QSC KW153 Powered PA Speaker Teardown

In this eposode of QSC Teardown we take a look at the KW153 PA Main speaker and check out just whats inside!
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[@adamf.8564]

Love what you guys do with these speakers! Great job! Nothing too crazy but these speakers are loud and sound great!!

[@BrianDiener]

Thanks for the teardown! Recently had to do a driver replacement on one of these - this video was a good preparation. Especially for the sticky gasket holding in the midrange horn.

[@jeffmccrady9456]

love watching you guys videos!! love the tear downs and the comedy! lmfao!! i would say the alto 18" sub took the cake!! lol!!

[@harddrive7316]

I've heard these speakers in person, and they sound pretty good.

[@buddylove9484]

QSC didn’t “play any tricks”, 3-ways speakers are almost always passively crossed over at the mid/hi point and for good cause. It’s common knowledge that removing the “ low end “ program to an amp reduces/eliminates any square-wave problems for the mid to upper frequency range. The 3rd amp idea (Tri-amp) is unnecessary to achieve a clean, powerful sound.

[@dougbuckley8441]

thanks for the very informative channel!

[@mlamphear73]

QSC markets these as a bi-amp and completely discloses that the HF amp is shared between the two speakers. Doesn't seem very "deceptive" to me.

[@indexartcenter9671]

Great channel!

[@cliffordpurk18]

Would replacing the subwoofer for a better subwoofer bring out the presence of the lows more?

[@user-hj7lf6qz7u]

GREAT VIDEO

[@tractuspk]

I would love to see you guys check out the Line 6 Stagesource L3M and compare the builds. It seems like a mini KW153.

[@matttruesdel6685]

Best powered speaker they are incredible

[@megumind9939]

How about the srx815p thinking you will be impressed

[@BenJamin-ou7kd]

All Real mids have a sealed back. I'm not a big qsc fan but I really want these speakers

[@viciadoemhalo3]

I think the rear chamber should be a bit bigger, ir order to have more dampening of the rear wave.

[@davidperry4013]

Dsp can really Doctor up the sound quality of low to medium quality speaker drivers sometimes with the expense of dynamic range. However a dsp can still seriously elevate the sound quality of already very high quality drivers if it’s an advanced enough algorithm and designed properly. A devialet Phantom is one of those speakers that combine very high quality drivers with DSP.

[@abielpangga6314]

Yessir you arw correct the drivers on phantom are insane and the dsp installed on them gives out a sound quality that any small speaker that size cant

[@MartinManweiler]

Good to know. I’m the dumbass who bought Eon 615’s on credit but I saw a girl who got her masters degree playing sax with these as mains i’m like hmmm I’ll look it up. Good to know that sometimes you don’t always get what you pay for.... moving forward it would be great to know more about what’s really going into the hefty price tag :) Thanks for the vid.

[@truthful3777]

Honestly I don't see the need to make a 3rd amp for the mid. Usually the highs are very sensitive and therefore does not require much power compare to the woofer. Therefore the " high can still power the mid". Bi amp is good enough for this set up.

[@natlartey]

Make a review and teardown of the following speakers jbl srx 815p and bass boss mk2 12.

[@djrickysmith]

Great Review guys!!! I was always wondering if they were using a 3way amp or a two way amp with a passive crossover

[@2DudesAudio]

Thanks for watching!

[@jasonlee6392]

Good speakers they use celestion drivers that 15 looks like celestion truvox the better version used in qsc subs use the ftr/hdx versions

[@mannyrivera1122]

Hey man how can I contact you about a recommendation to upgrade woofers??

[@AQ-xu6sw]

Super!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@prestigeweddingevents6949]

Love to buy these again if could swap over hf better driver? Never seen that hf before different on k12/k8 Any help? Just when you turned these up hf was nasty

[@giovannigalvez3646]

the K8 and K12 have Neo version of the HF driver Celestion CDX1-1730. This comes with a ferrite version and so they made the magnet bigger. Both are celestion.

