SLS 8290 Dual-Purpose PA Box
How many times have you been shown a vaguely trapezoidal box and then been promised that it can serve as a mid-high box or a full-range monitor? And how many times have you actually dared use the "multipurpose" box as a monitor and then as a house box? And how often do you keep using it for two different applications? The point here is that, multi-purpose or not, a box will generally end up only getting used for whatever it's best at — no matter what the manufacturer says. So let's say we are skeptical when we take a multipurpose box out on both MON and FOH duty. The Gear
The SLS 8290 is a dual eight-inch design with a ribbon tweeter. The PRD500 ribbon is contained within a 90° die-cast aluminum waveguide. The waveguide is pretty easily rotatable to line the ribbon up for vertical house use or horizontal monitor use. The cabinet is made of 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood and has both a cut-out handle and a standard pole–mount socket.
Coverage is claimed at a conservative 90°, and the cabs are easy enough to handle for one crew member to put it on the pole. Inputs are a parallel set of Neutrik NL4s — remember this is a full-range cabinet. Frequency response is respectable down to about 60 or 70 Hz. (On a front of house gig you are going to want a sub unless this is a straight spoken word gig.)
The Gigs
I took a pair of 8290s on two very different gigs. The first was an outdoor gig at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas with a big horn band. Most of the band is on PMs — everyone except the horns and the bass player. The horns are always a problem. Any of you who have worked with horn bands will surely back me up on this, but unless the monitors are blowing their hair back with basically horns and little else in the mix, they will bitch about not being able to hear themselves. I have tried to get horn players on PMs for a long time and have had zero luck.
The first night of the two-night gig, we used the venue's standard JBL 12+ horn wedges and no PMs for anyone. (Setup time did not allow for getting PMs up and going.)
While everyone else could hear just fine through the wedges, the horns were complaining by the end of the second song that they could not hear themselves. Part of the problem was that, while there were eight wedges onstage, there were only two mixes (the wellworn Allen & Heath at side-of-stage was doing double duty as FOH and MON).
Second night we got the PMs going and had the wedges there just in case someone lost battery power on a PM receiver or something. Emergency backup. We replaced the standard wedges in front of the horns with a pair of 8290s. We got going and were nearly through the first set when I realized that something was missing. A whining sound. The horns were not bitching about being able to hear. Chalk up one for the 8290s.
The second gig was on a satellite stage for a cowboy music and poetry festival (no lie, I swear that was the gig) in Heber City, Utah. They were used as FOH speakers on a pole above a couple of small Mackie subs. We hoisted them onto the poles, powered them up with a QSC RMX 850 amp and turned on the subs. (Before we go any further, another side note. I flew up to Utah, and checked the 8290s as luggage. I put them in their shipping boxes, stuffed a couple of processors that I needed to road test as well into the boxes, and it all came in under the weight limit. Nice.)
So as not to risk getting him in hot water, no names, but a noted sound guru was on the gig as a favor to a friend. This person has had a big hand in designing some of the most-used concert P.A. systems in the world, and he SMAARTed the system. He introduced a couple of pretty smooth and subtle curves, which he said were really about the very reflective and oddly shaped room and that "those ribbons sound good out of the box." We were done.
When the show began — all single and duo acoustic guitar-based cowboy singers — as much as I hated the material, I had to admit that it sounded very good. The 8290s were clear and crisp without getting harsh. Perfect for this kind of gig. Earlier, I had run some AC/DC through the system and pushed it. Pushing it hard, I never really got any noticeable distortion, but neither did I get the testosterone feel of a good rock cabinet. A metal gig is probably not right for this box. But for gigs where clarity and fidelity are valued over sheer volume, the 8290s are a good choice.
So there you go. A dual-purpose box that actually works, well, dually. It doesn't have all the punch you might like for real rock — compromises have to be made somewhere, I suppose — but maybe the marketers weren't completely off on this one. Scary.
MC2 Audio E45 Power Amplifier
This up and coming amplifier company from England is producing some very high tech professional audio power amplifiers in small packages. I received the flagship E45 amplifier from MC2 for this road test review, and its cute black and anodized blue aluminum chassis was easy on the eyes.
The E45 amplifier is called a "dynamic amplifier" with proprietary power supply rails that allow the amplifier to dynamically switch to higher power voltages for normal musical peak durations (less than one second typically). Because of the nature of its proprietary technology, it makes more sense to compare the E45 to Class G or Class H amplifiers using similar supply switching techniques. But after all the geek speak is done, it means that the E45 in its two rack space size and 25 pound chassis weight puts out 2250 watts per channel into 4-ohm loads.
The Gear
At 2-ohms per channel, the MC2 E45 amplifier can do 3200 watts per channel, if you have the 40 amperes of 115VAC power distro to spare. Everything else about the E45 is normal in a beautiful way. It has a standard 32dB (40V/ V) voltage gain with a +9.75dBu sensitivity for 4-ohm max power. Then, it carries audio performance specs like 20Hz to 20kHz frequency response with +/-0.5dB flatness with less than 0.03% THD at full power across the whole frequency band. It walks the talk with a greater-than-400 damping factor at 8-ohms, and only hums at -105dB below the full output, and that says a lot about the competence of the designers.
But lets talk user interfaces, starting with the front panel. The MC2 E45 amplifier front only has signal LEDs for signal present (blue), -3dB (yellow) and limiter (amber). The remaining LEDs are for amplifier protect (red), bridged mode (green) and power reduction circuit (PRC) (green). Besides the mini-rocker power switch for on/off, the remaining controls are the two input level controls with dB scaling (-6dB at halfway). The cute blue front panel also allows the model and brand names to double as foam filtered air inlets. This air direction is not my preference, as I like warm air forward, but at least it gets the cooling job done.
The rear panel has 12-gauge power cord permanently attached to the E45 amplifier with a few inches of stripped and tinned leads for a power connector attachment. And with the 35-ampere circuit breaker just above the cord bushing, it should remind you that a beefy connector is required if you are going to get some voice coils really moving. Two full size fans and grilles flank the input/output back panel cluster with nice female and male XLR jacks for chaining amplifiers. Three NL4 Speakon connectors are logically placed for stereo and bridged/bi-amp speaker cable configurations. Channel A and B Speakons are wired only for +/-1 contacts, with the middle Speakon wired for channel A on the +/-1 contacts and channel B on the +/-2 contacts.
All that remains unsaid on the rear panel are pairs of PRC switches for each channel. These switches allow for 0, -2, -4 and -6dB power attenuation of the amplifier output capabilities, which is perfect for sub/top or mids/highs configurations from a single E45 amplifier. And the buttons are slightly recessed so that accidental touches or bumps do not change the PRC settings.
The Gigs
With the MC2 E45 amplifier in the subwoofer mode of operation, I really wanted to see in a live setting if it could keep those one-second power supply rails inaudible when assaulted with lots of kick and rockin' electric bass low notes. At the gigs, it passed the test with no obvious running-out-of-gas symptoms. But to me, the acid test for good subwoofer-capable amplifiers is to also remain pristine sounding in the upper mids and highs; especially in critical listening situations back at the shop. Again, it passed the test to my ears.
Looking for niggles, the MC2 E45 amplifier came up a little short when noting some shipping dents on the top chassis panel. Either it survived a very rough ride from the English factory, or there is something moving in the center of the chassis. The 16.25 inch rack depth also means you better ensure rear rail attachment to keep things under control when touring. All in all, this MC2 amplifier gave me good vibes when using it.
