I dabble both in HiFi and PA/Pro Audio. I DJ'd a fundraiser dance a while back and rented a pair of peavey SP-2's and ran those along with my home subs at the venue. All I can say is that I couldn't believe how great those SP-2s sounded. I would happily park a pair of those in my living room just to experiment with. They were very smooth with great clarity and played very well even at lower volumes. I would even go as far as saying they sounded as good or better than my home rig with Morel mid/high end. As Paul mentioned, they did lack a little bit of bottom end, but the subs filled the gap perfectly. The horns on the SP-2's were not shrill or fatiguing to listen to in any way. This is an example of how most of us DIY audio guys look at this as a "hobby" and that your system is never "done". If your system is ever "done", it is time to take up another hobby! I say tinker and experiment away!

Anything in the Klipsch heritage line is more or less PA speakers for the home if ya ask me! Chris deserves his own office, get em outta the cube farm Paul! Nice to see old Altec PC speakers hangin round the office there, perhaps thats the direction PS Audio should go. Maybe not PC speakers, but what about bringing native DSD to the Windows & OSX kernels? Food for thought..

For many years I made the mistake of using JBL Cabaret series 3-way 4699Bs in my living room system (an 18" bass driver; 10" midrange driver; and a bi radial horn with a titanium diaphragm for the highs). As a former gigging musician, I'd used them for many years in bands - sending all instruments and vocals through them. They sounded great live. We used them bi and tri-amped with electronic crossovers and separate amps. I ended up with them at home and lugged them into my living room. Yeah, they were ugly (roadworthy, though), but I was convinced that I was going to recreate the live experience. First mistake: using only the passive 3-way crossovers. Second, not realizing that though they were marketed as "full range," their heritage was still just sound reinforcement. When we played commercial break music through them at events, they sounded pretty good relative to the live music. In my living room, and relative to nothing else, I convinced myself they were great. lol I was eventually motivated to get rid of them to save living room space and remove their ugly presence. I moved to home audio tower speakers, and man what a revelation. All that time, I'd been happily crippling my listening without a clue. Afterwards, I saw a few other users commenting that the 4699Bs were not really suitable for recorded music playback, and I felt pretty foolish. Just very glad that I broke out of my stupor and awakened to the far superior alternatives.

Cliff notes: PA speakers are a different tool to do a different job. It would be like trying to eat soup with a fork. You may be able to make it work, but the work invested would likely be better served on a different tool, especially for a beginner.

Built a system using Electro-Voice rectangular PA horns & a 40w amp (All borrowed) to drown-out the mega-buck systems at my local cruise scene... and it worked! Nothing like seeing the guy in the custom stereo shop van, with it's wall of sub-woofers, look at you and give a thumb's-up.😁

jbl 2226 is worth the money, plays well with any 2" JBL on top. Small sealed cabinet. Don't judge what you haven't heard. The bass can feel like a heart attack, and absolutely 0 sibilance on top. Cross over at 800 and that's all you need. The only thing I like better than my Thiel CS2s are my JBLs. Plus at very low volume they are better than anything I ever heard. I got my JBLs from a theater, used for 20 years daily and besides the dust I didn't know they weren't new. Ive never heard new ones, so I can't say that I guess. The tweeter lenses are 15" square at the flange and are simply set on top the cabinets on some rubber feet.

Mixed feelings on this one... I'm a fan of both PA and conventional components. Because PA speakers are meant for loudness and large areas, I find they never distort in a home environment. Your ears will bleed long before you'll tax the equipment. Of course, there are different levels of PA speakers. Something you bought off Amazon vs. L'Acoustic or Meyer is a huge difference. I've always used Crown, QSC, and Bryson amps for both PA and home systems. My main home system is a pair of B&W 802s with Crown Studio Reference amps. Bedroom system is B&W 602s with a Crown D-75A. Still very magical after all these years.

