small PA head/amp to power a 15" speaker?

[El Lobo]

my friend wants to run his keyboard to a passive 15" speaker but needs a small (and of course inexpensive) PA head/amp, rather than lugging a heavy, large 6 or 12 channel head to set up to play some background music at a cocktail party. He has smaller guitar amps and I have offered to lend one of my QSC K8s, but he's fixated on using his big speaker. Is there such a thing as a small amp with an XLR input that would power the speaker and not cost too much?

[CEB]

This looks small.  Just 250 watts a side.  I don’t know Jack about it at all but it’s an idea. 
 

https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0601-AHP

[drawback]

I was thinking one of those tiny bass heads. Obviously he’s going mono, and driving a 15 is in bass territory. 
 

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VentureV3--ampeg-venture-v3-300-watt-bass-head ?

[Delaware Dave]

5 pounds 300 watts  link

 

[The Piano Man]

I actually have the aforementioned Behringer as part of a B rig with a pair of passive 8s. More often, I use either powered speakers (EV or QSC) or when convenience is key, a fairly brutal sounding Roland KC.
 

It’s handy having the extra inputs for me as I run piano in stereo and a separate line for my acoustic bass sound. This might not be an issue for your friend. If so, the bass heads are a decent idea.

 

Personally, I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on an amp head for a passive 15 as, whilst I don’t know the model of speaker, I will be surprised if your friend doesn’t get better sound spending the money on, say, a single Alto TS speaker. I can see you have already tried to guide him to the active route with the offer of your own K8!! So maybe he just really wants a passive 15 and separate amp head, but I can’t really understand why.

[Reezekeys]

Let me get this straight - he turned down your offer to lend him a K8, rather choosing to BUY an amp to power a larger speaker he thinks he needs to play background music at a cocktail party? Lots to parse there.

 

It's more than likely your K8 will sound a thousand times better than any amp he uses with that 15" speaker. He actually thinks a QSC K doesn't have the juice to do a gig playing background music? Wow.

[The Piano Man]

Yes, I fear this cocktail party will be treated to a rather mid rangey, muffled sound whilst those sipping their pina coladas knock into the unnecessarily large 15” speaker cabinet that is taking up an excessive amount of space. 

[stoken6]

Nothing to add to @Reezekeys's comment. Is the objection to your K8 that "it's not loud enough"? Or another reason, like he's worried he will break it?

 

If he's going to spend anything, a small full-range powered speaker is the thing to buy. An Alto TX308 sounds like it's made for this kind of gig, for what $150ish?

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

 

[El Lobo]

Thank you all for your comments. I agree with the small powered PA speaker as the best solution. The Alto TX 308 with 8” woofer is $120 on Amazon. Seems perfect for a 1-time or occasional use. My friend believes the sound through my K8 won't be noticeably better than going through his Blues Jr. guitar amp, and that going through his 15" speaker will be better sound.

[Reezekeys]

1 hour ago, El Lobo said:

My friend believes the sound through my K8 won't be noticeably better than going through his Blues Jr. guitar amp

 

So, a 1000-watt 2-way speaker won't be noticeably better than a 15-watt open-back tube guitar amp, with a single 12" speaker – for a keyboard?

 

I assume you gave up on recommending anything to him? If the K8 isn't good enough, the TX308 certainly won't be!

 

How about this - if he thinks a 15" speaker is what he needs for better sound, why stop there? 🙂 

 

[El Lobo]

1 hour ago, Reezekeys said:

 

So, a 1000-watt 2-way speaker won't be noticeably better than a 15-watt open-back tube guitar amp, with a single 12" speaker – for a keyboard?

 

I assume you gave up on recommending anything to him? If the K8 isn't good enough, the TX308 certainly won't be!

 

Yes. I did suggest that the Alto speaker might be better than the 15", as well as the Blues Jr. But he does not accept that I might know more about this than he does. He's my former long-time business partner, we're both retired. It was always this way. He gets an idea in his head about what would be good and my suggestions about a better way to go are discounted. Of course it's not possible that I might know better than he about such things. 

