Getting DJ club speakers on a budget

Getting DJ Club Speakers On A Budget

Beginner DJs often find it difficult to transition between playing at room parties and playing in large venues such as clubs. Indeed, playing in larger venues often requires bigger and more powerful equipment, both bigger amplifiers and larger, DJ club speakers, which normally are not cheap.

So, as a budding DJ transitioning to perform in larger venues, how do you acquire the DJ speakers that you can effectively use in large venues?

In this article we advocate a three-prong common sense approach: Keep performing in any suitable opportunities that come your way, set some proceeds from these gigs aside, and while you are saving up for a new system, keep the pulse on the industry, ask questions of more experienced DJs, read up on the literature, both online and offline, and inform yourself of the options that you have in the DJ equipment marketplace. To get you started, here are some of the features to look for in your new DJ club speaker:

Quality of DJ club speakers Low distortion is a quality you absolutely need to aim for in any club speaker. Pay attention to the distortion curve as a function of the output power. Since in large venues, you will likely be forced to play at higher wattage, be concerned with the part of the distortion curve where distortion starts to increase disproportionally. This is your highest quality wattage.

Related to distortion is the question of speaker power.

DJ club speakers power Shear nominal power, or RMS power, is important quality of any DJ speaker system, either featuring passive speakers or powered speakers. You must definitely go for higher wattage speakers for large venues. However, there are other ways to increase the sound power of the speakers without increasing the nominal power. Here they are:

With mid-range speakers and tweeters, raise these DJ speakers above the heads of the audience. Not only will the position slightly above the ears of your audience be optimal for sound reception, you will also improve the reach and the projection of the sound by having speakers elevated.

Human bodies happen to be strong attenuators of midrange and high-pitch sound. Therefore, by giving your entire audience the line of sight to the speakers, the distortion of sound will be minimized.

With subwoofers, place them one yard from the wall, or, better, one yard from the corner of the room. As discussed above, you will be able to play your speakers at lower power, with increased sound quality, yet still project a strong sound. As an example, measurements show that placing a subwoofer one yard from the wall increases the effective sound by 6 Db.

When playing outdoors, and there are no walls or room corners, place the subwoofers on the floor but tilt them 30 degrees or more into the ground. The measurements show significant power increase when doing that.

With subwoofers, always use foam-based stands or subwoofer risers. This will prevent leakage of power into the ground and will increase the effective power and projection of sound where it is supposed to go - through the subwoofer cone.

So, while there is no real cheap way to DJ in a large club without the powerful equipment, you can save money and wattage by following tips and tricks of the trade to squeeze more power out of less powerful speakers and amplifiers, and therefore make a great impression anyways.

Sources: http://www.smartdj.com/DJ-Speakers-and-Subwoofers.htm http://ezinearticles.com/?Getting-DJ-Club-Speakers-On-ABudget&id=6012976