If you want to use PA speaker units for your DIY project you have to select carefully. A blanket statement that a speaker system using one or more PA speakers cannot work in a domestic environment is too simple. The problem is, that there are a lot of units out there, spanning a very broad range of quality and application purposes. But there are some absolute PA speaker unit-gems out there. PHL makes some beautiful midrange units (e.g. PHL 1130). PA tweeters I have not explored yet, I'm shying away a bit from those as they tend to be hornloaded and shouty to keep up with the woofers and mids. As far as woofers go, as soon as you want anything bigger than 12", your only choice is PA speakers essentially. Home audio subwoofers with extreme deep bass also come with very low resolution and efficiency. I have been using a Precision Devices PD2150 21" subwoofer in open baffle application and that thing is amazing. Currently I'm using Eminence Impero 18A as stereo open baffle subwoofers to great effect. 🙂 In my opinion, there are no home audio bass drivers that come even close to producing the bass I currently get out of my system. Of course, this reasoning only applies when only performance is taken into account. There are not a lot of wives that would tolerate my contraptions in the living room. Needless to say, I am blessed with an audio-room. 🙂 Hope this helps.

I love Paul, but I wanna stress that using compression drivers (if good quality) can sound absolutely amazing. I have been designing systems with CD’s and the sound is rich, milky, smooth and 3D sound to knock your socks off.

PA (Public Address) are intended to use for concerts, clubs and any kind of live performance. What you’ve said about the sensitivity is true. It’s normal that a relative affordable PA speaker for mid and high range has a sensitivity of 110 dB SPL/1 Watt/ 1 Meter. And for the bottom end there are dedicated large and powerful subwoofers which also have a high SPL output. Mid/high range speakers are mostly configured in large arrays, and also the subwoofers used are aligned in a specific way. I’ve worked at a music store in the past and heard PA systems very often. They are incredibly scary if they play loud inside any building. A simple PA setup with two speakers easily hit 135 dB SPL and although I love to crank up the volume with speakers, I can tell anyone reading this comment that every hifi system for home use doesn’t come anywhere close in SPL output compared to PA. I’m not saying that home hifi can’t get loud. Home hifi can get loud too but the most important difference to me at least is the purpose and overall dynamics between consumer hifi and professional PA. If you want to listen loud, buy PA I would say. But take in consideration that you will get hearing damage in a short time span, so no, I won’t recommend it for home use. High end home hifi is already loud enough and also if you have a quality amplifier with lots of power, most of the time the amp is delivering only a couple watts of power to your speakers. And even if you turn it up loud, it is mostly 10 watts. That’s more than enough to enjoy listening to quality music. Great ❤ video.

Chris comes in on monday with his inbox absolutely obliterated.

Hey Paul! I had a pair of Bozak 4001 A speakers in the 70s & 80s. In my memory they had the most balanced sound, low to high, great room filling sound, impossible to overdrive, sweet and clear. I love to hear your comments and how they might compare with your 30's. Thanks John from Charlotte NC

For me the big advantage is the price, you get excellent sounding professional pa speakers for less than half the price of a hifi system

There are pa speakers and pa speakers. Sometimes I connect my turntable to my 6000w rig(2x 18" 2000w subs) and it sounds lush! It is the REAL full range experience. But that is in the barn. So, if you live in a barn, go for it!

Hi-fi speakers are designed to reproduce 4 waveforms and PA speakers are designed to reproduce 1. Hi-fi = stereo signals PA = mono signals Reproducing well stereophonic's: 1) common in-phase AND 2) common out-of-phase is where hi-fi speakers excel.

Paul is exactly right: the issue with PA systems are the industry standard, 4" dome compression drivers, which are extremely efficient and capable of extremely high SPL but not at all audiophile quality. In researching PA's for my new music venue, I settled on a relatively new PA company in Germany, Coda Audio, which have high-mid drivers that utilize a pair of flat ring diaphragms instead of a dome. Their drivers have half the distortion of dome compression drivers, and as a result, the sound is more natural.

