Suggestions for new sound system

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

Traynor made cheap products? Here in Canada, Traynor/Yorkville is a very respected brand. I had always heard that the early Traynor stuff was even more top shelf than what they make now. Of course you may be referring to their acoustic amp line, which admittedly I don't know a ton about.

Hi Petty

I'm an old guy (nearly 72 yrs old in mid-2020) and the original Traynor gear was pretty cheaply made. But they finally stepped it up in quality, and by the time the Yorkville stuff came out, it was a solid company with stable gear.

I owned 2 sets of Yorkville cabinets, and one of the amps. They were a lot like Peavy which was also a company which started out making really cheaply built gear, but kept reinvesting in the company to improve their lines rather than just cash out and move on.

Their early custom amps were solid, but they also sold a lot of no-better-than-average consumer grade gear. Their 'history' on Wikipedia is 'kind'.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi Petty

I'm an old guy (nearly 72 yrs old in mid-2020) and the original Traynor gear was pretty cheaply made. But they finally stepped it up in quality, and by the time the Yorkville stuff came out, it was a solid company with stable gear.

I owned 2 sets of Yorkville cabinets, and one of the amps. They were a lot like Peavy which was also a company which started out making really cheaply built gear, but kept reinvesting in the company to improve their lines rather than just cash out and move on.

Their early custom amps were solid, but they also sold a lot of no-better-than-average consumer grade gear. Their 'history' on Wikipedia is 'kind'.

That's interesting. I honestly did not know that. I always just remember hearing the stories of Peter Traynor testing his amps by throwing them off of buildings. I found this excerpt from the Toronto Star when he passed away:

"He became somewhat famous for the crash tests he performed — throwing his amps off the second storey of the building, then replacing the glass tubes and seeing if they'd still work. If they passed the test, he put them into production, confident they could handle the abuse of a rock show."

What's interesting is apparently he had a meeting with Ampeg and they jokingly asked him about it thinking it was a lie and Peter was legitimately shocked that he was the only company doing that!

It's true though that Yorkville/Traynor have really made an effort to put out quality gear. I still don't think they get enough credit in the industry, especially outside of Canada. Their amps are often more robust than many Fender offerings, they just don't have the legacy I guess.

One thing I wish Yorkville would do a bit more is refresh their speaker line. I think their speakers sound great but I would love to see them compete against QSC, Yamaha etc and come out with something lightweight that sounds great. It seems like a lot of their offerings are still in the 50lb + range.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

That's interesting. I honestly did not know that. I always just remember hearing the stories of Peter Traynor testing his amps by throwing them off of buildings. I found this excerpt from the Toronto Star when he passed away:

"He became somewhat famous for the crash tests he performed — throwing his amps off the second storey of the building, then replacing the glass tubes and seeing if they'd still work. If they passed the test, he put them into production, confident they could handle the abuse of a rock show."

What's interesting is apparently he had a meeting with Ampeg and they jokingly asked him about it thinking it was a lie and Peter was legitimately shocked that he was the only company doing that!

It's true though that Yorkville/Traynor have really made an effort to put out quality gear. I still don't think they get enough credit in the industry, especially outside of Canada. Their amps are often more robust than many Fender offerings, they just don't have the legacy I guess.

One thing I wish Yorkville would do a bit more is refresh their speaker line. I think their speakers sound great but I would love to see them compete against QSC, Yamaha etc and come out with something lightweight that sounds great. It seems like a lot of their offerings are still in the 50lb + range.

Hi Petty

The handbuilt tube amps were great! They also had a line of "International" amps which were solid-state and made 'elsewhere' and were not as good as the custom tube amps.

As an older guy, I'm all in favor of companies designing much lighter cabinets and amps. That, or we need a caddy for venues to help we old guys get around the course.

[stephenT]

Can't say enough about the CP-8, fantastic speaker, very portable, excellent coverage and loud enough. That's one place where I would spend the extra $$s. Buy two, set one behind the band for a monitor and the audience. They are very feedback resistant.

A Behringer mixer would be fine, they have decent preamps. They've copied the best. I'd stay analog to hit your price point, their Behringer Xenyx series gets good reviews.

[Br1ck]

I know three different people who bought the 8" Beringer powered speakers because they thought they sounded better than the bigger ones, and run a sub when needed.

[guitarwebguy]

Appreciate all the great ideas!!