Presonus air powered speakers

[Stokely]

Kind of a narrow topic, but I didn't see the Alto thread (where this could have been tacked on).  

I see that a few different Presonus Air models are on sale, including at Sweetwater (2 year warranty).  Presonus has a 6-year warranty on these, whereas I think the Altos only have 1 or 2 (?)   That is a pretty good indicator to me.   On the down side, the user base for these is very small compared to the more well-known brands.  I'm curious whether any of you have scoped these out.  Until today I didn't even know Presonus made speakers...

I'm eyeing the Air10 which is $125 off, so $374.   I was already debating something like the Alto 408/410s vs jumping up to Yamaha dxr or RCF.   I don't often use a monitor, either for keys or as a wedge, but I have a few gigs coming up where I'll need one.  I have a couple old ebay specials (off brands made in china) that are pretty bad, but hell they were $325 for a PAIR of 12" powered speakers so what can you expect!

I'd like to perhaps start using a wedge again on gigs where I can get far enough away from the drums.  We all go direct so no amps to worry about.  My not-so-secret dream is that our drummer gets an e-kit   He'd be willing if he had the cash...it would mean way easier setup for him.   

Reviews such as I can find are decent on these, I can't find much on the way of reliability.   At this point in my life and gigging life, I'm more in the "buy once, cry once" mindset though miserly habits die hard!  If not for the fact that I normally use IEMs (due to drum volume) I'd be willing to go way up in price and quality.

Edit: Seeing that the RCF hd10a isn't that much more than these.  Kind of leaning in that direction instead if I don't go up (or down to the Altos!).  I've just heard a lot of great things about RCF (and used one of their monitors once and been impressed)...knowing however that newer models may not be the same quality as older.

[D. Gauss]

no idea about warranty/quality as i don't have one but will be buying a ts408 soon.  some thoughts from looking at specs:

 

altos are:

cheaper... ts408=$249

lighter..  20lbs.  vs 30lbs

more powerful...  2000 peak vs  1200 peak

have a larger tweeter... 1.4" vs 1 inch

have bluetooth... (rock some summer mp3 tunes in your backyard)

 

presonus is now owned by fender so like some other fender owned things, these "could" (disclamer: speculation only) be rebadged speakers of another brand with "presonus" slapped on them as presonus only has a history of making studio monitors.  that could be good or bad, depending source.  and to be fair, headrush and alesis strike speakers are rebadged altos.

 

buy one of each and return the one you don't like.

 

[Stokely]

Now that we are (sorta) in post-covid times (or at least I and everyone else is mostly out going places!) I might see what they have at local stores and actually listen in person (gasp!). I suspect it will be the usual EV, JBL, Yamaha.  Nothing wrong with those brands and there is something to be said for a larger user base!  

The more I think on it, the less I want to be a guinea pig at all with a brand not used by many.   Alto certainly makes sense for my current situation, which is IEMs a big majority of the time.  I guess if I get in a situation where I'm back on a speaker more it's not like I'm out much if I wanted to go higher end down the road.  More worried about reliability than anything, but there's enough Alto users out there where I should be able to get a sense of that.  I won't be driving my speaker(s) hard so high-SPL performance is not a concern.

[ElmerJFudd]

This is interesting.  Another sub $500 model to pick from. I’d be curious to hear how it sounds.  Though disappointed to see it has lesser specs than the Alto.  

[Tom Williams]

For what it's worth, I bought a pair of used Alto TX12's (their low end maybe now discontinued) 5 or 6 years ago.  I have used them to fill a moderate storefront interior, but otherwise not pushed them much beyond 50%.  They still work perfectly.

[aronnelson]

Although the QSC 10's are probably the best (to me), they are heavy so I bought 2 JBL Eons for $500 (or maybe less with the Amazon CC) - maybe I got both for $350. They sound really good on the gig and are plenty loud to me. They are very similar to the Personus with DSP for EQ.

Unfortunately they don't make them anymore, the new ones are probably better.

I have not had good luck with Presonus. My interface are abandoned quickly, then the posts went scratch fast. Then their USB interfaces popped when turning on/off. But I'm sure there are other models that are much better than the ones I got.

[zephonic]

I own an Air 12. Used it on gigs a lot, but felt that it didn’t always cut thru in high density/volume situations. It sounds nice in isolation, but not all that different from the others in that category. A little warmer, maybe.

 

I gigged with it for about 6 months and decided it wasn’t worth the schlep. Now it stays at home as a monitor next to the piano.

[niacin]

I have an Air10, used it on gigs with a loud electric blues band, cut through just fine, comparing it to a Yamaha DBR10 they really sound quite similar, out of the box Yamaha tends to scoop the mids out while the Presonus is more punchy, but with the various pole/monitor etc. options available they can sound very similar, though I'd still give the PResonus the edge on punchy.  The Yamaha is 3kg lighter.  fwiw I'm selling both of them as I just bought an EV Everse8 which I tested on a gig with said loud electric blues band last night and it worked great. Oh and it weighs 7kg, so while it's more expensive, it will cut down my chiropractor bills.

[Mark Schmieder]

Do air powered speakers also work off of farts, and if so, does it follow the GIGO principle (garbage in, garbage out)?