[elif]

1 hour ago, El Lobo said:

Yes. I did suggest that the Alto speaker might be better than the 15", as well as the Blues Jr. But he does not accept that I might know more about this than he does. He's my former long-time business partner, we're both retired. It was always this way. He gets an idea in his head about what would be good and my suggestions about a better way to go are discounted. Of course it's not possible that I might know better than he about such things. 

Your friend would prefer his single 15 for which he would have to buy an amplifier, over a loaner K8 for background music at a cocktail party.  There's probably no helping this one.

[El Lobo]

1 hour ago, elif said:

Your friend would prefer his single 15 for which he would have to buy an amplifier, over a loaner K8 for background music at a cocktail party.  There's probably no helping this one.

No, you're right. There is no helping this. I probably shouldn't have brought it up in the first place.

[Bill H.]

I'd say just give him what he wants then. Here's three listings for bass heads in your local CL that are $200-$275:

 

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/d/fremont-peavey-mark-iii-bass-amp-head/7795508390.html

 

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/d/stanford-gallien-krueger-gk-mb200-bass/7788943300.html

 

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/d/saratoga-mark-bass-little-mark-ii/7790667547.html

 

I think most of us have been there with bass heads at one point or another in our gigging lives. What can I say... they get the job done. 

 

 

[The Piano Man]

Is he the type of guy that picks speaker and amp systems based on 1) how big and imposing they look and 2) the more watts the better?

 

Some 5000kw systems on eBay with huge speakers and all for just $99 (Warranty not included)

 

 

 

[DroptopBroham]

12 hours ago, El Lobo said:

My friend believes the sound through my K8 won't be noticeably better than going through his Blues Jr. guitar amp, and that going through his 15" speaker will be better sound.

 

You're friend is pretty much right. The K8 will definitely sound better than a Blues Jr. but that 15" if it's a good driver in a good cab is going to sound great with that little Hartke, assuming that 15 cab has a tweeter on board. If it's just an old bass cab with no tweeter he should go K8. 

[Montunoman 2]

I find a lot of older guys think they need at least a 15 inch speaker. Case in point, I got a call to play drums and provide a PA system from an 87 year-old pianist singer. The music was sort of background jazz for a birthday party. He was convinced we need 15 inch speakers since  we’re playing outside. I told him I only had K8,K10,or K12, and I told him any of those would work fine. He seemed a little worried, but requested the K12. I ended up setting up the K-1O, he loved the results and he hired for some more dates. Next time I just won’t say anything and I’ll set up the K-8.! 
 

Here’s footage of the event: 

 

 

[ProfD]

18 hours ago, El Lobo said:

My friend believes the sound through my K8 won't be noticeably better than going through his Blues Jr. guitar amp, and that going through his 15" speaker will be better sound.

If possible, let your friend hear his KB through the K8.

 

If he still insists on using the 15" speaker and a power amp, that's between him and his chiropractor.😎

[Montunoman 2]

9 minutes ago, ProfD said:

If possible, let your friend hear his KB through the K8.

 

If he still insists on using the 15" speaker and a power amp, that's between him and his chiropractor.😎

Ironically, the 87-year-old guy that I mentioned above probably wouldn’t need my services if he used something like a K-8 or Bose S1 Pro. Either of those would be perfect for him, but he insist those would not give them the coverage that he needs for just his piano and vocals! 

[kpl1228]

Way off topic here. Everyone analyzing the guy wanting not to borrow something but instead wanting to buy something so he doesn't feel like a mooch (which I would do too as at some point every gigging keyboardist should have their own sound setup as an option); the 8" vs 10" vs 12" discussion; the obsolescence of the 15" discussion; weight discussion....jeez.

Any of that lower end behringer/harbinger/alto stuff should work from Sweetwater or Guitar Center. Though this is the kind of situation that instead screams "used old amp head for sale locally and under $100." (Craigslist, marketplace, etc)

 

[Reezekeys]

1 hour ago, Montunoman 2 said:

Ironically, the 87-year-old guy that I mentioned above probably wouldn’t need my services if he used something like a K-8 or Bose S1 Pro. Either of those would be perfect for him, but he insist those would not give them the coverage that he needs for just his piano and vocals! 

 

Ironically, the smaller 8" woofer of the K8 gives more coverage, in terms of the angle. Doesn't throw as far as the bigger woofers, but exactly how far do you need to go when you're playing background music at a cocktail hour?!