often.

3rd. Stage:  This is the consumer that really wants to tweak out the system a bit and have better control over the microphone and music mix.  They not only get the player and wireless mics, they also add a microphone mixer (stay away from the cheap ones).  Typically mixers ranging from $65 to $200 is a safe bet.  We typically always use Audio2000 for mic mixers and sometimes we will use the Vocopro 1055 series (Please note that we DO NOT endorse many of the Vocopro products).

4th. Stage:  Is the consumer that wants an all in one sound, yet nothing like the cheaper models you find at your local stores.  These people turn to the Audio2000 AKJ7809 for this need.  You notice we do not mention other brands and for good reason.  We do not like to go on a fishing expidition and just sell anything and everything.  We choose the products that we know we will stand behind and the type of manufacturer that chooses to stand behind us as well.

5th. Stage: Is the consumer that wants to have that karaoke club experience.  They will purchase a full system that has the karaoke speakers, speaker stands, speaker cables, karaoke mixing amplifier, karaoke player, wireless mics, etc.

Here is the biggest problem consumers are faced with today:

Most consumers are brainwashed by misleading advertisement.  For generations, salespeople have told you what they felt you WANTED to hear, not what you NEEDED
to hear.  The rule of thumb these days is to do what it takes to extract the money from your
pocket, not do whatever it takes to genuinly help you.

Let me tell you why most salespeople can care less about helping over just selling.
Because the sellers who simply advertise anything and everything to get your attention.
Say anything and everything to keep your attention, and concentrate on undercutting the next guy in price are the ones that are making 10 times the money over the rare few salespeople who refuse to trick a consumer under any circumstances.  Let’s face it people,
they have consumers number!  And this is not meant to offend anyone.  This actually is meant to open the eyes of the public.  And here is a great example to prove that we live
and die by what we tell you.

Example 1:  We were sick and tired of seeing other ads brag about a certain product just to get the consumer to buy.  Knowing that many consumers could not tell the difference, they can give you less for more money in the long run.  We had a karaoke player, dual wireless mics, music pack up for sale last xmas for $199.99 and for those consumers that knew what they were looking at.  When you combined our reputation with the value you got, it was untouchable.  YET because we used 100% honesty over tactics, we found like every other time that we were selling 1 of our packages to 8 of the competitors package.

Instead of simply pointing out all the misleading thing of the competitors.  We simply built another ad with a player, wireless mics, music and gave it the same FAKE MISLEADING comments that we found over and over and over again in many other ads.  The mics were no where near the quality of the ones in the $199 ad we had, the music pack was less as well.  Even the player was only 60% the quality of the one we had in the $199 package.
We gave the consumer what they THOUGHT they WANTED to hear instead of NEEDING
to hear.  And do you know what happened?  We crushed the competion and blew through
that stock in no time.  The plus side was that we actually made more money than we would
ever make taking the honest approach.  YET it required the one thing that we dispised the most.  Being like ALL the rest!.    What a shame that the much better value was overlooked
because we could not bare to mislead people.  They always say nice people finish last and they are right.  We continue to prove our theroy by setting up ads to educate people as to the real difference.  Even if we sell only 1 system to the competitors 20.  The weight of our
honest approach is worth the loss to us.

REMEMBER:  Everything is priced the way it is for a reason.  We NEVER overcharge our
customers.   If you start to factor in the REAL knowlege of a company, the REAL compassion, and the REAL customer service.  You can easily see that you are getting a
5 star company at 3 star prices.  And even when the competitors undercut our prices and you end up with 2.5 star prices that clearly are cheaper than us.  You FAIL to see that in the long run, you end up with 1 star service!!

http://madproaudio.com/

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