Absolute Class Discos - DJs Melbourne Premier Mobile Discos & Karaoke.....

Pro audio sound equipment

Unfortunately FAR TOO MANY mobile disco companies in Melbourne cut all sorts of corners. One of the major areas corners get cut is in the quality of the sound equipment. Many companies save themselves THOUSANDS of dollars by only providing domestic, or "home stereo" amplifiers, CD players, & speakers in their disco systems, instead of proper "pro-audio" genuine disco equipment like pubs/bars/clubs have.

At least three of the very biggest mobile disco companies in Melbourne only provide little Discman or Walkman type CD players - like you would take out jogging. Surely that is bordering on fraud!

Shouldn't any organisation calling itself a disco company actually provide nothing but genuine disco equipment - like you would find in pubs or clubs? Sadly however, LOTS of them don't.

So you really do need to CHECK CAREFULLY - you need to make sure you know EXACTLY what every disco company provides BEFORE you book. You don't want any nasty surprises when some disappointing little "toy" system turns up at your function!!

One key thing to be very careful about is that even with disco companies who do supply "pro-audio" gear, a lot of them have now stopped providing speakers in timber cabinets. Instead they supply much lighter, much smaller (they would call them compact) speaker boxes which are PLASTIC, not timber. Disco companies do this for their own convenience - being so much lighter, plastic speakers are much easier for their mobile DJs to carry, plus being smaller means they are easier to fit into smaller vehicles. Also these plastic speaker cabinets all have a built-in amplifier module as well, so the DJ doesn't have to carry a separate, fairly bulky (and heavy) amplifier. Plus the cost factor is a HUGE bonus for them - not having to buy separate amplifiers saves them THOUSANDS of dollars. Unfortunately however, there is one HUGE, HUGE disadvantage to using these plastic speaker boxes. Their bass response is very poor, so consequently the vocals and other top-end sounds totally overpower the bottom-end sounds - which produces a very "tinny", harsh, hard sound overall, totally lacking ANY warmth or any genuine bass. So with ANY disco company you get quotes from, make sure you ask the key question, "Are your speakers in plastic boxes, or timber boxes?"

We make no apologies for being fanatical about our sound equipment - without the highest quality sound equipment even your absolute all-time favourite songs (or your favourite brand new songs) just won't sound right - so of course you (and your guests) won't enjoy it as much. But because we are so fanatical about sound quality, we supply nothing but the absolute best - genuine "top-of-the-range" pro audio disco equipment - EXACTLY the same brands & models of amplifiers, speakers, special DJ CD players, & turntables as you would find in the best & most popular nightclubs. (See photos of all the sound gear we supply below).

Quotes from customer testimonials about our EQUIPMENT

It (the mobile disco system) was just so much bigger & more impressive looking than any of the ones my friends had, & it didn't just LOOK better, it SOUNDED way better. { 21st birthday}

The quality of the sound system & the sensational lighting...created exactly the atmosphere you had promised...& we all danced around like teenagers { 50th birthday}

Friends who have already had their parties wished they had known about your company. Most of them just took the disco company recommended by their venue, which was a BIG, BIG mistake! Most of those DJs were crap and so was their equipment - some of them had no lights at all and their whole set-ups looked like a home stereo compared to your stuff. {21st birthday }

The sound and the lights were just superb. {Wedding}

I'm a mad clubber and I've got to say the full on bass and the very clear vocals your speakers put out were just fantastic. They made all the house tracks I requested sound just as good as any of the clubs we go to. At other friends 21sts I've noticed the sound has usually been pretty much crap, so even when the DJs were playing tracks I like, it just ruined them coz they didn't sound right. {21st birthday }

Very impressed with your set-up - not just the lights, but the sound was awesome. {Engagement }

Sensational disco lights and sound {21st birthday}

The quality of the sound & variety of the music helped make our daughter's special occasion a very enjoyable night. Her friends are still raving about it. {21st birthday }

The whole set up (sound equipment etc) was very professional & it made the party a great success. (18th birthday)

The lights & sound were unreal. { 18th birthday }

We were so impressed with I guess what you would call the depth and the clarity in the sound. It was as good as any city club. So were your lights. We will be using you again for sure! { Uni Ball for 500 guests }

The sound was awesome - all my friends love R&B, which has lots of heavy bass, and at many of our friend's 21sts the DJs speakers just didn't cut it. But your speakers and all the rest of your equipment were just so much bigger and more impressive than any other systems we have seen. It was totally awesome. {21st birthday}

You really did give me my own "portable nightclub" like you say in your brochure. {21st birthday}

The DJing and equipment were brilliant. { 18th birthday}

Pioneer Mixers
We prefer to use Pioneer's DJM600 and DJM3000 mixers for their many features, including on-board effects. These mixers retail for around $2,000 each. Some companies pay as little as $200 for their mixers - so of course their sound quality is not as good.

