Actually SS should probably be used.

Corey, you should know that the costs associated with PA go on forever and the payback might never make up for it. I'm sure DirtDawg could chime in here. I think he is one of the few that actually earned his living doing sound.

I've been trying to build a little PA on the cheap for some time and I'm amazed at how often I have to cough up another $100 here or $200 there for cables, adapters and misc. whatnot and it's just a hobby for me. If I really needed to earn a living from this I think it would be hopeless.

Even if you get a PA put together most of your gigs will be backyard stuff for friends you'll never get paid for. Go to some small concerts and take a look at the rack cabinets full of gear. Every little skinny box in the rack means another $300 to $1,500 and the time spent to learn how to use it. It's a frustration for me, but there are some rewards. (Somewhere around here I put the rewards. Didn't I?)

All kidding aside, be very careful what you sign up for. Go buy the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook and read it cover to cover. If you understand most of it and you're willing to spend a lot of money then go for it. Another good book is Jeffrey Forsburg's Building Pro Speaker Enclosures. It will humble you. There's a lot to consider before comitting yourself to this path.

If you just want to do some DJ stuff, remember that most DJs don't make enough money to pay for the music they buy. That aside, a DJ system can be a whole lot simpler than a full PA for sound reinforcement and you will be the life of the party. You just won't have time to actually enjoy the party because you'll be getting there early, setting up, running the show, then staying late packing it all back up in your truck. Oh, you do have a big truck, don't you? A good idea is to find a DJ without a system and rent him or her yours. That way you actually can get some money for your work.

If you buy your gear inexpensively, you can always sell it on eBay and get most of your money back. That's what lots of other people do.

OK, still going for this madness?

I am.  

Have rollers on 2 sides of each enclosure. So after you get them off the trailer by tipping them up you roll them on the upright rollers. You also have rollers on one long side. So you can clear doors by laying them down, lower c of gravity and more stable.

I am looking at the PA Coaxials from www.commonsenseaudio.com

Corey

I use my Imperial for PA use and I attached casters to the bottom of tha cabinet. So pushing it around is not a problem.

Transporting it is the problem. Laying the cabinet on its back it takes up the whole back of my truck and I can't put any other equipment in the back. I have to borrow a friends trailer to transport the rest of the equipment. Which is the sound equipment for a rock band.

It can be done but you need a truck and trailer or a big box van to haul all your equipment.

Regardless of the intended application, always get an amp that is one model larger than what you can afford.

Headroom is important.  Small amps never seem to have enough power, no matter what application they end up in.

I got some 850 watt amps as starter amps for my mains, thinking they would be good monitor amps later, but even as monitor amps they are under powered for larger shows.

If I were going to build a pair of imperials for PA use (DJ or Live sound,) I would load them each with a Gold Wood 15120 and a Peavey Black Widow HE.  I would run the woofers in each cabinet in parallel.  To drive them, I would use a QSC RMX5050, so 1800 watts to each imperial.  I would find or build a horn that would go down at least to 800Hz, and use a 2” compression driver for it.  To make sure I wasn’t lacking in power for the horn I would use a CE2000 to drive the horns, and an active crossover between the imperial and the compression horn.

That would be a sizeable investment to start, but if that was the ultimate goal, it would be less total money to start there, than to start with other stuff.  Starting with other stuff would leave me with the other stuff when I had my full system at a later point.

That is just my thoughts on an imperial PA.  Getting the speakers and the amps right is the Imperial part of the PA.  Everything else is either source, stage gear, or interconnects.

Stv

More like,
not even close...

Robert  :)

                               - Laptop
                               - Squeeze box 2
                               - ZBox
                               - Mixing board:

From mixing board:
- HF Active crossover into HF horn power amp(Crown) driving the compression drivers on top.

- QSC power amp driving the Peavey BW and the JBL knockoffs full range.

                                       
Corey