Ever heard or used a Meyer Melodie Line Array?

[arctic954]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently the TD with a church that is in the process of finishing up a 1,700 seat auditorium....it has 30 foot stage opening...cat-walks to floor is around 35-40 feet....with a curved upper balcony.

The company doing the install is recommending a self-powered Meyer Melodie Line Array. (2 stereo clusters, 8 cabinets per side, with a sub-woofer on the bottom of each array)

Has anyone heard this line array before? Is it capable of big room sound?

Just curious how this line stacks up to the JBL-Vertec....

[arctic954]

Sorry.... meant for the heading to say...

"Have you ever heard or used a Meyer Melodie Line Array?"

[Gracetech]

I've heard and used but yet to spec the system out to a church. The system is a great system but i've yet to have a church that could afford a system that was optimally designed for their room.

I know your thinking "these boxes are so small how could they fill this room with sound". Don't worry your not alone, I usually have to rent a system and put it in place before churces will believe me on compact line arrays. The truth of the matter is that if you have 6 elements which have say 2 6" Mid Bass speakers in them then you have 12 Mid bass speakers which are roughly the equivilent of 5 12" speakers. When your thinking of speakers it's best to work out the surface area of the drivers themselves instead of just looking at a box. I've gone into auditoriums with 5 Melodies a side and blown away people with the quality and control of sound in the room. Of course in that case the system was ground stacked and you can get away with fewer boxes when you do so. As to how many boxes you need for proper coverage in your space i can't attest to. I've just finished spec'ing out a solution for our auditorium and I'm looking at using 9 SLS LS8800 boxes. Our auditorium is a 2200 seater with a fan shaped layout and a rounded balcony. The hard thing in our room is getting under the balcony which will probably have to be done with secondary boxes. The current system is very splotchy.

One thing i would like for you to really look at is your distance between your speakers. if the distance is too far your going to have coverage issues in the middle. This also applies to your sub's. We have issues right now because our subs are on the far opposing sides of the stage some 55 feet separated. This ends up causing really hot spots right infront of the subs but nearly no subs in the middle to the back of the room.

BTW: i have no love for the VerTec line. I've tried to get good sound out of them and the box is just not designed right. If you want a PA sounding box then it will work fine for you. If you want some thing that sounds better you will be sadly disappointed. I've probably hear more tours than i want to with these boxes and yet to hear one that even sounded remotely good.

crt

[waynehoskins]

+1 for Meyer .. I have yet to hear anything bad coming from Meyer.

I wish I could say I've heard a Melodie array, but I haven't. I have heard a David-And-Craig-designed rig (driven it once even) that used the MSL boxes, and it is awesome. It probably has as much to do with David and Craig as it does Meyer.

[cmchamp]

I have not heard the Meyer box you're speaking of, but I have heard other products by them. As for similarly sized products, such as the SLS products - "Yeah Baby" they'll do the job. My only question is the positioning of the sub.
As for JBL's VerTec, I've heard a dozen of them, and have yet to hear one that sounds natural or voiced correctly.

[Brad Weber]

The M'elodie can be a great sounding rig, but my first question would be how your installer came up with that specific recommendation? Like any speaker, it still has to be properly applied. Have they presented any predicted results or told you how they arrived at the specific products, quantities and locations?

What sub are they proposing, there isn't really a 'M'elodie' sub but a couple that can be used with it?

You mentioned that you were in the process of finishing up the auditorium, is that finishing the design or the actual construction? Have the array weights and power requirements been addressed? I am just finishing up the design on a system for an existing space where those two specific issues had a major bearing on the speaker system design. Powered speakers significantly increased the weight of the arrays and affected the locations possible while moving the power already located in the amp room up to the array locations would have added significantly to the cost, so since it had not been accommodated in the initial building design, in that application we had to eliminate powered speakers as a practical option.

[Les]

I have heard the Melodie's and they are incredible!

I haven't heard anything Meyer that didn't sound good to great.

As to whether they are a good fit for your room, who knows (well hopefully the designer knows). But, if they are designed properly you won't regret them.

As far as Vertec... I personally don't care for them (but, then again I don't care for JBL in general). I've heard them plenty of times, never like them. But, they are rider friendly.

[arctic954]

Thanks for all the great info guys!

Just to throw it out there.....can you guys recommend any other self-powered arrays to look into? (QSC, EAW, or Renkus Heinz....you all mentioned SLS?)

I guess, in hindsight.... I mainly was questioning the 8" drivers in the Melodie cabinets.

I'm also in the process of getting the next cabinet in the line price quoted out... The Meyer MICA's with the 10" cones. (I believe the Meyer MILO line would be absolutely over-kill in my space.)

[arctic954]

Forgot to add......

The room still has a dirt floor (currently finalizing conduit runs this next week)....the drywall has been hung, mudded, and primed. The room also has been designed for a powered line array....electrically & structurally. I'm told the target is to have 2 stereo arrays with 100 degree coverage.

They are recommending the 700 HP sub cabinet on each side....

Though --- in conversations with Meyer engineers.... they are worried that they haven't quoted out enough sub cabinets for the room.

Meyer is saying they like to see 2-3 subs per every 8-9 cabinets?

[Gracetech]

Do you plan on Concert levels?(115dB or higher)

The recommendation from Meyer is on the assumption that you will be running at concert levels. 2 700HP in my space would be more than sufficient. The two BagEnd Quartz I's usually don't even get past RMS or otherwise they would kill the first few rows.

There are lots of arrays to recommend but i usually like to start with info about your space. Just so you know most of the boxes i do like are unpowered. The Meyer's stuff is top of my list for Powered boxes.

Oh and to put your mind at ease. The Melodies have plenty of power in the amount of cabinets you listed to handle concert levels. As to how well they cover depends on the room and angles used. It's possible you might need to add extra boxes just for smoother coverage but that's just talk until i know what your room looks like.

crt

[Brad Weber]

There are limited options when comparing output, quality and size. The L-Acoustics dV-DOSC is probably a direct competitor. The d&b Q10, Nexo GEO S8/12, EAW KF730, Martin W8LM, SLS LS8800, etc. are not powered. The QSC WideLine has, as the name suggests, a wider than normal nominal 140 degree pattern, this could be good or bad depending upon the situation.

I could be totally misunderstanding things, but it almost sounds like this may be being approached in what is usually a less than optimal fashion. I say this based on the comments regarding the questions on the number of subs and which model to use, as well as your general question on whether the M'elodie is enough for the application. Rather than picking products and then trying to fit them to the application, it is often better to first define your goals and then determine which products can support those goals. For example, whether the M'elodie is sufficient requires knowing what defines being sufficient. Are there any specific design criteria or goals your system designer is trying to achieve or are they just suggesting products rather than trying to achieve any specific result?

How much of your service is speech and vocals? I personally do not like split stereo systems for many venues as any mono sources are routed to both arrays, which typically results in interactions between the signals from the two arrays that lead to issues like combfiltering and a low frequency 'power alley'.

[BryanRamsey]

Meyer is by far the best speaker I have ever used. It is for sure in the top 3 of speaker manufacturers.

The Melodies are incredible. I for one cannot stand the way JBL's sound. They are just not at the level of the Meyer boxes in my opinion.