QSC K.2 - 12" Active Loudspeaker For Best In Class Performance
Active Monitors or Loud-Speakers are one of the most essential equipment of any studio setup.
And If you are professional chances are there's ton of overpriced speakers in market with very minute differences to dissolve your thoughts.
Luckily the speaker brand QSC likes to keep things minimalistic and sweet with superb quality sound and finish.
This is why today we're checking out the Active Loudspeaker from K.2 Series of powered PA Speakers from QSC.
Like the original K series there are three members in the K.2 family the 8 inch, 10 inch and 12 inch versions.
One of the big differences from the QSC original K series is that the K.2 has greatly increased power.
It has 2000 watts overall available on all of the variants of the K.2 family.
K.12.2 offers 1800 watts on the low end and 225 watts on the high end.
This gives you much higher headroom for better dynamic range and the ability to project higher SPLs.
Another big difference with the K.2 series is that each of the 3 models has onboard DSP processing power offering a wide variety of signal processing options.
So these are just a quick highlights lets jump on the the detailed analysis.
Do You Feel Reading Reviews Is So 90's Then Check The Video Review Of QSC K12.2 Below ?
Design and Body
The K.2 series have very rugged enclosures built from ABS so they're going to stand up to the rigors of the road.
They also have built in features like onboard fly points several different ways to mount these as well as two mounting cups for placing them on poles one of those is straight and the other one tilts forward 7 degrees so names downward if you're above your audience.
As I mentioned we have three different versions of the K.2 series speakers 8 inch 10 inch and 12 inch in each of them shares the same tweeter.
There are two technologies incorporated into the K.2 series powered PA speakers that make them perform so well sonically.
One of these is DMT (directivity matched transition) is a technology that matches the coverage of the woofer to the coverage of the horn or the tweeter at the crossover point.
The second technology is Intrinsic Correction.
If you are not aware, intrinsic correction smooths the power handling inside the speaker.
The combination of these two technologies allows these speakers to perform very well in a wide variety of acoustic spaces.
One of the most impressive things about the K.2 series is a frequency response of the cabinets.
Even the little 8-inch cabinet produces amazing low-end.
The frequency response of these cabinets are :
6 DB down point on the low end is 59 Hertz with the 8-inch,
56 Hertz with the 10 inch and,
50 Hertz with the 12-inch,
in the frequency range of -10 DB point is 55 Hertz with the 8 inch,
50 Hertz with a 10-inch,
45 Hertz with the 12-inch,
On the top, all three cabinets extend to 20 kilohertz which gives us plenty of range for great detail crisp eyes and intelligible reproduction of vocals.
Backpanels and Input Connectivity Options
Let's take a quick tour of the back panel and also check out the DSP capabilities that are built into these speakers.
Each of the speakers has three independent inputs and those each have their own gain control.
And all three can be sum together and run to the speaker simultaneously or sent out with a pass through to another audio device.
The first input is a combo jack quarter-inch XLR that can accept either mic level or line level signals.
The second input is also an XLR quarter-inch combo jack and that can accept Guitar Level signals along with Line Level signals.
This allows you to use these K.2 series speakers for a singer-songwriter application where for example you plug an acoustic guitar into input 2 and a microphone into input 1.
Input 3 is an eighth inch TRS jack which is great for playing backing tracks or play music from your phone or other music player.
Inputs one and two each have their own XLR pass through that allow you to route their signal straight on to another audio device for example from monitoring onstage.
At the top of the screen we have two important settings.
And that's the level that's coming in to input 1 and input 2.
And you select here for input 1 you can choose line level or you can scroll down and choose mic level.
When you select mic level and LED illuminates to show us that we have that selected for channel 1.
If we go back to channel 2 and select, you can now choose between high Z and S line. And once again when you select instrument level an indicator light will illuminate.
The K.2 family comes equipped with a wide variety of factory presets that allow you to optimize them for different applications.
Example if you select preset option on the screen and hit enter we can scroll through the different types like ->
default, live, live bright, dance, stage monitor, stage monitor 2 and so on.
Each of these speakers also has a built-in crossover and this allows you to configure them for use with an external subwoofer.
The onboard delay parameter allows you to time align the speakers when you are using them in an array situation setup.
It also have onboard parametric EQ with the K.2 series and this allows us to optimize the speakers for any acoustic situation.
So if you dial down and select the onboard EQ you will get a four band configuration option, a high shelf, a low shelf and two adjustable mid bands.
You can also bypass the onboard EQ and you can restore a flat EQ curve with one reset press.
Finally we have the settings menu the settings menu allows you to do things like set the contrast for the display so you can optimize it for difficult lighting conditions.
One of the most powerful things found under this menu is user scenes.
User scenes allow you to store all the DSP parameters and recall them instantly.
So you can save different settings for various venues that you're playing in when you return to that venue just select the user scene and you're ready to go.
My Experience With QSC K.12.2 Active Monitors
The K.2 family of powered PA speakers from QSC is incredibly versatile.
Whether you're using them as front of house PA speakers, whether you're setting them at an angle and using them as floor monitors they perform equally well.
They're ideal whether you're a musician or a band carrying your own PA system for install at clubs or houses of worship for mobile DJs.
And in fact they make great instrument amplifiers as well for keyboards or for guitarists who are using FRFR systems with modelers they sound incredible.
I personally used it few times on our tours and in practice sessions.
We plugged in two guitars and two vocals and we actually put it on the floor like this is in front of the audience, It sounded incredible and was so easy to use we were really happy with those performance.
I hope you've enjoyed this look at Q SC's K.2 family of powered PA speakers these speakers sound incredible they're lightweight easy to use basically to set them up and they sound incredible.
With the increased power up to 2000 watts we have even more Headroom and the ability to generate even higher SPLs and you get great broad coverage and wonderful sound quality no matter what volume you're playing at.
And with the onboard DSP processing capabilities the K.2 series is also one of the most versatile speakers that's on the market you really want to check these out no matter what sound reinforcement situation you find yourself in.
That's all for now,
Till Then,
Keep Playing and Spread Love.
