Powered speakers are everywhere; especially those with 12 to 15-inch low frequency drivers designed to be pole-mounted. If you stand anywhere on the floor of an industry trade show, you can probably throw a rock and hit a half dozen models. It is into that fray that Cerwin Vega releases the P1500X and P1800SX. If you've been paying attention to model naming conventions, you can quickly determine the basic specs: a 15-inch full-range box and an 18-inch sub.
On the surface, the specs for these speakers are impressive. The P1500X boasts the aforementioned 15-inch woofer, a compression driver that exits into a proprietary “hemi-conical” horn, a 1,500W Class-D amp, a built-in three-channel mixer with full I/O plus a limited amount of DSP. The P1800SX sports a 18-inch, low-frequency driver powered by a 2,000 watt Class-D amp.
While the P1800SX is built with a hardwood enclosure (evident the first time you pick it up!), the P1500X is constructed of what the company calls “lightweight, robust polymer.” I won't dispute the robust part, but these speakers are hefty. I would actually call them solid; they feel well-built and suitable for the rigors of road use. Indeed, they have included several welcome features—a multi-angle pole cup for adjusting the tilt when using pole stands, and built-in rigging points for permanent installations. This last feature is one that is often left out of speakers in this range and it's nice to see it included.
Both boxes have multiple I/O options, which should make it easy to get them connected to just about any system. The P1500X has a three-channel mixer that includes XLR/TRS combo jacks on channels one and two (with corresponding through jacks for each channel), and two TS jacks on channel three. A mix output sums all these channels together, which would make it easy to do simple “mic plus MP3 player” system without an external mixer for those easy gigs. One side of the cabinet is also beveled off, presumably so it could be used as a floor wedge. As is typical for speakers in this class, they are 90x65-degree horns.
I mentioned limited DSP is available, and it comes in the form of three two-position switches. The Enhanced EQ switch purports to “attenuate the mid-range frequencies.” In practice, it looks like a 6-dB, two-octave notch centered at about 2.25 kHz. The Vega Bass Boost switch is rather like a combination LF (low-frequency) boost, plus loudness control at the low end. Again, in practice, it looks like a 12 dB boost at around 60 Hz. That definitely adds some low end. Finally a high-pass filter (HPF) switch rolls off the cabinet below 80 Hz when it's being used with a sub.
The P1800SX also includes two XLR/TRS input jacks as part of a two-channel mixer. You do not get level controls for the individual inputs on the sub, however. Whereas the top boxes have a “mix” output, which is the sum of the inputs, the subs label this “link output.” The intent is the same, but it's somewhat confusing in the labeling. Like the top boxes, we have some options.
The sub is actually quite good, and when paired with the top boxes, the system gets very, very loud.
A polarity reverse switch reverses the polarity, obviously. Vega Bass Boost is similar to the same function on the top boxes (and in use, adds a tremendous amount of low end—dub-step lovers rejoice). A HPF Thru and LPF Sub turns on two filters simultaneously. First, a HPF filter is engaged on the through jacks of each input; and second, a LPF is engaged on the sub. Both filters are set at 80 Hz. The idea is that if you are using the full-range boxes with the subs, you would run your main input into the subs, engage this switch, and loop out to the top boxes. This gives you a simple crossover network. While this does work, I'm not sure it's successful—but we'll get to that in a moment.
Like most portable subs in this category, the P1800SX has an integrated pole socket on the top, which makes it easy to use as a base for the P1500X. As I said, these are not lightweight speakers; indeed the top box weighs in at 53 pounds, while the sub comes up at a hefty 77. If I were moving these around a lot, I would definitely plan on caster boards. Of course, specs are one thing; the real question is how do they sound?
Listening Tests
As I usually do when evaluating speakers, I evaluated the full-range speaker alone first. After unboxing and hooking it up, I started off with my standard tracks. Immediately, something was wrong; it sounded like there was nothing below about 2 kHz. Sure enough, the woofer wasn't moving any air at all. I checked the settings, and tried other input jacks to no avail. Thankfully, they sent two and the other worked better. After some initial listening tests, I set them up as recommended in the manual. In this case, that meant running the input into the sub, engaging the HPF/LPF switch and looping out to the main box.
[graphic 1]
After a little bit of listening with various tracks, I fired up SMAART to verify and record what I was hearing. Sure enough, as you can see in graphic 1 (top of page), there was a ton of low end (centered about 50-60 Hz), a huge dip at 200 Hz (200 Hz is about 18 dB lower than 60 Hz), a bunch of low-mids around 300-400 Hz, and a flat top end. This wasn't pleasant. I suspected that there was some weirdness going on with those HPF and LPF filters, so I dispensed with the recommendation and tried something else.
[graphic 2]
This time, I went into the top box, and looped through to the sub. I also engaged the HPF on the full-range speaker. This sounded better, and really smoothed out the transition from the sub to the main box, which you can see in graphic 2. You can also see that the low end is about 15-18 dB higher than the mid-range, and from about about 2.5 kHz there is a steady rise in amplitude extending out to 15 kHz. In fact, 10 kHz is about 6 dB higher than 2 kHz. To my ears, this also didn't sound pleasant. The lack of mid-range clarity made it difficult to pull out vocals, and the overall spectral balance wasn't as good as it could be.
I will say the low end was impressive. The P1800SX packs some serious punch (something Cerwin Vega is know for, especially in car audio), and the amp held up well to my sub amp torture test (eighth notes on the kick in Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax). While it did start to run out of gas a little bit near the end of that, it was generally tight and clean.
When evaluated as a system, I couldn't find a combination of switches that could tame the high end, however. To be sure, if I was using this with my portable rig, I would have simply thrown a high shelf in there and dialed it back. But if you're planning on using these speakers by themselves, you would want to be outside (where the HF is going to get blown around in the wind) or in front of an audience that has already destroyed their high-frequency hearing by listening to MP3s on earbuds turned up too loud for too long.
Conclusion
While I don't care for the tuning of the full-range boxes, they are rugged and have decent I/O options. The addition of fly points is also a nice touch. The sub is actually quite good, and when paired with the top boxes, the system gets very, very loud. In my 1,300 seat room, a single sub and full-range made plenty of sound (albeit with way too much high end). Were I to mix on these regularly, I would insist on a decent system processor to smooth out the frequency response and make them more pleasant to listen to.