[@AlexMartinez-hr5gm]

Dude, just find your channel and let me tell you. Excelent idea and awesome videos. People in the industry really need to know more about the speakers they are Paying for. Don't give up and keep the wood work. If it is possible cloud you Make a video or the Yamaha dxs18 or dxs18 xlr tear down. Hope you can. Have a Nice day !!

[@2DudesAudio]

Thanks! Yes we are going to be doing a lot more pro audio speaker Teardowns and reviews! Stay tuned!

[@MobilediscowirralCoUk]

Alex Martinez its bad out there so far am impressed very with new fbt 114a driver wise

[@user-hj7lf6qz7u]

DO A BREAKDOWN ON ESP18 YORKVILLE SUB???

[@XxToxicVenom5xX]

no venting as the mid driver will barely move any air to cool the coil :)

[@doskoreanitos2588]

5:06 grabbing the double Ds Btw what’s the difference between dsp wattage and regular wattage

[@2DudesAudio]

Dsp power is regular power but applied through small digital adjustments to the frequency range. Like if it knows its driving a subwoofer then it really focuses alot of its power down low, it goes even deeper than that but I dont wanna type out pages haha! Glad you liked it!

[@doskoreanitos2588]

2 Dudes Audio ahh okay i get ya. I thought maybe you meant qsc actually used trickery via dsp to make us believe it’s higher wattage. But you meant them efficiently tunning their amps makes their wattage go a long way. Thanks for these videos. Super awesome watching you take these apart.

[@TheScreamingFrog916]

Like to see the insides of speakers, so enjoyed that. But your comments seemed uninformed. It is marketed as a biAmp 3 way speaker, that means 2 amps and 3 drivers. Nothing deceptive or "tricky" about that. The crossover looked to be of high quality to me. All High frequency and midrange speakers are sealed back, or the woofer would be pushing on them, causing distortion. You should know that. The DSP is designed to give you the best sound from the driver/cabinet combination, taking into account how they interact, and their physical limitations. One of the reasons they cost more. The combination sounds good to my ears, and to all the audience members who come up during/after shows to compliment the sound.

[@sinisavujic8089]

Hi! QSC kw153 or Yamaha DZR315 ?

[@laszloturi9633]

yamaha

[@FOH3663]

Tricks? No It's common practice to implement a biamped Low - Mid/High config. - The LF benefits greatly from a low loss, direct coupled approach. - The Mid/High's lower operating current is well handled by a x-over ... win win. The secret sauce of this QSC (and many QSCs) offering is the design of the waveguides. Paused @2:47 illustrates their intent... waveguides vis-à-vis horn loading. Horn loading generate elevated SPLs due to acoustic impedance transformation. They project farther, with higher sensitivity... however, they generate HOM distortions (higher order modes). Waveguides are less about output and more about shaping the propagating energy smoothly without sharp transitions in shape that cause diffraction. QSC implements these waveguides, similiar to their K8, K10, K12s, they utilize directivity matching... whereby the coverage angle is matched at the crossover... it's not dead on matching but reasonably close. The secret is the smooth profiles of the waveguides... it's a HUGE element in sound quality. Across pro audio, studio monitoring, and home HiFi, smooth low diffraction HF is vital to a quality wavelaunch of the propagating energy into the room. Any aberration, or sharp transition causes diffraction... resulting in another source of radiation... smearing the otherwise clean wavelaunch. Measuring this effect one sees comb filtering peaks and dips, plus the smearing of the impulse response. These 3ways, and the K series both leverage the sound quality aspects of waveguides quite well. Plus their Celestion compression drivers are very sweet. Thanks for this content, tear down vids are great. It's worth noting, your comments about magnet size relative to power handling. I'm confident you know but for the benefit of others, there's zero connection between magnet size and power handling. Power handling is determined by the voice coil's characteristics and ability to dissipate heat. Magnet size is one factor in determining motor strength... ie., a powerful magnet focused properly in the gap, is the "force at the ready" that the amplified signal thru the voice coil interacts with. Regardless... dig what you're doing here. More steady close ups are warranted, ie., driver close ups, cab wall thickness, construction, bracing, etc. Solid work Much appreciated (off to view your other content) Edit; I believe the K series use Celestion compression drivers, I've no idea what drivers these employ

[@damienlobb85]

QSC is the Beats of PA speakers. They sound fine and are relatively reliable and well built, but 80% of the money goes into marketing and the DSP.

