Help with PX

rwskinner

Hello to all. I serious newbie to all of this so please bear with me.
First, a little about the application and it's location. I use the sound system for my game room/party room that is about 800 sq.ft. and it's pretty much stationary.

My previous system was Two Carver PM1400's driving Four of the Cerwin Vega VS-150's which sounded pretty good but as the drink goes down the volume goes up and then the evil clip LED's start flashing. The acoustics of this room pretty much suck. 25' wide x 28' long, OSB walls, bare concrete floor, metal roof that slopes from 12' down to 10' on the 28' run.
The system had tons of bass in my previous game room which was more of a residential setting with carpet, sheetrock and such but this room eats it up.

I have the old system in there still but I just purchased something I thought would be more fitting and durable.
The System is mainly used for MP3 playback from laptops/media center with occasional karaoke.

Two JBL EON 515XT Mains - Freq Response @ +/- 3db 42hz to 18 KHz (Speaker EQ set at 0 for both Bass and Treble).
One JBL PRX 718XLF - Left Mono - Corner Loaded, Freq Response @ +/- 3db 35hz to 87hz - DBX Type IV limiter & Internal Crossover Frequency 100 Hz DSP controlled 48 dB filter slope
Drive Rack PX

I picked up the PX because I was hoping to take advantage of the limiting, the Auto EQ for this sucky room, and possibly for the bass enhancement, plus it seemed a little better than the old 24 band manual EQ I had.

Of course this combination isn't list in the speaker selection and I don't have a clue on how to set up the xover frequencies and which type of filters to use. Any recommendations would be very much appreciated. Would I be better off letting the XOver in the sub drive the mains from the HPF out over using the PX?

Sorry for the long post.

Richard

Dra

The Auto-EQ is not going to help. In fact, it will hurt. The technology of the Auto-EQ in the PX, original PA, and 260 is old and not very beneficial for indoor use. The PA+ and PA2 have the upgraded software, with the PA2 having the best, and either would be a better choice. I know... it's not what you wanted to hear.
The limiters in the PX will only do any limiting if set to limit before the limiters in the speakers kick in. That is just going to "limit" system from reaching it's potential.
The GEQ in the PX is likely superior to the one you have... depending on what you have.
There is not much you can do to stop the room from eating the bass. Adding bass enhancements with the sub-synth is going to make your sub work very hard. The only real solution is to add more subs, or reduce the highs and mids, but then you lose volume.

DRA

rwskinner

Thanks for the reply Dra. It seems like I'd be better off investing my cash into a decent GEQ then and bypass all the fancy bells and whistles.
The DRPX did help the bass tremendously when I ran the two EON 518S Subs but for the money I traded them for a single PRX718XLF which seems to have much cleaner bass response.

Are there any decent EQ's you can recommend under a couple hundred bucks?

Richard

Dra

If you own the PX (sounds like you have for a while and can't return it) the GEQ is very good, just not as easy to operate as a traditional analog one. I haven't used one in about 8 yrs, so can't recommend one.

DRA

rwskinner

I have another week before I can't return it that was why I was trying to determine if it was worth keeping.
I'll play with it some more over the next day or two and see if it's worth keeping but I may just replace it with an ART355 dual 31 chan EQ and be done.

Dra

I would consider buying better used gear, before buying new lesser gear. But, that is just me.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DBX-1231-EQ-Dua ... 3a90d8678c

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rane-ME60-Graph ... 4620675659

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SWEET-DBX-1231- ... 2587cfca7a

Dra

I also prefer long throw sliders. Easier to fine tune.

DRA

rwskinner

Dra, Thanks for the Good advice, I did pick up that DBX 1231. I didn't realize I could have picked up a 2231 from ebay for just a few more bucks.
The 1231 works awesome and SO much better that the Manual Slide EQ I had previously. Nothing wrong with the DR-PX but the manual sliders is much easier for me than the digital EQ.

Say, if my Sub spec is 35hz to 87hz @ +/- 3db - DBX Type IV limiter & Internal Crossover Frequency 100 Hz DSP controlled 48 dB filter slope
so would it be wise to drop the sliders on anything below 35hz ? i.e. 20 and 25hz @ -6db

Richard

Dra wrote:

I would consider buying better used gear, before buying new lesser gear. But, that is just me.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DBX-1231-EQ-Dua ... 3a90d8678c

Dra

No. That is not necessary. It can also cause phase problems. If the sub runs out of gas, you could apply the 40hz lo cut on the EQ. In fact, you might consider it anyway.

DRA