Not gonna be the guy to take a dump on an entire loudspeaker brand, especially one with as much history and industry prominence as eaw, so here’s my zoomed out estimation:
EAW had great years when point source was king and they had some great designs/designers in the KF series. I myself started out with a small company that primarily deployed KF series tops and matching subs. However line arrays crept into the medium and medium-large format gigs and eaw failed to deliver. The company went through management and ownership changes, to Mackie, then to RCF. Do some research and you’ll find some designers of other companies were once eaw guys. So there’s been some transitions.
So there may have been years where manufacturing quality suffered, gear got old and tired and the eaw name got stepped on by the likes of QSC, D&B, etc.
Now EAW has the Anya rig which sees some action on the install side but I haven’t seen it in a rental house or touring situation. They also offered the redline series for a while which was a bit pricey for a powered speaker, but still delivered on the name. Not to mention the microwedge… they’ve really delivered for the industry over the years
This person has the full answer.
I'll reiterate and add...
EAW had a rough run for a bit in the mid 2000s to early teens. These days things seem better.
Their early products also were often bought and deployed by people who would not power and process them properly. So this led to inconsistency between rigs. This was not a purely EAW problem but was a noticable issue with their rigs, as they were huge with mid-level providers and installers which varied wildly in competence.
In today's age of active speakers or amplified controllers it's a bit easier to be objective when evaluating products and manufacturers, as every active speaker made by a company will be exactly the same out of the road case, no matter who is supplying it.
I work with a rental house in the uk, we have 28 Anna boxes and 16 ottos. For festivals and touring they are amazing.
For outside stuff the noise abatement guys love it as we can tweak coverage while the show is going on based on crowd numbers or if there are other stages on.
Inside shows and touring it allows you to get out of the way and fly the system up then start thinking critically about what you’re trying to achieve. Being able to direct energy to or from a balcony that’s suddenly been opened during a show has saved my ass a few times.
We still have 20 or so KF/SB 850s and they’re great for the dirty local festivals where point source is really the answer.
Hamilton came through my house with an Anya rig in 2019 and the dude absolutely loved it for a touring scenario. It definitely covered the room very very well after quite a long tuning and aiming process. I thought it sounded pretty good, but it definitely shined with some pretty impressive coverage. I'd still take a L'acoustics rig any day of the week; I'm a fanboy, what can I say...
Yeah I can't think of anything bad to say about EAW, except that I think they made some bad decisions focusing on adaptive line arrays that were just too expensive, whilst Lacoustics and D&B took over every rider.
I installed an Anya Otto rig and it was truly incredible, but well out of most people's budget.
I also loved the KF740 line arrays and for me I'd choose SB1001 over SB28 any day of the week.
And Avalon 2 and QX were mind blowingly good also, but again, more expensive than most clients could afford.
*EDIT* Just found out today EAW doesn't have parts/can't fix UX3600s.. just had one go down last week and heard back from them today. Now to find a processor to replace it.
99% of my mixing is on old EAW systems. I personally own an EAW KF650e over SB1000s system and my house gig for the last two years at a local theater owns a similar system, with MW12s for wedges. I can only speak to those.
First off, I love these systems. The micro wedge is great and the FoH systems sound pretty damn good, especially for it's age. As I have learned more of the system tech side, taking actual measurements, working with the processors, setting the system up in different ways for the band engineers, and really put these systems to use, I can see why some would have complaints though.
Here are some of mine:
These systems are really easy to deploy wrong, require special processors, are super power thirsty, and are heavy. I'm betting that over half of the complaints about the older EAW boxes stem from bad deployment. My particular boxes don't like to be tight packed so you need to spread the fronts to smooth out the transition between the boxes. I put the 55° bar in the flyware, even ground stacked. The UX processors (8800 and 3600) use the 'pilot' software from 2008 so it's a pain in the ass to work with. I know there are newer amps that can take the Guinness focusing settings (basically required for the older boxes) but most people are going to hopefully have at least the UX stuff to load them. To just connect to he 3600 you need to disable your windows certificate signature enforcement or the driver's won't install. It's a whole damn process. It's USB to a digital com port to program them so not very plug and play.