Chris has a tidy desk. The man designed one of the best speakers from scratch, and his desk is definitely smaller and much tidier than my home office. 🤝

As the writer mentioned he was new to DIY speaker building, I dont think he meant end product PA speakers. I think the question was about using PA type drivers (horn tweeters+mids, high efficiency woofers) for HiFi speaker building. Of course you can - see Klipsch Heritage, Zu Audio, Tekton Design, Ojas and many others.

Maybe not the best audiophile speakers but, I have a pair of EV EKX 12-P, 1500w bi-amp powered speakers. Wife is a dance studio owner. Got tired of renting PA equipment. With adjustable DSP, these things sound pretty amazing for a PA speaker. The portable PA speaker market is very competitive! New equipment constantly. The companies are always upping their game in quality to stay competitive. Can’t say to go this way, same as studio monitors. But it’s is what I have and enjoy. Especially if I want to rock some old school rock! Think AC/DC!

There are high end PA speakers that deliver audiophile quality sound while obviously having all the PA speaker advantages. Check out RCF TT series, they are phenomenal.

PA speaker design for distance listening. It have narrow beam pattern. Depend on big/small room @ your home, listen too small/close might cause ear fatigued.

I find I quite enjoy the looks and sound of pa speakers within the home i love my music loud and I'm a bass head so the bass is on point for me It's all based on preference and i like big speakers I'm not really down with home audio speakers to be honest i love the great sound of pa plus il be using my for parties etc in venues also so its a dual purpose system for me also

You can take Tannoy 3149 and 3838 from the Wild Cat PA speaker series - give them a new x-over that uses the x-over frequency of around 1200 instead of the 2200 Hz in the wild cat PA series. Furthermore you can build a new and much more dampened enclosure that fits the parameter of the dual concentric 3149 (12") or the 3838 (15") and this way build a great HiFi speaker for home audio listening.

I dont use PA speakers but I do use commercial Amps. I prefer QSC. Just have to make sure you turn off all the filters (dip switches) and they sound as good any other and damn near indestructible.

10.000 watts on my PA. Also, you want a full range PA, just like a home audio system. You want the same low end extension in a pa, as you would in a home system. You'd use similar low cuts to instruments in those stituations. Paul is way off here.

Paul is right, they are built for efficiency in large enclosures, not for sound quality or bottom end extension. Some still use a few of the PA drivers for different projects, but it's not the normal stuff. And the rest of the equipment has to be really good when the sensitivity is so high.

While PA loudspeakers are generally not great for home hifi use, there are exceptions. At the lower end, Tannoy have always made very high efficiency speakers that are generally good for main monitors in a recording studio, but are good hifi speakers and also have pro audio applications. The 15 is an obvious example, but their 12 was quite common in hifi, studio and pro audio. When you get into the serious pro audio manufacturers there is a level of sophistication that most hifi set-ups can only dream of. Top shelf pro audio loudspeakers are always (and have been for decades) fully processed, full range and perfectly amplifier matched. Most of them have absolutely "flat" frequency responses and some have a "signature" phase response. The main drawback is distortion from the use of compression drivers, but some brands get around that with clever horn designs or ribbon emulation. In short, a very high end pro audio loudspeaker set-up optimised for the listeners taste, and the space it is placed in, will mop the floor with a similarly priced hifi set-up.

Had to point out that my favorite powered pa speaker is Electrovoice 15s. I think it is the loudest available today. Joyous to listen to in large areas.

Because of a few listening experiences long ago I had the notion that I wanted to create a home system made with the power of a PA and the tone and detail and soundstage of a HiFi. In short I used pro drivers, 18", 12" and compression driver, 2 Crown amps. one class D and one AB (nothing fancy, nothing expensive, all commonly available parts) and designed/experimented and repeated until I got to the open baffle setup I'm using now. The system plays in a large room, 24'x48', which is a workshop/ painting studio. It effortlessly brings life sized music to the space. the whole space, with great dynamics but you have to be playing north of 115 db for it to ever sound 'loud', it's just really natural. It's not the same as a Hifi sound, but it is really a great setup for where it is and what it does. Also, it has to be mentioned, acoustics play a massive role in this system, the acoustics of the open baffle designs and the acoustic treatment of the room, producing a flat and cohesive frequency response at the seating position in stereo from 20hz to 19k hz, except for a bit of remaining room mode around 26hz from the speaker distance to back wall distance. This whole experiment would be even more epic as a V2 using better parts and another round of baffle design evolution.