Pioneer CD Players

As with our mixers, we also prefer Pioneer's range of DJ CD players. More nightclubs around the world (and here in Melbourne) use Pioneer than any other brand. DJs can mix on these CD units just like they can using vinyl records. Our consoles feature the following ultra sophisticated "hi-tech" models:

CDJ-800MK2

Technics SL1200 Turntables
Some of our DJs still play off vinyl records, so we supply them with Technics SL1200Mk2 turntables, which are THE acknowledged nightclub turntable world-wide. There are several specialist record stores in Melbourne where DJs can still buy all the latest songs on vinyl.

Crown “Macrotech” Amplifiers
These amplifiers are acknowledged throughout the nightclub industry as the absolute best - that's why we love using them.
We do not compromise on sound - no "short cuts" for us.

Speakers
The typical speakers provided with our systems are a pair of EV (Electrovoice) model 1503s, which retail at about $3,700 per pair. (See picture below). These are large, high-powered 3-way boxes. In a 3-way box each solid timber cabinet contains THREE separate speakers - our EV1503s have a horn/tweeter, a 6 inch mid-range speaker and a 15 inch bass speaker.

Having a separate mid-range speaker creates much better reproduction of the vocals and the melody of ANY song .

However, most other companies speakers are only 2-way boxes - so they only contain TWO speakers - a horn/tweeter and a bass speaker. They do not contain a separate mid-range speaker like our 1503s do.

This is a photo of one of our EV1503s. You can clearly see all THREE speakers in the cabinet - the circular 6 inch mid-range speaker to the top left of the cabinet, the rectangular tweeter to the top right-hand side of the cabinet, and the 15 inch bass speaker in the bottom right-hand side of the cabinet. (The two circular holes one above the other to the left of the 15 inch speaker are tuning vents, which further assist proper reproduction of the bass and lower mids).

Unfortunately, many companies are now providing self-powered plastic speaker boxes (which sound terrible) instead of TIMBER speaker boxes like our EV1503s (and like all major nightclubs, and all rock bands etc use). This is a very important issue regarding the QUALITY of the sound, which can make a HUGE difference to the success of your function, so we have gone into it in some detail below:

SPEAKERS IN TIMBER CABINETS vs SPEAKERS IN PLASTIC CABINETS

The following notes are NOT just our personal opinion. We consulted several industry experts as well - so don't just take our word for all this, ring a professional speaker builder and repairer such as Total Recoil in Thornbury on 9480-2466. Speak to Boyd, the owner of the business, who has actually won prizes for his speaker designs at various Hi-Fi and Pro-Audio expos, and ask him about the HUGE differences between the sound put out by speakers in PLASTIC boxes compared with similarly powered speakers in properly tuned and vented TIMBER boxes. Similarly you could ring other sound engineers like Ian Rumbold at Sound Developments in Fitzroy who would tell you EXACTLY the same thing. We also spoke to Jeff Drabik the owner of JD's Sound & Lighting in Sunshine, which is a large supplier of sound and lighting equipment to many Melbourne disco operators - not just to mobile discos but also to pubs and nightclubs. We also consulted legendary Melbourne DJs like Les Toth who is currently working at Q Bar on Fridays and who is a 26/27 year veteran of the Melbourne nightclub scene - former resident DJ at Chevron, Metro, Warehouse, Inflation, Twister and much more. ALL of these VERY EXPERIENCED industry people agreed that timber cabinets produce a FAR SUPERIOR sound - deeper bass, richer warmer vocals etc - so purely in the interest of the success or failure of your own function, please read on as we compare speakers in plastic cabinets against speakers in timber cabinets.

Our EV 1503 cabinets (pictured above) are quite heavy. They are also quite large - so it is fairly hard work for our DJs to carry them around. These EV1503s are almost 90cm high, 65cm wide, 45cm deep and actually weigh 42kg. By comparison, EV also produce a similarly powered PLASTIC speaker the EVSX300, which only weighs 18 kg, and is only 59cm high, 43cm wide and 31cm deep. So these plastic SX300 speakers are not even HALF the weight of the 1503s and they are SUBSTANTIALLY smaller.

