Why Stage Monitors?

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Why in the world would anybody just make stage monitors? Good question, especially in a world where in-ear monitors are all the

rage. There’re multiple reasons for this….

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Understanding: In today’s live music world, lots of people love and use in-ear monitors, and we get why. On the other hand, there are still lots of situations where wedges are preferred. While in-ear monitors are preferred by some, others hate them, and we get why. While they work for some, they don’t work for others.

 

Localization: Consider this…our bodies are designed with two ears and the brain uses our ears to localize what we hear. Our hearing perception is based on four dimensions; length, width, height, and time. It’s how we tell where something is located in respect to where we are. With in-ears, that all goes away, and that’s one reason you see lots of people using only one ear bud. With wedges you operate in the natural world.

 

Silent Stage: The so-called “silent stage” is very much the norm these days, especially in churches, and we get why. The silent stage was born from the idea that a live band with guitar amplifiers, a live drum set, and floor wedges was simply too hard to control for the person mixing. At one time that was true, but not any longer, especially with our Mini Wedges. It used to be that wedge monitors were just regular 12” or 15” PA speakers with big horn flare and a slice cut out the back side to make it a “floor monitor”, in essence in a lot of cases making the monitor system bigger than the main PA. Yep, we got that too. The indirect sound coming from the stage made it difficult for the person mixing to get a clean sound from the main system. The solution for some was to just do away with floor wedges altogether. What they don’t realize is in doing so they have essentially gutted the vibe of a live band playing together…no more localization for those on stage.  To solve this problem, we developed small wedges with high output, a coaxial driver [no horn flare reduces feedback], and a reduced bottom end response which eliminates most if not all of the indirect garbage for the mix-person. A stage filled with our small wedges is pure joy for the players and the mix-person. For vocalists, our CA8MW 8” Coaxial Mini Wedge has no equal…it is the ultimate vocal wedge.

 

 

More than Minis: Looking around our sire, you are probably asking why we make a 10” and a 12” wedge if the Mini Wedges are the ticket. Quite simply, variety. There are some instances where a player needs a little more bottom end such as the drummer or bass player. For those that need more bottom end localized to their area on stage, we’ve got you covered. In those instances we recommend using mostly our Mini Stage Monitors for everyone else, and one or two of the bigger Standard Stage Monitors for those that want/need more low end.

 

Why Centerline Acoustics Stage Monitors: FYI, it’s not like we woke up one day and thought to ourselves, “what the world really needs is another stage monitor”. The idea came after a conversation with several major manufacturers where we were asking why they did things a certain way, if they could change some things based on trending needs, and why the cost of a high quality truly professional wedge was so expensive and out of the reach of most buyers. Those conversations went nowhere and what they were making was obviously the product of a “committee”. Rarely did we speak to anyone who was an active musician regularly playing live music, and it was obvious they simply did not relate to what we were asking. Understood. One of them said “well, you could just make your own”…light bulbs started to go on, and now over a decade later here we are.   

 

The other guys: There are a lot of other manufacturers making stage monitors that fill a need better than ours do and we are the first to admit it. For rental companies doing major tours with giant stages that need large wedges with stupidly high output, we don’t make anything like that. Our products are not for them, and we get that. For DJs using big main PA speakers for monitors, just keep using those. There’s also a few other companies making small wedges, but they’ve missed the mark on their designs and their prices. Our designs are the product of what we feel should be done, can be done, and will be done to fill needs the other guys either can’t do, or won’t do. That’s why we exist.

 

No powered stage monitors: Yes, that’s correct, we don’t make powered stage monitors and there’s a reason for that. While powered wedges are preferred by some because there’s the perception that they are more convenient, there are some major drawbacks as well. First of all, if the amplifier dies (and the chances are high it will) the monitor will become a brick. Good luck getting one of these repaired once it becomes a few years old. Secondly, for permanent installations a powered wedge requires two cables to make it work….power and signal. Thirdly, a powered wedge will likely not have a DSP on board to ring out the feedback, where as a rack amplifier with DSP can be very useful in not only ringing out feedback, but can be used to tune each passive wedge individually. Yes, the argument can be made that the wedge can be tuned and rung-out from the console, but we’ve tried it both ways and a DSP at the amplifier end is WAY more effective. Plus if a rack amp dies, you can easily replace it and your passive Centerline wedges are back up and running. 

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Made in USA: We live in a world where price drives the decisions of most people…we get that. It’s not easy to build anything in America at a price that competes with the Made-in-China products pricing. After disassembling some of the off-shore brands we sometimes ask ourselves “how is this possible at this price”, while at other times we have easily seen where shortcuts we taken. Rest assured, we take no shortcuts whatsoever, and everything we make is sourced locally either in Tennessee, Kentucky, or Georgia. We are a very small shop making what we call “Boutique” wedges. Additionally, we incur NO TARIFFS on our products. We don’t have a shipping container arriving at our back door filled with hundreds of units to be placed on a shelf waiting to be sold at a later time. Sure, you can buy cheaper products from the other guys, and you can also buy more expensive products from the other guys, but what you won’t get from them is products that are designed and engineered to be products that solve problems, that are trouble free, and perform just as exceptionally decades after the initial purchase.