Can't beat Tannoy Dual Concentric professional audio loudspeakers no matter what. They're best of the best. Proven. Expensive they are, but there's that hi-fi sound signature one should expect from a well known manufacturer of high end loudspeakers. Nothing less. I swear by them. If Paul ever had a chance to hear them play... blindfolded of course!

Good morning all! The problem being an audiophile is that you're never satisfied. It's a moving target, no matter the gear you have or how "perfect" the reproduction, you're always chasing that little extra, that minute resolution imperfection that needs to be corrected at all cost. Hence I love building my own gear and blessed with the ability to do such. Everyone said I'm nuts to put a pair of Altec VOTT A7 in my living room, then they hear it and go WOW! LOL!!

the big difference you would here is PA speakers are a lot more cleaner highs and mids and the lows are tighter not so much woofy sound

Line-array speakers should do well in homes. The McIntosh flagship is a line-array design.

AND by the way, MICS have Rolloff cause the human voice AVERAGE is Men: 85 to 155 Hz, and female from 165 to 255 Hz. So anything is lower is no needed ..

Here Paul complaining about PA speakers not having a little end just add a subwoofer then that takes care of the low end. Anyways, I use PA speakers in my home and they sound terrific without active crossover and everything else properly tuned it sounds amazing I don’t know what this guy is talking about. It’s got a wide soundstage and everything.

Sound quality and dynamics vs high SPL and long throw volume.

a fantastic explanation and with great respect. congratulations

Unless he is talking about some of the better brand Pro Audio gear. Klipsch has some absolutely great sounding Pro Audio speakers. They have some that are basically home models that are completely beefed up and sound even better than the home version. Then they have some that are not remade versions, but sound great.

if hifi speaker can play as loud as you want, then you are not missing out on the PA sound. i do recommend that people have enough cone area at 200hz and below for deep bass and impact. and high pass filter for main speakers if you got subwoofers. or at least buy sealed main speakers, which has acoustic rolloff.

PA speakers usually are not used for home use. And they weren’t intended for it either But that’s not to say the high end pro audio companies don’t make live/pro audio equipment and speakers that sound just as good as some of the best home audio. What makes the difference is the companys of the speakers. Most average pa speakers you find on the internet suck and are not made for high end music playback. Companies like RCF, FBT, L’acoustics, Martin audio, and more.. have combined high-res audio with extremely versatile and powerful systems that are designed and hand made within the same factory’s. Just as there are cheap home audio companies the same applys to live audio and There is a high-res side to the live audio world too. It all just depends on your use’s and what works best for your situation.

i use my dual 15 jbls and a powered 18 running off the computer to an eleven rack to a tascam porta studio powered with 1000w on each cabinet not counting the sub. i enjoy the sound of it really just need to eq for the small space of a living room.

I've made this argument many times even once on one of your videos Paul. But more and more of audiophiles listen to live recordings of concerts like rock, rap, and EDM concerts. And I personally think that the best way to get that "live" sounds is to use the same equipment these artists use on stage. You don't need a line array unless your constantly moving around the room. But if you've ever seen a pair of "void" pa speakers their absolutely gorgeous and you would easily mistake them for a pair of home speakers. And you talked about the processing when you talked about low end. You don't have to use a low end cut on your mains but even you decided to, you always have the option to use a subwoofer. As far as power is concerned a simple powersoft x4 amp can push 20k watts RMS. You'll never use that much but it's 5k×4 plenty of power to run 2 large speakers and 2 or 4 double 18" subs as it's a 4 channels with independent inputs and outputs if your like me and you wanna watch a Phish show (or to bring up a band you have to have heard of) the string cheese incident. "As they play free shows on the the mall in Boulder" I think the best way to reproduce that experience at home is to use the same equipment the band used when they played their concert. Also people should look up replacement speakers on their favorite $5000 pair of speakers. You'll find that are usually around $100 maybe $200 but usually $100. Also if your gonna use a tube amp, your gonna want the most efficient speaker you can find. Some of these pa speaker,"very few" but some are up to 109db@1w/1m. So you certainly don't need a massive amp like the powersoft or a crown or a dan dagastino. (Imo) you just need to pick your components right. I love your channel Paul and agree with just about everything you say but not this. I simply don't disagree with you about this subject. I did the last time you brought this subject up and I still do today. But I love these videos