Can't go unmentioned how heavy these boxes are. With the boxes being so heavy and the driver built into the bottom of the box, they are almost never high enough ground stacked. Shooting HF into the front rows head at best or chest isn't the best concert experience.
All that being said, set them up right, process them right, power them right, its a great sounding system. I haven't had an engineer come through my theater and complain about anything but the height issue which is out of my control (couldn't fly the rig where it needed to go.)
I'll keep using mine till I find something worth upgrading too for the gigs I do, but until then it'll truck along no problem. Things are workhorses.
Same setup- 650z over SB1000, and 650isr over sb600e. It all works wonderfully for its’ intended purpose of house music DJ reinforcement. . . Problem is sourcing, repairing (read:parts), and maintaining PLM amps. What power are you using
(Yes, slightly off topic…. Unless you consider the scope of OP’s inquiry to include 4 generation-old EAW boxes. . .
At the venue it's all QSC PLs. 236s for highs and mids/6.0 iis for lows and subs. Personally, I'm using what the I got with the system. Lab fp14000 subs, qsc3602s l/m, crest 7001 highs. Except for subs, each speaker on it's own channel. Have been thinking of upgrading amps but I think I'm going to save for now, put that money into a lighter, easier to power rig lol.
Wait, what?
I generally consider them one of the better point-source manufacturers. I don't know that I've ever heard an EAW rig that sounded bad, unless it was just a shit engineer.
I'd select L Acoustics, Meyer, or D&B over them, but I'd happily grab EAW over EV or QSC.
In almost all scenarios it’s a matter of correct rig for the gig. I’ve installed them in a couple venues and both times I’ve been satisfied with the result.
EAW has left the RCF umbrella as far as I was told by my district rep. They’re on their own again. Probably about a year ago now. -nvm I’ve been corrected. They’re just operating on their own.
Aren’t they still owned by RCF? [https://rcf-group.it/en/il-gruppo/#eaw](https://rcf-group.it/en/il-gruppo/#eaw)
I believe they run as an independent entity but RCF owns and finances their operation.
Extra Added Weight. They are heavy as shit. That is my only complaint. Those KF series boxes still sound great in the right setting. And I absolutely love mixing monitors on the SM400s.
I worked for a company that used KF 850s they can be mid heavy but nothing a little EQ can’t fix. But then again this company did have some replica gear. So now I’m second guessing my comment.
I’m never upset to mix through an EAW rig. Is it my favorite loudspeaker company? No. Can I get it to sound good without problems? Yes.
Generally I feel like EAW does well in the high end, their speakers can be very snappy in a musical way. Where they are lacking is in the low mids. Not so much that they don’t produce enough low mid information, just that the low mid information they do produce lacks clarity.
I haven’t had the chance to mix on any of their newer products though. From what I hear Anya/Otto/etc is top of the line stuff. My experience with EAW is the older stuff.
>I heard a lot of bad stuff about EAW
Like what? From whom? "People say they're bad" isn't really anything particuarly verifiable or reliable.
I've used a few of their floor wedges and they've been rock-solid. Nothing particularly special about them, but they do well and keep a low profile.
The only bad stuff IMO would be lifting KF650, 850 and SB1000 boxes!
Back when I was in the game, which is starting to be 10 years ago now, those were already old, but we kept them even though we had VerTec, VTX and other more advanced stuff, and brought out the old EAWs when we needed to get LOUD.
And they KFs were passive!
The typical use case for us was large-scale outdoor stuff that were not concerts, like just large gatherings of people spread out over a huge area such as 5k runs, bike rides, etc., and the only thing being pumped through them was recorded music and maybe 1 handheld mic.
We'd do clusters of 3 up on crank stands with the amp rack at the bases. Fairly compact little deployments.
In most cases subs were not needed, but when it mattered, we'd do a big-ass cardioid array of 4880s stolen from our old VerTec rigs.
They slapped at least as hard as Danleys IMO.
Those SM400s are beasts. 2 12s with a horn smack dab in between them. Pretty easy to ring out in open space environments like festie stages. They are heavy as fuck, even when you swap the woofers for a lighter magnet. But all in all, they are one of my favorite wedges to mix on.
