Carvin 822 Speaker Enclosure Reviews 5

I play in a 4 piece accoustic band to audiences ranging up to 150 in small to medium size halls. This is the model with the 12 Inch Woofer with Horn Driver. We were using crummy old speakers until we played at a coffee house that supplied Carvin 822 speakers and we were blown away by their sound. I paid $420 including shipping. Carvin threw in two good quality 50 foot speaker cables and a t-shirt.

The speakers are very light. They weigh about 20 pounds a piece, which makes them easy to cart to and from a gig, lift on and off speakers stands, etc. Specially appreciated at 2am after a gig! The 822 speakers have great horn drivers which make our vocals and harmonies sound superb. The 12 inch woofers work fine for guitars. I don't run the bass guitar thru the board, however they can handle it. The amp also has "parallel in", whereby you can run one mono lead into one input, and the amp will send the mono input to both sides of the power amp. We mix in mono, so only one lead is required to the amp.

I like everything about these speakers. We use a carvin DCM1000 amp (225 watts at 8 ohms per side) to drive these speakers which are rated 300 watts at 8 ohms. If your playing to crowds larger than 150, or need a lot of volume (rock band, or whatever), then consider the Carvin 15 inch speaker enclosures, and perhaps the DCM2000 amp (425 watts a side @ 8 ohms). You won't be disappointed. One time the band leader stepped back and accidently hit the on/off button and turned the amp off. So if I had only one suggestion, would be to recess the on/off button a little.

The construction and quality is fantastic. At first I thought the fan was going to be a little loud, but the on stage sound level easily drowns it out. The DCM amps are meant to be rackmountable, so it would be obvious to rackmount them for protection (loading, unloading at gigs, etc).

Carvin amps are very high quality. The power is clean. You buy Carvin, and you don't have to worry about buying another amp for 20 years.

Terry rated this unit 5 on 2002-06-10.

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