Chris to Paul, did you say something, my inbox just exploded

some times pa speakers can sound surprisingly musical,...but thats usually the exception )

In an diy open baffle system, a pair (x 2 for stereo 12 or 15 inch bass speakers with high efficiency (100 dB @1w, 1m) are a great sounding blessing. For the mid en high frequencies, you'd better stick with hi-fi speakers.

Ralf is asking if he can use PA speaker drivers in a DIY speaker, that is an hole other thing then just use a ready made PA speaker box. There are truly amazing PA drivers out there, look at B&C, BMS, Beyma, Eminence etc when it comes to tweeters and midrange/midbass, but for deep bass there are easier to go with regular Hifi drivers.

Using 2 EV EKX 15p and 2 EKX18p for the movie/TV setup and Yes it sounds like the movie theatre lol

Hi paul, for a wedding with 200 people on the dance floor buth the place is for 1000 people, i want to use 2 x15 inch subs for the dancefloor an just 1 18inch for fill the place, us this a good setting? Greetings

PA speakers are basically for sound reinforcement. Home speakers are for sound reproduction.

Queens New York, and I’m getting flashbacks of “coming to america”

The jbl 2241 and jbl 2245 differ in suspension and resonance fr...the quality of bass in livingroom of the 2245 is amazing , as is the jbl 4345 monitor....

I think extended bass has hit pa speakers as well. Whenever I walk by an open air deejay the bass is all I hear.

Compression drivers are among the most accurate speaker drivers available, partly because they have such low mass that they can respond to a sound signal almost instantly, much more quickly than a large cone driver. This makes for a more realistic and lively sound. As well, a speaker system that can play at a continuous 120 dB with acceptable distortion figures will have almost undetectable distortion at normal home listening levels. Modern speakers with Tractrix horn loading can combine realistic sound, low distortion, and lifelike dynamics. Stop by your Klipsch Heritage dealer to hear examples of these types of speakers. Keep in mind that most speaker companies produce speaker systems that try to be competitive across a wide price range. High end sound usually costs high end money, in engineering and design as much as the quality of the cabinet and what’s inside it. Speakers that you can find at Best Buy don’t represent the best that most companies can produce. That’s why I recommend a visit to a Klipsch Heritage dealer if you want to find out what economical high end sound can do for you. As well, high end speakers tend to hold their value, but that often means the price they sold for when they were new, state-of-the-art, decades ago, when prices were much lower, so real bargains can be found if you’re willing to be patient and keep checking the various audio websites like USAudiomart or CanuckAudioMart.

Most pa speakers are a 4 way design. If you have a 3 way tower and a sub you have a 4 way system. Even in hifi there are almost no speakers that play down to 20hz in a straight line. So In my opinion adding a sub and that takes care of the bottom is essential. With a good dsp you could go even further: You could look at graphs of your tower. Look at the point where they lose db's in the bass, set your subs limit to a little lower than that, and your towers a little higher than that, and that's because Crossovers work in a slope, so the dbs you lose in that frequency range while playing your sub or your towers separately, you gain when adding the 2 together. This also relieves you low mid woofers from playing those frequencies. These are the hardest frequencies to handle so by having a sub to do that for them you strain your towers alot less

Been using pa speakers for years depends on the speaker love mine but they are not cheap

Sittin’ on da tooooiiet gettin learnt bout the *FART CIRCLES*

The Alcons RBN 1801 Pro Ribbon is one transducer I'd kill to get my hands on, but they won't sell to Us DIYers. Yet Powersoft's M Force linear motor EDM subwoofer does output extremely high SPL's down to 18 Hz.

