Anyone own (or demo) these? Where do these fit in quality wise? Comparing against the QSC K/KW offerings for a pop/soul band with E-drums. I need some good low end because we don't have an acoustic kit and the bass is DI. All this is running thought an X32 with p16m personal mixers so I am already in the Behringer eco-system.

These have a low price point, but if they sound like poop who cares about DSPs ans Ultranet connections.

We recently outfitted our church with the X32 and IQ speakers. I believe we were one of the the first to get them from sweetwater. We installed two IQ12s and two IQ18 subs in our sanctuary and they're great.

Everything is connected over cat5 using the Ultranet port on the back of our stage boxes. God really did bless us with sound system!!!

Aaron,
How many people do you serve with the speakers and what types do you use?
Did you compare the IQs with other speakers?

We're a smaller church with a congregation of about 150 people and growing. A 5 piece "Christian-rock" band plays every service and the system sounds wonderful. We were originally going to go with QSC KWs but the IQ sounded better and were more affordable. The cost savings alone paid for an X32 rack!

Did you compare the subs? How was the low end vs the KW181? I am really interested in getting a solid low end as my band is 100% direct (no amps + E Drums)

I mix several local bands with the X32 and now also with the new XR18 which I am very happy with. For smaller gigs we just use the XR18 and an iPad.
I decided to dump my analog gear and Pa racks to go digital all the way. Also wanted to get rid of my old RCF speakers that are crapping out a higher volume.

We did a pretty extensive speaker shoot out between JBL 700 series, QSC K series and Turbosound iQ series. Over two weeks we had eight bands judge the sound and with one exception, they all opted for the iQ's which I prefer too. They sound really good, very deep and tight low end and clean highs. The iQ's get really loud without the usual fatiguing harshness you hear when speakers are pushed to the limit. I find them a bit heavier than the JBL's but then they sound much better.

What is really convenient is the fact that you can connect the iQ's via Ultranet to the X32 and now also XR18. Just daisy-chain them via cat5 cables and you're done. Just found out that there is speaker modeling in the iQ's so you can make them sound like JBL's, EAW's etc. I am curious how that sounds, but haven't tried yet.

We bought 8 iQ12's, 2 iQ15's and 6 iQ18's and everyone is very impressed. I can honestly say we never had better sound and all the analog gear, amps, racks, snakes are finally gone. Amazing how technology has advanced.

That's really helpful.

Question: For a typical bar setup where you might use two tops and one or two subs, would you use two IQ12's or the iQ15's (with the iQ18's)?

We went for the Iq12's because we move our equipment around and we have limited space so size matters. However I have to say the iq15's go lower and for some gigs I even run them without any subs.
For mid size clubs I would go for 2 iq12's and 2 iQ18's. You will be very pleased with the performance of these speakers. A friend of mine who runs a rental company and heard the iQ's is now moving out all his JBL's and goes for the iQ's but also some of the new larger Turbo wood cabinet speakers with digital networking. Being able to run your gigs over cat5 is just really convenient and I am so glad the days of carrying heavy snakes and amps are gone.

It's always nice to hear from a someone that owns the products, thanks.

I have an XR18 and I'm intrigued by these speakers and using Ultranet to connect. However, the X Air Edit software doesn't seem to have any control functions for Ultranet. Do you have to make all the adjustments using the speakers' LCD control display?

If it works like the X32 you just tell which P16 channel the Output is. So you can make P16 Out 1 = Main L and P16 Out 2 = Main R. Then you go to the back of the speaker and assign one to (1) and the other to (2).

On the X32 I can also change the speaker voicings from the board too. If its not built in yet its probably just a matter of time on X air.

Just to give you all an update - we just bought 6 iQ8s for different rooms and fills and they sound great too for their size!!

God Bless.

Aaron

I had one IQ12 and a IQ18B to play with today. Made a comparison with some of our RCF TT stuff and some MI gear from dB technologies and EV EKX. It killed the dB and EV stuff right away soundwise. The IQ is really smooth sounding and it holds its sound characteristic even when pushed hard. SPL wise I was quite impressed. The IQ12 is about 3 or 4dB lower in volume than our RCF TT22, when hitting the limiter. The TT22 is rated at 131 SPL max. But the TT sounded really bad when pushed that far. On the other hand one RCF8004 18" Sub and one RCF TT25 was clearly louder than the IQ12+IQ18B (about 6dB)...well, it better should be, concerning the price tag on the TT stuff.
Altogether I was surprised, how good the IQ stuff performed.
I think I will get some for smaller gigs...

our band hast he iq 15 tops and 15 bottoms and it really bangs great sound verry clear , the bottoms are verry punchy and loud they blew the mackie srm 18s we had out the water ! the tops are heavy butbuilt well , the bottoms are light and have verry nice rollers. we have a 6piece weddig band chick 3 male vox and sax all sound great

Hey Crowder, so can you confirm that the XR18 can work with the IQ speakers by connect the Cat5 cable directly with each other? If that's the case, it would be great! Thank you in advance.

