Yamaha BR vs. Club Series

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:21 pm

Hey guys. Down to my final decision in getting my pa system put together. The speakers. I was wondering if anyone could tell me the difference between Yamaha's Br series speakers and the club speakers (besides the price difference). Things I'm wondering is Build Quality, and sound quality. Cause from what I've found my self, the power handling isn't too different between the two.

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:00 pm

Big difference .....one is better sounding (Club series) and one has better protection against rough handling with carpet and corners.

The club series handles more power and has a bigger throat on it's tweeter.

Maybe 1 db louder.....I never believe the spec sheets.

They use Eminence speakers in the club series and those are middle of the road speakers so who knows what they use in the BR series. I really never liked them compared to a B&C, JBL, RCF and other higher end stuff.

If you can afford it get some Yorkvilles or even the mackie or JBL speakers which are about in the same price range for their lower models. even EV which I don't like is better.

Something that I KNOW you don't, though, as most people do not. If your speakers handle 350 watts then power them with at least 400 -600 watts. Why you ask, it doesn't make sense, yeah for guitars and Bass it doesn't.

The whole idea is to get clean power to reproduce the vocals. If you use less power it means you have a tendency to turn everything up and distorting it. Bad for speakers and very bad for drivers. They don't like square waves, it heats them up and poof.

A lot of companies say their speakers handle 1000 watts, that's BS look at the lowest rating on them that's maybe what they really handle and that means clean power not distorted.

If you have that much power in reserve you'll have a clean sound from any descent speaker even the Yamaha, that's the secret to getting a good sounding PA. But you have to realize it's parameters and not turn it up and eventually get a DBX 166 to act as protection for those drivers.

If you need more assistance contact me directly.

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 4:05 am

Let's get some information that was previously posted corrected. BOTH lines- the ClubV and the BR series are carpet-covered, not one or the other. The Club VC is a sprayed-on coating to be painted for installations.
The Club V 15" and 18" LF drivers are CAST FRAME. The BR series are all stamped frame. The difference? When you drop, bang, or otherwise tank the cabinet, the CAST FRAME speaker will have a much better chance of holding up. Not only will the frame be less likely to warp or otherwise distort, causing the voicecoil to rub or totally fail, but the magnet assembly on them is BOLTED, as opposed to being glued on, as most stamped frame speakers have. When physical trauma is inflicted to the driver, the bolted-on magnet will not shift, but the glued one can. When this happens, the speaker is DEAD and cannot be repaired.

The 2" THROAT HF driver on the ClubV series doesn't necessarily "sound better". It DOES make the cabinets' efficiency in the upper mids higher for the critical vocal range. It can also lead to a "honkier" midrange. The Club V cabs I own exhibit this to a slight degree, but it helps stage wedges cut through the onstage noise levels, especially when there are horn players involved.

The Club series cabinets are composed of more plywood than the BR. The result is a cabinet that is less likely to fall apart under that carpeting when banged around or subjected to high humidity. It also weighs less per square inch. The Clubs I have use plywood baffles, but I've heard that the newer models use particle board. Yamaha will not disclose what the BR series uses, I suspect it's a composite, not plywood.

All of the components that Yamaha uses in their US-built cabinets are made by Eminence. The same Eminence that Yorkville uses. Not the same models of Eminence that JBL uses in their shitty little JRX cabs. Better.
That's right, that line of JBLs uses whimpy stamped frame woofs spec'd by JBL, made for them by Eminence. The HF drivers are made in China. So much for using a brand name as a guideline, huh? And I'm a big JBL fan- or used to be- Cabaret Series, MR Series, great portability, good-sounding, bulletproof. Nowadays, the speaker-manufacturing business has changed so much, it's insane. I see it everyday in the speaker repair business.

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 6:16 am

I stand corrected.

Things have changed since I was doing this...

Yorkville and JBL using Eminence stamped frame...OMG. What has this world come to.

Does everybody get their speakers from Emi now?

We used to call JBL junkie But Loud, they were loud and I though they sounded good. Better than the high end EV. Yorkville used higher end B&C and RCF speakers a few years ago but did use Emi's in the lower line stuff.

I had a pair of TR series boxes that sounded great for small clubs.

Oh well....sorry to be a bit mis-informed and I'm glad someone corrected me. I was going by their web site and I checked musician's Friend, ZZsounds and tried American music but their site was down so I tried to do my homework for the guy. But like I said never believe the specs or what they say.

2" throats to me sound better depending on the xover point, it's a matter of EQing them. Sometimes it's impossible to get the honk out though so beware.

I'm sure they'll sound fine just don't under power them.

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