What about speakers from a company like L'Acoustics?

One of the important things is dynamic. And only high-sensitive speakers can do that.

PA speakers/guitar amps are what guitarists are hearing when they conceive music so that what we want no? and electric drum speakers for the drums and regular high end speakers for the vocals?... 6 channels. But built them all into 2 speakers plz. Thank you.

I can’t believe anyone would even consider using commercial PA speakers for a home audio system.

You forgot that PA speakers are used in clubs or on big outdoor events where bass is necessary and obviously they are used with the subwoofers, the bass in the PA system is very important but most of the subs are focused in chest punch and they don't go below 40hz couse low bass on a high volume is stressing our ears a lot and is actually hard to reproduce effectively. Of couse PA speakers are not suitable for home audio unless you wanna trow a big party

Don't laugh but bose 802's sound amazing in a house.it's the eq that gives them the'warm' sound even at low volume.No tweeters no tinny sound.what do they say no highs no lows must be bose....ah well use them for what they were designed for.They are still fantastic vocally

What do you think of near field listening vs listening from a far?

Should your employees be leaving Computers unlocked. Not good for Data protection.

A friend of mine recently bought some large cheep Chinese plastic powered DJ party speakers on tripods with 15 inch woofers for his covered patio, they're really loud and sound absolutely bloody earsplittng painfully awful, give me a pair of half descent new or second hand 2 or 3 way tower speakers a sub or 2 with a reasonable AVR anyday

I humbly disagree, there’s no replacement for displacement! PA speakers are a wonderful choice to flood the room with music…they do it in clubs every night 🎉

My La Scala’s do it pretty well 😉

I use 2 Shure SR112's, which use 2, 8 inch woofers & 1 high-frequency driver which uses a horn to disperse the highs, A buddy once blew 1 of the H-F drivers,3 bolts attach it internally & it can be removed & one can replace the diaphragm in a minute & you are back in business sonically, The efficiency rating is 95.5 dB @ 4 feet with a 1 watt input, 8 ohms & 100 watt max input, They also use 2 ports, FR is 45 Hz-16,000Hz, I also use 6 Infinity speakers & dual subwoofers & power everything with a Marantz 4400 & the sound is Studio 54 like as one can feel the sound, These Shure SR112's have a SPL warning stating that they may cause perm hearing damage after prolonged exposure! Pardon

And yet Zu speakers use a driver from a Bass guitar amp as a woofer.

Get some good pa speaker's that what these high price speaker's are just make to look good.

There's plenty of bass in PA systems generally use a dedicated subwoofer array You have to represent all the musical instruments when on stage.

Poor Chris B mailbox 😢

I’m so gassy this morning

Do a KZfaq search on DIY PA speakers. Hit the 👍 on all the videos and save them in a KZfaq folder. That way Google’s algorithm’s will begin to follow you. It takes time for the algorithm’s to mature and stay focused, be patient. PS: make sure you are always signed in to your KZfaq account when doing this.

I farted Paul

Hmmmm there is so much more on "PA" speakers that you left out of your answer... In fact much of the music you are attempting to replicate was mixed and mastered with "PA" systems in mind... Acoustic performance maybe not, but much of non-acoustic (everything else) is mixed with PA speakers in mind. So one could postulate that listening to PA mixes on NON-PA system is completely inaccurate... NO??

What an odd question, maybe he lives in a field ...

When I go to a concert listening to some band playing loud through some PA speakers, I always conclude it sounds like crap, and, for most music I enjoy, the claim that “live music” sound is better than a studio production sound is bogus. For near 100% if the music I enjoy, studio production played through audiophile speakers win.

Sorry to say but your speakers Paul are way far from the average audiophile user.