Nord User Forum

I currently play my nord electro 6d through a small mixing board and into a single QSC k12.2. I use both right and left outputs and I split them on the board, but they go to the same speaker. It does sound better than just doing mono, but obviously I am not experiencing the true stereo experience the nord has to offer. I can tell when I play with bands and am going stereo through a PA. I have been saving up for my next gear purchase and I have a $1000 I can spend.

Option 1) get another QSC K12.2. Set them up on each side of the board angled up towards me. This is obviously way more than I need for playing by myself at home. But I have long term plans to turn my basement into a full band jam space/studio, so I figure having two QSC 12.2s is a good investment and I assume it will sound awesome.

Option 2) I buy the nord monitors or whatever the best monitors one can buy for under a 1000 dollars.

Any insight is appreciated.

In a home studio you'd have better sound distribution throughout the room with either K8's or K10's, but you already have a K12... Here is what I'd do. I'd sell the K12.2 and use the money, plus some of my $1,000 budget to buy a pair of used or demo K10.2's (if I was planning to use them a lot in a live band setting) or K8.2's (if I'd mostly use them in a home studio setting.). YMMV, of course.

wtibbit wrote:In a home studio you'd have better sound distribution throughout the room with either K8's or K10's, but you already have a K12... Here is what I'd do. I'd sell the K12.2 and use the money, plus some of my $1,000 budget to buy a pair of used or demo K10.2's (if I was planning to use them a lot in a live band setting) or K8.2's (if I'd mostly use them in a home studio setting.). YMMV, of course.

Thanks, can you quickly explain why the k10s would be better?

I'm not certain I can do it quickly....

All speakers acoustically radiate sound in a distribution pattern, with the measured power of that sound varying across angle measured from the centerline of the speaker (think of it as the drawing a line perpendicular from the face of the speaker.) Along any other line at some different angle from that centerline, the sound level (or power) will be less. The greater the angle, the lower will be the sound level. QSC calls this speaker performance specification "Dispersion" and it is measured in degrees where the sound power is 6 dB lower than the power measured along the centerline, at the same distance from the speaker.

Here are is Dispersion specification for each speaker in the QSC K-series family:
K12.2 - 75 degrees
K10.2 - 90 degrees
K8.2 - 105 degrees

You can think of this as a narrower "beam" of sound from the larger speaker, and within the beam, more power.

All the Kx.2 models have the same amplifier power so, other than a bit lost by the smaller ones because of lower efficiency, the same total amount of sound energy is radiated by each of them, but it spread more widely and evenly through the room.

That wider, more even dispersion of the sound will make your music sound better balanced, especially in mid and higher frequencies. This is especially important in a studio.

Generally speaking... the small K series speakers will sound better in smaller rooms. A pair of K8.2's in stereo will sound great in a studio or even an intimately sized club, with much more volume and power than you'll likely ever need. I used a set of K10's for my keyboard amp in clubs with over 200 in the audience, and also used the same speakers as PAs mains (with a powered subwoofer for kick drum and low bass) in the same clubs. For very large clubs or small outdoor spaces with the audience further away the K12's would be better, but bandmates on the other side of the stage may need wedges or IEMs with your keyboards in the monitor mix to hear you clearly. For large outdoor spaces you need to be just using your keyboard speakers for a stage monitor and depending a serious PA system to get your sound to the audience, so K10's would work fine, again.

^that's very helpful. Thank you.

On another forum I visit there have been too many complaints to ignore about the K 10.2 firmware update which apparently causes the unit to shut off, often at in opportune times. There has been some speculation that it was to prevent warranty requests from DJ's that run their speakers at very high levels for extended periods. Cannot confirm, I had the original K 10's with no problem