QSC K10, Yamaha MG 10XU, Pioneer DDJ SB2

Recently, there was demand for new speakers in the house. My mom wanted a speaker loud enough to impress her friends and get the ball rolling at her house parties. The research and purchase fell on my dad's shoulders. By the time he involved me, he had already decided to go with powered speakers.

Powered speakers, unlike passive speakers, have an amplifier built in to them. Each speaker has to be plugged in to a power source and, in my case, connected to stereo out. Anyways, our budget was $1000 between 2 units because we just wanted some speakers for the living room, not a concert hall. After searching for a bit, we settled on the QSC K10. It's a 1000 watt speaker that normally runs for $600 a unit. We took advantage of the Guitar Center 4th of July Sale to get back within budget.

Since acquiring the speakers, my mom has thrown a couple of parties, and we got to see what the K10s were capable of. The sound is crisp and instantly fills the room. It reverberates around the house, setting the mood in every room. This is both a good and bad thing. When I'm trying to work and the K10s are on, my walls are like paper. I can clearly hear every note as if I was standing next to the speaker. Needless to say, it's not a good idea to play super loud music when you are trying to study but still. When it's time to party it's lit! An additional subwoofer would go a long way but the K10's subwoofer is sufficient.

To my college buddies... if you want to party in your room, buy one. If your throwing a rager at a frat house, get more. This is that stuff that will wake your neighbors.

To control the K10's we bought a Yamaha MG 10XU mixer. It takes 15 minutes to figure out if even that. For professional use, if you're doing live EDM you should get a Mixer with more inputs, but its fine if you're playing music from your laptop. Balancing music can take practice, for instance, knowing when and by how much to turn up the bass for dubstep.

We also wanted a controller to transition between songs. A friend recommended Pioneer's DDJ SB2 so that's what we got. It took, maybe, 2 hours to figure out. The buttons and dials have self explanatory labels for the most part. Using it is easy, but using it well is another matter altogether. It definitely takes practice. If you want to get into DJ'ing, try the SB2. Guitar Center has a generous trial policy, so if you like this controller but want something better return this and buy a better one. At the end of the day the DDJ SB2 is like a $250 toy. You will want something with more features if you want to go big. Again, for the purposes of a house party it's sufficient.

I'm going to miss the sound of the K10s when I'm in college. It's alright, there are plenty of parties to hit up ;)