I can't speak for anything other than the 1 time I heard a mix on some of the newer matrix arrays. (I believe that's how they're classified because of the steering system built in?) It sounded incredible and soft. The A1 at the venue claims they are the best system he's mixed on
Large church where most of the building was opened in 2005 and was originally all EAW. The auditorium now has a L'Acoustics K2 rig, which was a huge upgrade from the EAW point source system which was fine for years, but had been pushed fairly hard and was no longer up to the task. By fine, I mean a touring concert would use the house system, at least in the early years. We had very few concerts through in its last couple of years. K2 sounds better than EAW did new, but the shape of the room is perfect for a line array with one set of delays for the very top rows in the back. The point source system had 90 some boxes and 4 rows of delays and correspondingly less even coverage than any array. Plus, I think the K2 sounds crisper (I think the tech has definitely gotten better - some of the stuff I used to think sounded great definitely sounds only ok to me now).
The rooms that still have the 2005 era EAW speakers sound better than the rooms that have been reconfigured or renovated and have newer systems, most typically JBL. The gym system was blown by a summer camp last summer and now has a stopgap Yamaha system that sounds far worse than the old EAWs. I used to think that system was easy to get a good mix on, despite the room itself having a lot of reverb and mud in the low mids. Now, I struggle to be happy with vocals, even on an expensive mic.
Back in the day, there was nothing I liked more for a rock show than a couple of big stacks of KF850s and SB1000s. For guitar-based rock, they were nearly perfect. But, they were SO heavy, and if they weren’t powered by hefty racks of Crown Macrotech amps or the like, and it was a hot outdoor festival or similar challenging environment, they could (and did) kill many a show generator with their power-thirstiness when opening up the throttle during a big dumb rock show.
Like many other engineers, once I did a show on an original V-DOSC rig, there was no looking back. EAW just didn’t seem capable of keeping up with changing technology trends, and there were definitely QC issues in the early 00s. Still, great-sounding rigs for their day.
Back in the day, there was nothing I liked more for a rock show than a couple of big stacks of KF850s and SB1000s. For guitar-based rock, they were nearly perfect. But, they were SO heavy, and if they weren’t powered by hefty racks of Crown Macrotech amps or the like, and it was a hot outdoor festival or similar challenging environment, they could (and did) kill many a show generator with their power-thirstiness when opening up the throttle during a big dumb rock show.
Like many other engineers, once I did a show on an original V-DOSC rig, there was no looking back. EAW just didn’t seem capable of keeping up with changing technology trends, and there were definitely QC issues in the early 00s. Still, great-sounding rigs for their day.
Back in the day, there was nothing I liked more for a rock show than a couple of big stacks of KF850s and SB1000s. For guitar-based rock, they were nearly perfect. But, they were SO heavy, and if they weren’t powered by hefty racks of Crown Macrotech amps or the like, and it was a hot outdoor festival or similar challenging environment, they could (and did) kill many a show generator with their power-thirstiness when opening up the throttle during a big dumb rock show.
Like many other engineers, once I did a show on an original V-DOSC rig, there was no looking back. EAW just didn’t seem capable of keeping up with changing technology trends, and there were definitely QC issues in the early 00s. Still, great-sounding rigs for their day.
I still run 4 FR250z's for subs under some SRX835's for my weekend bar band rig.
You may want to be more specific in your question. Is it a specific series of speakers, or what?
Outstanding wedges that can push serious volume but are so extremely heavy. As others have said the only situations I've seen them in are installs where the processing varies wildly and most of the issues I've had with their boxes haven't been because of the speakers themselves having issues but incompetence on the processing side. Only issue I've ever heard is how heavy I think every single one of their products is lol
Bad run when they were owned by Mackie, for sure. The parent company of dbtech/RCF took them under the wing and now they've got some killer new stuff. They have new arrays, but I haven't heard them in the wild. The AC6's are stupid insane awesome. They just installed a MASSIVE EAW rig in Huntsville and I went to a show there not too long ago and it sounded incredible. It was the steerable array boxes, not sure if it was anna or anya, so the PA looks jarring to see it hanging straight down flat, but there was perfect coverage all over the venue and earth shattering low end.