[@thenightlifenj1]

Mike Lachendro I’d disagree. Dollar for dollar against other brands these aren’t anything special

[@damienlobb85]

@@mikelachendro488 The DSP sounds dated and you can hear it's processing especially at louder volumes with the harshness of the HF protection. There are simply better boxes in its class. The K.2 is an improvement over the dated K/KW but even then I would pick a Yamaha DXR MKII over that despite not having the menu options (I'm primarily a FoH guy.) The JBL SRX and Yamaha DZR series simply blow away the KW series. I'm sure QSC are working on a wooden update to the KW based on the K.2 like they did the KW>K, again tho, if the new KW is priced like the old KW then it just won't be very competitive especially considering it'll most likely use the same 1.4" HF drivers from the K.2 series...

[@JakeWuntaq]

naw..dont say that...lol

[@damienlobb85]

@@JakeWuntaq Just to be clear I'm not comparing the sound. Because I would easily say QSC sounds better.

[@JakeWuntaq]

@@damienlobb85 It's cool i was being funny

[@Shaker4x4]

In Australia, even with the conversion rate improved, these are anywhere from $2,600 to $3,200 each! Without coil venting regardless of DSP I would not invest in these. America can keep them.

[@cpotter1565]

Tear down a Danley J5-4015 Caleb next video. Cheers. Great Videos, Thanks.

[@thenightlifenj1]

cpotter1565 no point. Darnley is a joke in the pro audio world.

[@cpotter1565]

@@thenightlifenj1 Okay Man, whatever you say. Danley is in a league of it's own. Nothing on the market compares.

[@thenightlifenj1]

@@cpotter1565 lmao trust me. I replace them in stadiums on a regular basis. They're not what they're hyped up to be. Nor do they function as advertised.

[@rodrigogaray8230]

so are you saying the speakers are bad? I just bought some and it sounds like your racking some hits against them... Can you let me know how low they go before the blow.

[@rodrigogaray8230]

I mean I can still return them

[@damienlobb85]

@@mikelachendro488 Can you please review one of Yamaha's DZR speakers? High end boxes. Even some RCF gear.

[@reyrichard4922]

2 amplis et non 3 dommage car ça améliorerait largement la qualité du son donc autant rester sur une configuration sattellites et sub

[@rmontana3693]

My daughter was singing and playing both electric and acoustic guitar at Coney Island last night and I used a JBL EON ONE which is Class D, 250W LF + 130W HF SPL 118. It was maxed out on volume and sounded good at 10 feet away but by 25 feet away while audible it dropped off to the point that I wanted a more powerful speaker. We are not planning to play at a stadium so I need to be reasonable in what I choose. It sounds like the QSC's are nothing special from what you revealed but the reviews seem to indicate people like them and they are loud. I would spend up to $2,000 for a speaker and I still need to be able to lift it (54 years old and some back trouble). Any other speakers to look at? or would these be okay?

[@jeremyphilander8833]

3 cheap speakers in a tri way. Most if the power to the LF driver..50watt on the tweeter

[@2DudesAudio]

Yes this is how a crossover network/dsp network works. Very generally speaking

[@DJLINDSLEY]

My school owns 2 of these

[@Marcink126]

WTF. So expensive and big active speaker in DSP era is using passive crossover, LOL :D

[@thanhtai6002]

Giá model này về Việt Nam bao USD 01 cặp.

[@tuanphan8076]

QSC kw153 giá hiện giờ ở Mỹ 1cái là $1.679 chưa tính thuế mình đang xử dụng 1 cặp .. âm thanh rất hay ...

