JBL Pro, Macauley.

Are you sure you want big barking monitors in church? That's a lot of output to compete with the FOH mix and a 200 seat sanctuary.

See if you can find someone who will let you try a pair of these: [[url=http://[/URL]="http://pro-audio.mu…"]JBL MRX-512M[/]="http://pro-audio.mu…"]JBL MRX-512M[/]

Lightweight, low-profile, and the extra 1/2" of horn diameter makes a big difference in smoothness in the highs. 70˚ x 70˚ is a less "beamy" too. More than adequate low-end unless you're completely relying on wedges to hear electronic kick drum, bass guitar, etc.

Well, in fact I'm not that sure what is best here. These would not have much of the bass and drums running through them. I think we were running the EAWs at SPLs similar to what we would use at church and they seemed pretty smooth. I didn't feel like they required juice to sound good. (However, I could be fooled on this. I did not take measurements and the theater is much bigger than our sanctuary, so the perceived volume might not be the same as the power coming from the source.) The smaller [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.eaw.com/…"]EAW VRM12[/]="http://www.eaw.com/…"]EAW VRM12[/] has an even bigger dispersion which would help us.

I'm a pretty big JBL fan, and the name is familiar to the higher powers, so it's a pretty easy sell - especially at the lower price. What are the boxes made of? I can't seem to find it. I'll sniff around and see if I can get a look at these.

MRX are plywood covered in their sprayed-on Dura coating. I agree with the spillover issue. I have problems with that even with pre-recorded tracks (re: cantatas, etc). You have to balance out the need for the playback to performers vs. how loud the congragation will hear it out front, and in a "live" acoustical environment that is a challenge in and of itself.

BTW, I used 2 pairs of MRX ( a pair of the 12" wedges and a pair of 15" S-o-S ) in a "portable church" situation a little over a year ago. They were pretty lightweight, sounded good, and never gave me any problems during that period. I was disappointed that the drivers were stamped frame jobs (as opposed to cast frames), but I suppose this was done to minimize weight. I just can't get used to the thought that a "pro" quality speaker system can have a stamped-frame woofer,
but maybe that's just being an old fart...:)

The neodymium magnets weigh so much less than rare earth, I never felt the lighter frame was a big trade-off. The whole cabinet weighs a mere 33lbs. which isn't a huge deal on an install. But if your church is anything like mine, things are always getting moved on the stage to set up for something else.

The painted finish looks a lot nicer than fuzzy ozite cabinets in church and could even be painted a different color to match if that's an issue. They have a reasonably low-profile, but unlike some wedges, you only get one choice of angle.

Another thing I like about the MRX in particular for church installs, is the Speakon connector on each end of the cabinet. You can chain them together without a lot of extra cable and keep the platform neat and tidy with speaker cables made to length. The connector on the end is also nice if you're mounting them on tripods, it alleviates a lot of stress with the connector pulling straight down. Of course that's a double-edged sword in a portable system like mine. When I'm loading or unloading them from the trailer I have to be aware that there's a Speakon on what would be the bottom as you're carrying them. I wouldn't want to put them down anywhere wet, muddy, snowy, etc. if I had to open a door.