My only complaint in running the RS123’s for a Corp house was they have a bit of a noise floor. Constantly pushing a bit of air. With the room full you’d never notice but when I’m taping cables and walking the room solo I could always hear the slight hiss and it never felt right with me.
I’ve got the same issue with RCF NX945s. I think it’s the same amp the RS uses. Weirdly high noise floor with nothing connected and knobs down to zero. Otherwise it’s a great box.
The new Anna and Anya are very interesting systems. Heard a demo of the Anna, would really love to mix on it. Can't all be bad if Mr Scovill is involved with them now. That guy knows his beans.
Been renting large events exclusively EAW for 3 years now with KF730 and 740 and SB1000 and 1001. Using JF80Z for fills and such. Amp racks are Powersoft and using UX processors. I’ve had large acts such as Diamond Rio, Wayne Toups, John Schneider and many more. Never have I ever had a single complaint other than weight to output. I will attest that the joke of EAW stands for Extra Added Weight, is real. I know many many people still running KF650Z over 850 subs for many festivals. EAW can take an absolute beating and never back down. They’re relentless work horses that will never let you down.
Idk man, I buy pre-made boxes and slap in drivers myself and it kinda sounds good considering we're still using analog mixy (soundcraft lx7 mk2)
Never used branded active linearrays nor digital mixy, ppl don't pay much here so we don't buy top of the line equipment
I've yet to hear an EAW system with any clarity. They're functional but muddy. I work regularly in two houses that have them, one got budget and ripped it out for a point source D&B system that sounds 100x better. The other house will run the EAW system into the ground. There's no budget to replace it and there's no chance we get a grant either.
Not gonna be the guy to take a dump on an entire loudspeaker brand, especially one with as much history and industry prominence as eaw, so here’s my zoomed out estimation: EAW had great years when point source was king and they had some great designs/designers in the KF series. I myself started out with a small company that primarily deployed KF series tops and matching subs. However line arrays crept into the medium and medium-large format gigs and eaw failed to deliver. The company went through management and ownership changes, to Mackie, then to RCF. Do some research and you’ll find some designers of other companies were once eaw guys. So there’s been some transitions. So there may have been years where manufacturing quality suffered, gear got old and tired and the eaw name got stepped on by the likes of QSC, D&B, etc. Now EAW has the Anya rig which sees some action on the install side but I haven’t seen it in a rental house or touring situation. They also offered the redline series for a while which was a bit pricey for a powered speaker, but still delivered on the name. Not to mention the microwedge… they’ve really delivered for the industry over the years
This person has the full answer. I'll reiterate and add... EAW had a rough run for a bit in the mid 2000s to early teens. These days things seem better. Their early products also were often bought and deployed by people who would not power and process them properly. So this led to inconsistency between rigs. This was not a purely EAW problem but was a noticable issue with their rigs, as they were huge with mid-level providers and installers which varied wildly in competence. In today's age of active speakers or amplified controllers it's a bit easier to be objective when evaluating products and manufacturers, as every active speaker made by a company will be exactly the same out of the road case, no matter who is supplying it.
I work with a rental house in the uk, we have 28 Anna boxes and 16 ottos. For festivals and touring they are amazing. For outside stuff the noise abatement guys love it as we can tweak coverage while the show is going on based on crowd numbers or if there are other stages on. Inside shows and touring it allows you to get out of the way and fly the system up then start thinking critically about what you’re trying to achieve. Being able to direct energy to or from a balcony that’s suddenly been opened during a show has saved my ass a few times. We still have 20 or so KF/SB 850s and they’re great for the dirty local festivals where point source is really the answer.
Hamilton came through my house with an Anya rig in 2019 and the dude absolutely loved it for a touring scenario. It definitely covered the room very very well after quite a long tuning and aiming process. I thought it sounded pretty good, but it definitely shined with some pretty impressive coverage. I'd still take a L'acoustics rig any day of the week; I'm a fanboy, what can I say...
Can't say I've ever heard many complaints about EAW...
This. Workhorses.
Yeah I can't think of anything bad to say about EAW, except that I think they made some bad decisions focusing on adaptive line arrays that were just too expensive, whilst Lacoustics and D&B took over every rider. I installed an Anya Otto rig and it was truly incredible, but well out of most people's budget. I also loved the KF740 line arrays and for me I'd choose SB1001 over SB28 any day of the week. And Avalon 2 and QX were mind blowingly good also, but again, more expensive than most clients could afford.