BTW: I rarely used a feedback destroyer before, but I wanted to know, if and how it works in the Turbosound IQ series. I switched it on, set it to "auto", pointed a Beta58 to the speaker an slowly increased the volume. Actually it works really good. Good thing: If the power fails, and the box comes back after the power is restored, it still has the filters set. So if you don't have the chance or time to ring out your monitors, maybe use this function. Crappy phone video here-->

I don't know, actually. I haven't laid hands on any of the Turbosound stuff as of yet.

Brat, I currently own a pair of RCF HD32A and a 8003 sub, but thinking to get a pair of IQ10 and 15B sub for small and medium event. Based on your judgement, do you think the IQ top cabinet has similar performance as the RCF in terms of clarity, the frequency response on the HD is very linear. Thank you in advance.

I don't know the HD32A, but we own twelve RCF HDL20A. I think they use the same 2" HF driver in both boxes. The RCF TT and HDL stuff uses original RCF precision drivers and generally are quite "in your face" sounding. It depends how you set up your mix, but when I mix on our RCF gear I almost always use some cuts EQwise between 2-4kHz. The IQ tops are generally smoother sounding but not in a bad way. Some MI gear tends to have a build in loudness with boosts in the low and highs and cuts in the mids. Not with the IQ stuff, you will have no problems to get vocals on top of a mix. When listen carefully, you will notice, that the RCF TT stuff has a tad more resoultion in the upper midrange and hights. Reverbs have a bit more depth and are more "3D". But considering the fact that a TT22 is four times more expensive than a IQ12 I'm not surprised.

SPL wise I would guess, that your HD32A will be roughly 3dB louder. But nearly all newer RCF tops tend to sound really ugly, when pushed into the limiter. The IQ stuff hardly changes its sound when pushed very hard. The IQ tops have a RMS and a peak limiter. They did a very good job DSP wise imho.

In addition, I tested the IQ 15B and the IQ 18B. The IQ 15B is basically as loud as the 18" sub, it just don't go as low. These are normal bass reflex subs with ordinary drivers, nothing fancy beside the fact, that they use 6 Ohm drivers. I don't know the RCF8003 sub that good. If I recall it right, there might be a RCF L18-P300 driver in it. This is an old, but professional driver, which produces some serious push. I would guess, that it will be louder than a IQ 15/18B. Soundwise I never really liked RCF subs. They go loud but to my ears, there are also far from being tight. Seems that they are opted more for spl than for sound. The IQ subs are imho a good compromise between sound&spl.

I hope this helps

Brat, thank you so much for all the details. Sounds like the IQ is a great deal and has a great performance to price ratio, I will give it a try. As long as I can confirm it will work with the XR18 by Ultranet, I will place the order.

To me the RCF top is still great speakers, way better than QSC, JBL...and I agree with you on the RCF subs, they have serious push but not very musical and lack of tightness. Please share with us more of your experience on the IQ if you can. I greatly appreciate it!

Brat, what would be your favorite speakers, in terms of clarity? And subs? Have you have a chance to listen to the RCF Evox series? Really wanna know your opinion. Thanks.

Could you be a bit more specific? Favorite speakes at what prince range, what purpose? It's all about compromise..there is no speaker, that does it all.

I never heard the RCF Evox, but in general I'm not so into these small column speakers because of the baffle step effect that comes with them. I don't want to work with speakers smaller than the NXL24a. Smaller columns tend to be nearly onmidirectional, what I really don't like. I can work for some styles (singer-songwriter, light acoustic music), but I would refuse to mix a complete band with that kind of speakers. I mixed on HK Audio Elements (Big Pack) and a big Foohn Linea system (pricey as hell) and it just don't work that good for bands to my ears.

Bart, most of the time I sing with backing tracks in small and medium venues, but I just get started to do sound for a three-men band, drum, guitar and keyboard (have to mic up the drum and guitar). So a well-balanced system with great clarity is what I'm looking for. Price wise, I would say under $2,000 per top speaker. Since we both think RCF sub is far away from tightness, what will be your pick? Thanks again.

