[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

…Thanks for your opinions.

Hi MS

My rig has to accommodate bass (electric and acoustic), acoustic guitar, vocals, and the occasional keyboard…so my 12" two way rig is about the perfect size cabinet. A 12" woofer will handle bass for small/medium small situations (if you feed it enough power) without getting muddy on the bottom. My system has community cabinets (brand) and bring an extra measure of fullness to the bottom end of acoustic guitars with clarity and not mud. My cabinets are passive, and I'm pushing them with 1200 watts of power (at 4 ohms). I like powered speakers, but they usually weigh quite a bit more than the non-powered ones, and I'm nearly 70 years old. I don't lift more than 35 pounds…ever.

Our church had high end QAC 10" two way cabinets, mounted 10 feet above the floor, and aimed to meet in the middle of the congregation about ⅔ of the way back in the room…and they drilled holes through people where the signals crossed. They could not push enough air to do bass without substantial sub-woofing, and totally non-portable. They would not have been a good choice for our acoustic groups. They finally went a line array rig (which is portable if you have 4 roadies to help you break-down and haul-out).

Back in the day Voice-of-the-Theater (15" two way) was the all American dream. And in a room of hundreds of people, they did a respectable job - but the bass player had his own cabinets, and so did the electric guitarist, and the organist had 2 Leslie cabinets. The only things in the PA were the vocals and the trumpet/trombone/sax. With today's music, 15" two/three way cabinets tend to be overly midrange prone and muddy on the bottom end (and weigh WAY too much…more than I want to set atop a pole and boost in the air).

If you want flexibility, I sure like the balance of 12" two way for ability to project and easily cover 300 people and still sound pleasant.

Just my opinions…