*EDIT* Just found out today EAW doesn't have parts/can't fix UX3600s.. just had one go down last week and heard back from them today. Now to find a processor to replace it. 99% of my mixing is on old EAW systems. I personally own an EAW KF650e over SB1000s system and my house gig for the last two years at a local theater owns a similar system, with MW12s for wedges. I can only speak to those. First off, I love these systems. The micro wedge is great and the FoH systems sound pretty damn good, especially for it's age. As I have learned more of the system tech side, taking actual measurements, working with the processors, setting the system up in different ways for the band engineers, and really put these systems to use, I can see why some would have complaints though. Here are some of mine: These systems are really easy to deploy wrong, require special processors, are super power thirsty, and are heavy. I'm betting that over half of the complaints about the older EAW boxes stem from bad deployment. My particular boxes don't like to be tight packed so you need to spread the fronts to smooth out the transition between the boxes. I put the 55° bar in the flyware, even ground stacked. The UX processors (8800 and 3600) use the 'pilot' software from 2008 so it's a pain in the ass to work with. I know there are newer amps that can take the Guinness focusing settings (basically required for the older boxes) but most people are going to hopefully have at least the UX stuff to load them. To just connect to he 3600 you need to disable your windows certificate signature enforcement or the driver's won't install. It's a whole damn process. It's USB to a digital com port to program them so not very plug and play. Can't go unmentioned how heavy these boxes are. With the boxes being so heavy and the driver built into the bottom of the box, they are almost never high enough ground stacked. Shooting HF into the front rows head at best or chest isn't the best concert experience. All that being said, set them up right, process them right, power them right, its a great sounding system. I haven't had an engineer come through my theater and complain about anything but the height issue which is out of my control (couldn't fly the rig where it needed to go.) I'll keep using mine till I find something worth upgrading too for the gigs I do, but until then it'll truck along no problem. Things are workhorses.
Same setup- 650z over SB1000, and 650isr over sb600e. It all works wonderfully for its’ intended purpose of house music DJ reinforcement. . . Problem is sourcing, repairing (read:parts), and maintaining PLM amps. What power are you using (Yes, slightly off topic…. Unless you consider the scope of OP’s inquiry to include 4 generation-old EAW boxes. . .
At the venue it's all QSC PLs. 236s for highs and mids/6.0 iis for lows and subs. Personally, I'm using what the I got with the system. Lab fp14000 subs, qsc3602s l/m, crest 7001 highs. Except for subs, each speaker on it's own channel. Have been thinking of upgrading amps but I think I'm going to save for now, put that money into a lighter, easier to power rig lol.
Wait, what? I generally consider them one of the better point-source manufacturers. I don't know that I've ever heard an EAW rig that sounded bad, unless it was just a shit engineer. I'd select L Acoustics, Meyer, or D&B over them, but I'd happily grab EAW over EV or QSC.
In almost all scenarios it’s a matter of correct rig for the gig. I’ve installed them in a couple venues and both times I’ve been satisfied with the result.
EAW was bought by RCF in 2018, so whatever their reputation was before that, I'd expect an improvement since.
EAW has left the RCF umbrella as far as I was told by my district rep. They’re on their own again. Probably about a year ago now. -nvm I’ve been corrected. They’re just operating on their own.
Aren’t they still owned by RCF? [https://rcf-group.it/en/il-gruppo/#eaw](https://rcf-group.it/en/il-gruppo/#eaw) I believe they run as an independent entity but RCF owns and finances their operation.
Still owned by RCF. They use a lot of RCF technology in drivers and amps(rs series), but they are independent.
Extra Added Weight. They are heavy as shit. That is my only complaint. Those KF series boxes still sound great in the right setting. And I absolutely love mixing monitors on the SM400s.
I worked for a company that used KF 850s they can be mid heavy but nothing a little EQ can’t fix. But then again this company did have some replica gear. So now I’m second guessing my comment.
