I get to experience a lot of PA systems, working in live sound professionally as well as being a musician in my spare time, from large-scale to small. As a result, I have a reasonable base from which to pass judgement, and in this case it is very positive. Where house systems have been unavailable I have gigged numerous small-scale options, including taking one or active tops (Meyer, RCF etc.) and a small mixer, or and AER amp or a smaller Peavey setup, or even a floor wedge in small bars to provide sound reinforcement etc. I've also tried similar systems to this from HK Audio and also the Bose Line array systems. I found that the Dave 10 really nailed it in terms of affordability (this bundle is excellent value), and sound quality, whilst still being very portable.
For solo gigs, you can't really go wrong with this; it's compact enough to get into a small car boot along with everything else, and takes only 2 trips to shift all of the tops, sub, stands etc. In smaller places, monitoring from the speakers rather than with a discrete floor wedge is made easier by the built-in tilt mounts, and the dispersion from the speakers seems quite wide compared to anything other than some of the line arrays. What Bose's L1 gains in dispersion, it loses in projection IMO as the drivers are not actually aligned in an array per se, being angled out. As such, I found that this system was equally as good in terms of projection.
You'll find the sub is reasonably light to carry, (unless you're only used to shifting Class D amps), but still manages to have a reasonable amount of power to it. I play a stomp block in addition to guitar and vocals, so the sub was the main element I found myself deliberating over as to whether it would be powerful enough. To be honest, in anything over a 150 person venue at full tilt this system will struggle to provide masses of thump, but that's to be expected - we're already talking much higher levels of bass than I ever got out of a 2.0 system, even with 15inch RCF Art 722 speakers. What this system does provide though is a very balanced (and adjustable) response for most small / modest rooms/clubs/bars/small function rooms etc.
I use an Allen & Heath mixer to feed this, and my guitar has the original Taylor Expression System, the sound of which I know very well. Something that excluded many other solutions for me was the noticeable sonic imprint (not a desirable one) that they imparted. The Dave 10 seems more transparent to me, unless driving it hard. As with a lot of active systems, there is automatic limiter/compression DSP that you can hear cutting in when reaching the limits of what can be driven in and out of the amps. This is especially noticeable as mix pumping when I use the stomp block. That said, there have only been a couple of times I have run into this, and they've been in larger venues full of noisy people where I'd have been better equipped with the Dave 15 or similar. The onboard compression is a little too hasty for my taste at these higher levels, but those that don't use additional signal processing for vocals and acoustic guitar earlier in the signal path probably won't notice it so much. Anyway, this is a relatively minor gripe, as the majority of the time you are not operating at this level.
The bundled stand and speak-on cables add value to an already affordable system, and I have used these without hesitation at numerous gigs. Speaker stands are like tank traps for drunk people, and at least one of them has been fallen on and the legs weren't bent out of shape. I call that a pass. It's worth getting the speaker covers, as the although I really appreciate the lack of ABS plastic as a construction material (it visually cheapens equipment dramatically to me), the painted finish can come off when bashed during transport. I keep a black paint touch-up pen in my kit.
All in all, I can't believe the price these are going for, and I recommend people check these out in comparison with some of the more expensive options, as I was surprised. It's never going to beat an active Meyer system that is 4 times the cost, but it's not designed to. Spec the right system for the job, and you won't regret it.