Partly for those reasons (their much lower weight and their substantially smaller size) lots of other Melbourne disco companies have now STOPPED using speakers in timber cabinets (such as our 1503s) and have started using speakers in PLASTIC cabinets (like the SX300s), because not only are they so much smaller, but as we have just noted, they are also very much lighter than similarly power-rated timber cabinets - 42kg vs only 18kg. Naturally this makes life a LOT easier for DJs because firstly, being so much smaller and lighter, plastic speakers will fit into much smaller vehicles and secondly they are much easier for DJs to carry into venues. And thirdly all plastic speakers have a built-in amplifier module, so DJs using plastic speakers don't have to transport a separate amplifier in their vehicles OR make an extra trip to carry it into the venues like our DJs do.

Unfortunately however, plastic speakers are just NOT PHYSICALLY CAPABLE of reproducing ANYTHING LIKE the same depth of bass or the same rich, warm mid-range tones in the vocals and melody that speakers in timber cabinets reproduce. In a timber cabinet two important factors create proper reproduction of the bass and lower mids - firstly the size of the boxes (and therefore the amount of air-space inside them) plus the actual timber itself, and the weight of that timber. That's why plastic speakers are such a poor compromise - firstly, being so much smaller, they have very little internal air-space and secondly there is no heavy timber to create the bass resonance and warm lower mids, only a lightweight plastic casing.

Because the bass and lower mid-range response in plastic cabinets is so poor, consequently the higher mid-range and other top-end sounds totally overpower the bottom-end and lower mid-range sounds - which therefore produces a very harsh, hard and flat sound totally lacking any warmth or depth. Those factors actually make plastic speakers great as a PA for making announcements on in school halls, or in factories, or at sporting events etc, but those very same factors also make them absolutely horrible for good reproduction of any form of recorded music.

Basically, disco companies using plastic speakers REALLY ARE MAKING A HUGE COMPROMISE ON SOUND QUALITY, but they seem to be quite happy to do it for the convenience factors already mentioned above, ALTHOUGH they are not just doing it for those convenience reasons alone, they are also doing it for FAIRLY SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMIC REASONS. As we already noted above, those convenience reasons are that plastic speakers are smaller, lighter, and the DJs don't have to carry a separate amplifier. But in addition to these three convenience reasons, BY FAR THE BIGGEST REASON why many companies are now using plastic speakers is because then they will save from $1,800 to $3,000 per system by not having to purchase separate amplifiers. THAT'S WHY lots of companies are using plastic speakers - to hell with the quality of the sound! That's the very LAST thing they are concerned about. It's all about their own convenience but even more than that, it's about the THOUSANDS of dollars they can save.

However we absolutely REFUSE to compromise on our sound quality, so we will NEVER EVER make the switch to using speakers in plastic cabinets like so many other companies are now doing.
As we said above, don't just take our word for all this, ring a professional speaker builder and repairer such as Total Recoil in Thornbury on 9480-2466. Speak to Boyd, the owner of the business, who has actually won prizes for his speaker designs at various Hi-Fi and Pro-Audio expos, and ask him about the HUGE differences between the sound put out by speakers in plastic boxes compared with similarly powered speakers in properly tuned and vented timber cabinets. Similarly you could ring other sound engineers like Ian Rumbold at Sound Developments in Fitzroy who would tell you EXACTLY the same thing.

PLASTIC SPEAKERS ARE ONLY SUITABLE FOR PA SYSTEMS OR FOR ACOUSTIC ACTS ETC WHO DON'T USE DRUMS OR BASS GUITARS - since they are both situations where good deep bass response is totally unnecessary.
Those uses (for PAs & acoustic acts) were SPECIFICALLY what plastic speakers were made for.

Their designers and manufacturers NEVER EVER intended them to be used in mobile discos.

To have our FREE no obligation info package
(including a detailed written quote)
posted out to you by the NEXT BUSINESS DAY,
please call (03) 9557 9788.

Our office is open 7 days per week - weekdays from 10AM, Sat & Sun from 12 midday, & phones are manned Mon to Wed until 8PM & Thurs to Sun until 6PM

Note: Copies of ALL testimonials quoted from (plus MANY more) are sent out with our standard info package, while the originals can be viewed at our office.

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