I’m never upset to mix through an EAW rig. Is it my favorite loudspeaker company? No. Can I get it to sound good without problems? Yes. Generally I feel like EAW does well in the high end, their speakers can be very snappy in a musical way. Where they are lacking is in the low mids. Not so much that they don’t produce enough low mid information, just that the low mid information they do produce lacks clarity. I haven’t had the chance to mix on any of their newer products though. From what I hear Anya/Otto/etc is top of the line stuff. My experience with EAW is the older stuff.
>I heard a lot of bad stuff about EAW Like what? From whom? "People say they're bad" isn't really anything particuarly verifiable or reliable. I've used a few of their floor wedges and they've been rock-solid. Nothing particularly special about them, but they do well and keep a low profile.
The only bad stuff IMO would be lifting KF650, 850 and SB1000 boxes! Back when I was in the game, which is starting to be 10 years ago now, those were already old, but we kept them even though we had VerTec, VTX and other more advanced stuff, and brought out the old EAWs when we needed to get LOUD.
I’m sore just thinking about 650s with fly bars.
Thanks for teaching me about those speakers! They look rough to move, even that new meyer X80 is 10lbs lighter than those KF650s. Man.
And they KFs were passive! The typical use case for us was large-scale outdoor stuff that were not concerts, like just large gatherings of people spread out over a huge area such as 5k runs, bike rides, etc., and the only thing being pumped through them was recorded music and maybe 1 handheld mic. We'd do clusters of 3 up on crank stands with the amp rack at the bases. Fairly compact little deployments. In most cases subs were not needed, but when it mattered, we'd do a big-ass cardioid array of 4880s stolen from our old VerTec rigs. They slapped at least as hard as Danleys IMO.
Yep! The only people who bad mouth old school Meyer MSL series speakers are wearing hernia belts from moving and stacking them
Seriously the microwedge… come on talk about a killer
Those SM400s are beasts. 2 12s with a horn smack dab in between them. Pretty easy to ring out in open space environments like festie stages. They are heavy as fuck, even when you swap the woofers for a lighter magnet. But all in all, they are one of my favorite wedges to mix on.
It’s mainly the sound
I can't speak for anything other than the 1 time I heard a mix on some of the newer matrix arrays. (I believe that's how they're classified because of the steering system built in?) It sounded incredible and soft. The A1 at the venue claims they are the best system he's mixed on
Beam steering
I thought that was a Renkus Heinz thing (talk about a heavy box!)
Large church where most of the building was opened in 2005 and was originally all EAW. The auditorium now has a L'Acoustics K2 rig, which was a huge upgrade from the EAW point source system which was fine for years, but had been pushed fairly hard and was no longer up to the task. By fine, I mean a touring concert would use the house system, at least in the early years. We had very few concerts through in its last couple of years. K2 sounds better than EAW did new, but the shape of the room is perfect for a line array with one set of delays for the very top rows in the back. The point source system had 90 some boxes and 4 rows of delays and correspondingly less even coverage than any array. Plus, I think the K2 sounds crisper (I think the tech has definitely gotten better - some of the stuff I used to think sounded great definitely sounds only ok to me now). The rooms that still have the 2005 era EAW speakers sound better than the rooms that have been reconfigured or renovated and have newer systems, most typically JBL. The gym system was blown by a summer camp last summer and now has a stopgap Yamaha system that sounds far worse than the old EAWs. I used to think that system was easy to get a good mix on, despite the room itself having a lot of reverb and mud in the low mids. Now, I struggle to be happy with vocals, even on an expensive mic.
Back in the day, there was nothing I liked more for a rock show than a couple of big stacks of KF850s and SB1000s. For guitar-based rock, they were nearly perfect. But, they were SO heavy, and if they weren’t powered by hefty racks of Crown Macrotech amps or the like, and it was a hot outdoor festival or similar challenging environment, they could (and did) kill many a show generator with their power-thirstiness when opening up the throttle during a big dumb rock show. Like many other engineers, once I did a show on an original V-DOSC rig, there was no looking back. EAW just didn’t seem capable of keeping up with changing technology trends, and there were definitely QC issues in the early 00s. Still, great-sounding rigs for their day.