[@lunchie80]

Love videos when someone has some knowledge but hasn't got enough to actually understand engineering design choices. An example is your whinging about not having a vented magnet on the mid. You don't know enough to understand at least three main points as to why it isn't vented. Firstly it doesn't need it from a thermal standpoint. It's only doing mid frequencies, there isn't a huge amount of electrical energy there to dissipate. (Also watts are watts, "A class" watts vs class D are the same), DSP has NOTHING to do with wattage except for equalisation adding or removing power demand and also compression or limiting. Secondly, venting the voice coil via the magnet would necessitate a separate sealed chamber. The chamber would need to be tiny(the vented chamber would change driver properties) and wouldn't help much with heat. If there wasn't a separate chamber, the woofer would back pressure the mid through the pole vent. Thirdly, a small mid driver BARELY moves, therefore it won't move much if any air through the vent. You have a lot to learn. You even get excited by the woofer, that's not a particularly impressive magnetic structure. You also commented on a lack of venting, despite the very large pole vent. A pole vent on a woofer is very effective. Also your lack of understanding on the bi-amp module. Maybe you just like the sound of your own voice or something.

[@ripped2fcuk1]

Lol 100% agree very misleading review for what is actually a fantastic sounding and VFM 3way powered speaker.

[@thenightlifenj1]

133db lol when it’s clipping. Is basically no louder than other manufacturers 2 way boxes with less power.

[@towlie911]

These don’t sound very nice at high volumes, especially the high frequencies. They distort in a kind of “ice pick in your ear” way.

[@MobilediscowirralCoUk]

towlie911 Same i know what you mean! Awful once turned up how do i know i own rcf and fbt! This would of sounded amazing if they just put nice hf or hf that could take the power better once turned up...shame! Great teardown

[@towlie911]

@@MobilediscowirralCoUk Yup. I had a pair of these and I did an A/B test between the KW153 and the older HPR 153i. I ended up keeping the older ones and selling the KWs because the HPRs didn't have the high frequency distortion problem. The KWs had much deeper and more powerful bass, but that's what subs are for. The mains are cut at 100hz anyway.

[@pier2k-98]

Maybe Try Connecting a Strong amp to them ! It will sound very clear and it will be louder

[@CarlNagy]

This vid was helpful in terms of seeing what's inside the box here but you really need to learn the science if you're going to make comments on power handling etc. "DSP Watts" vs "A Class Watts" lol

[@lanesumner2293]

QSC fully discloses that there is not 3 amps. The mid and highs share 500 watts and the woofer has it's own 500. To claim deception is not at all accurate.

[@analogaudiorules1724]

Those drivers aren't low quality, and dsp correction isn't doing what you think it is and they did nothing wrong, they are actually reliable and efficient and are built by rcf, they are not meant to look pretty, they are designed to be functional. That midrange is correctly a sealed back, if it wasn't that would be horrible, midranges usually are to prevent backpressure from the woofer being pushed into the midrange it's self which can cause all kinds of issues. You should do a bit more research before reviewing them, still, nice video.

[@miamichi5]

Dude great video 👍! Wish you could tear down 15 inch turbosound & their 15 inch subwoofer...dude you should manufacturer your own brand speakers & make them the best made in USA...seems you have great intelligence...😁! 👍👍👍

[@2DudesAudio]

You must be psychic cause this summer we are manufacturing our first prototypes! First set will be bookshelf/monitor size. Our whole idea is to make home audio size speakers with live audio output.

[@TopogigioSemi]

Cheap Celestion drivers. Good for begginers. Meddium - low quality. The passive crossover looks decent. Big inductors

[@jeffmccrady9456]

wow! celestion makes drivers for qsc???

[@ronaldjohnson2266]

Would you shut up and tear it apart got dam!!!😔

[@BenJamin-ou7kd]

Yeah or buy your own and tear them down

[@yaboiristy5078]

QSC snake oil

[@xKMA371x]

Nice decent not worth the price tag!...Stamp frame..

[@joaquinmercado4740]

Qsc es muicara y notiene nada que la aga diferente es muy simple creo que a otras marcas de bosinas que tienen estipodebosina y masbaratas yotengo esamarcade Bosnias perome nobale lapena invertí tanto dinero en tipo demarca qsc

[@djmarkymarks.f.4153]

Qsc "speakers" are way Overrated.. My one ev speaker is louder and has 10 times the Bass then 2 qsc kw153.. Even if you added a sub to your set up it still wouldn't sound like my one 3 way ev speaker