Well, you will have to compromise one way or the other. Here in Germany 2,000$ equals 2.000€. It is too much for any mi stuff but a tad too less for an active pro top. We do have a lot of smaller manufactures over here with really great stuff (like Kling & Freitag, Seeburg, Lamba Labs, KS Audio, Foohn and so on), there you might find a real classy top for 2k. For example the TX-2 Lambda Labs | professional acoustics

The TX-2a is a tad louder than a RCF-TT22, but it sounds way better. More open, transparent and it keeps its sound, even when pushed very hard. It has a streetprice around 2k. Put a MF-15 sub under it, and you got a lightweight, loud system with top notch sound. I'm very confident, that you will have over the pond these kind of smaller vendors as well. But most of them are unknown to me. I mixed one over a smaller Vue HS Speakersystem, liked it a lot - sounds really good. Maybe someone can chime in.
On the other hand, maybe give the IQ stuff a try. These are not the most tansparent, loudest boxes out there. But they have a nice warm sound, even at high levels and are very flexibel (DJ or live sound), not to heavy and really a steal for what they do...

Thanks a lot, Brat. I believe those small manufacturers you mentioned above make really good stuff, coz I really have confidence on German made gears. However, it's very hard to find distributors in the US, maybe they just don't target the US market. I just sent Lambda Labs an email, will see how they get back to me. Or else I'll be stuck with RCF or FBT since they are more common in the US. Will see if I can get a demo for the IQ nearby. I don't need my system to be very loud since I only play a small to medium venues, so clarity is the most important thing to me. Thanks again for all the information, that's very helpful.

Wow those Lamda Labs speakers look great!! I'm seriously interested to find out what they cost in the UK!! Bratwurst, how do those subs compare to the likes of the mi subs I'm considering (QSC KW181, JBL PRX718XLF etc)?

I have no idea, if they are available outside Germany and Austria. The MF-15 kills any MI 18" sub on the spot. The 15" driver is the most expensive BMS neodymdriver and the ampmodule is a bridged Powersoft cell. Different league - soundwise, SPL wise and pricewise:-)
The MF-15a is just 38cm high, so it fits under any stage. It weights only 30kg, you can drag it around on your own. You won't find this in the mi market.

Something similar qualitywise would be this-->
TW Audio Product Catalogue // PA-SYS-ONE

These are 2x15" subs and 2x12/1.4" Tops. The top is only 33kg and looks like a conventional 12/2" top. Really good system. Lightweight, very compact and it can go really loud.
TW Audio Product Catalogue // T24N

Yes those look like quality systems. Saying that, I also like the look of the Shermann Audio stuff over here in the UK.
Most of their stuff uses Fatial Pro drivers and Powersoft amps.

http://www.shermann.com

I'm particularly interested in their Blue Rig

http://www.shermann.com/Data-Colours/BLUE-Rig.pdf

The Black Rig also looks great but the tops are heavier than I would like to put up on poles by myself on a regular basis

http://www.shermann.com/Data-Colours/BLACK-Rig.pdf

Can't believe those Lambda Labs TX-2a tops only weigh 16kg and the subs 30kg!! That's more what I'm talking about! I'm guessing they are gong to be completely out of my league pricewise. I expect I'll end up with something like the EKX18sp or PRX718xlf though due to budget.

Yes those look like quality systems. Saying that, I also like the look of the Shermann Audio stuff over here in the UK.
Most of their stuff uses Fatial Pro drivers and Powersoft amps.

Welcome to Shermann Sound Systems website.

I'm particularly interested in their Blue Rig

http://www.shermann.com/Data-Colours/BLUE-Rig.pdf

The Black Rig also looks great but the tops are heavier than I would like to put up on poles by myself on a regular basis

http://www.shermann.com/Data-Colours/BLACK-Rig.pdf

Can't believe those Lambda Labs TX-2a tops only weigh 16kg and the subs 30kg!! That's more what I'm talking about! I'm guessing they are gong to be completely out of my league pricewise. I expect I'll end up with something like the EKX18sp or PRX718xlf though due to budget.

The MF-15 looks like a horn-loaded design, but few of the German speaker manufacturers you mentioned above have distributor in the US. That's kind of sad...wish there's a way to buy them...

I opened the sub, it is just a normal bass reflex with a very long rectangular reflex port. The only thing is, that the 15" mounting is slanted, otherwise the box must be higher to fit. The performace comes from a top notch driver & ampmodule in combination with a propper dsp programming from someone who knows what he's doing;-)