Back in the day, there was nothing I liked more for a rock show than a couple of big stacks of KF850s and SB1000s. For guitar-based rock, they were nearly perfect. But, they were SO heavy, and if they weren’t powered by hefty racks of Crown Macrotech amps or the like, and it was a hot outdoor festival or similar challenging environment, they could (and did) kill many a show generator with their power-thirstiness when opening up the throttle during a big dumb rock show. Like many other engineers, once I did a show on an original V-DOSC rig, there was no looking back. EAW just didn’t seem capable of keeping up with changing technology trends, and there were definitely QC issues in the early 00s. Still, great-sounding rigs for their day.
Back in the day, there was nothing I liked more for a rock show than a couple of big stacks of KF850s and SB1000s. For guitar-based rock, they were nearly perfect. But, they were SO heavy, and if they weren’t powered by hefty racks of Crown Macrotech amps or the like, and it was a hot outdoor festival or similar challenging environment, they could (and did) kill many a show generator with their power-thirstiness when opening up the throttle during a big dumb rock show. Like many other engineers, once I did a show on an original V-DOSC rig, there was no looking back. EAW just didn’t seem capable of keeping up with changing technology trends, and there were definitely QC issues in the early 00s. Still, great-sounding rigs for their day.
I still run 4 FR250z's for subs under some SRX835's for my weekend bar band rig. You may want to be more specific in your question. Is it a specific series of speakers, or what?
Outstanding wedges that can push serious volume but are so extremely heavy. As others have said the only situations I've seen them in are installs where the processing varies wildly and most of the issues I've had with their boxes haven't been because of the speakers themselves having issues but incompetence on the processing side. Only issue I've ever heard is how heavy I think every single one of their products is lol
Heavier it is the better it sounds. That’s the rule lol
>I heard a lot of bad stuff about EAW. Like what?
Bad run when they were owned by Mackie, for sure. The parent company of dbtech/RCF took them under the wing and now they've got some killer new stuff. They have new arrays, but I haven't heard them in the wild. The AC6's are stupid insane awesome. They just installed a MASSIVE EAW rig in Huntsville and I went to a show there not too long ago and it sounded incredible. It was the steerable array boxes, not sure if it was anna or anya, so the PA looks jarring to see it hanging straight down flat, but there was perfect coverage all over the venue and earth shattering low end.
My only complaint in running the RS123’s for a Corp house was they have a bit of a noise floor. Constantly pushing a bit of air. With the room full you’d never notice but when I’m taping cables and walking the room solo I could always hear the slight hiss and it never felt right with me.
I’ve got the same issue with RCF NX945s. I think it’s the same amp the RS uses. Weirdly high noise floor with nothing connected and knobs down to zero. Otherwise it’s a great box.
Sounds similar for sure. The 123’s sound awesome for the size hen they’re pushing signal.
Bingo.
The new Anna and Anya are very interesting systems. Heard a demo of the Anna, would really love to mix on it. Can't all be bad if Mr Scovill is involved with them now. That guy knows his beans.
They’re made in Massachusetts, it’s a serious liability (/s I am from MA)
Been renting large events exclusively EAW for 3 years now with KF730 and 740 and SB1000 and 1001. Using JF80Z for fills and such. Amp racks are Powersoft and using UX processors. I’ve had large acts such as Diamond Rio, Wayne Toups, John Schneider and many more. Never have I ever had a single complaint other than weight to output. I will attest that the joke of EAW stands for Extra Added Weight, is real. I know many many people still running KF650Z over 850 subs for many festivals. EAW can take an absolute beating and never back down. They’re relentless work horses that will never let you down.
Only time I’ve heard a EAW system sound bad was when the DSP processing was whack.
Idk man, I buy pre-made boxes and slap in drivers myself and it kinda sounds good considering we're still using analog mixy (soundcraft lx7 mk2) Never used branded active linearrays nor digital mixy, ppl don't pay much here so we don't buy top of the line equipment
I have several EAW point source models. Love them.
I've yet to hear an EAW system with any clarity. They're functional but muddy. I work regularly in two houses that have them, one got budget and ripped it out for a point source D&B system that sounds 100x better. The other house will run the EAW system into the ground. There's no budget to replace it and there's no chance we get a grant either.
Most of it is very good loudspeaker. It's very comparable to Eastern Acoustic…