Proel Flash 12HA

The Flash 12HA has a neat, nicely understated look about it with a fairly traditional shape. The cabinet is made from injection-moulded polypropylene, which is assembled from two large sections, front and rear. The finish is non-reflecting black, and the front panel is covered by a dark grey, punched metal grille that provides effective enough protection for the drivers within. The grille is well fitted and looks good but, being slightly convex, the middle part of it is where it makes contact with adjacent pieces of gear when standing upright in, say, the back of one’s van.

As is the norm with powered cabinets, the majority of the rear panel is occupied by the amplifier heat sink and the control/connection panel. The panel is simple, clearly laid out and labelled, and the Flash 12HA provides a choice of microphone or line inputs with independent balanced connectors (the line input has one of those useful combination sockets that will accept either XLR or standard jack plugs). There is also a level control for each and, for the sort of application this speaker is aimed at, I like the fact that turning the line level all the way down completely shuts off the signal. The two inputs can be used at the same time and a mixed ‘post-fade’ signal is available at a single unbalanced XLR output that can be used to daisy-chain further speakers or feed through to a remote system. Presumably, this is unbalanced because it’s always going to be at line level and shouldn’t suffer from interference, but I’d prefer to run the whole system fully balanced. The Flash 12HA is equipped with a couple of EQ controls too, which I like because they provide LF and HF shelving curves that would be especially useful if the speaker were being used in an ultra-simple setup without any mixer. The controls operate at 90Hz and 8kHz over a plus-or-minus 6dB range and I found them to work perfectly well when it came to rolling off unwanted bass or rounding off the highs. The ability to locally reduce the LF further enhances the Flash’s ability to work as a monitor. Apart from the power switch, the only other user control is an earth lift switch for eliminating loops. The rest of the metalwork on the back is a substantial heat sink for the power amps (the 12HA doesn’t have a cooling fan) that follows the rather pronounced curve of the cabinet shape; I would have preferred to see the vertical fins set further back into the panel recess, as they protrude and look a tad vulnerable.

Due to a set of rather complicated and unforeseen events, I had to take the pair of Flash 12HAs out on a gig the very day they arrived, and I only had time to plug a mic into them, switch them on and give a quick ‘one two’ before getting on the road. I suppose there’s no better test than the real thing, but I wanted to be sure that there hadn’t been any transit damage. After a short switch-on delay both units came to life with a little ‘click’ through the speakers and I was happy they were both indeed working. The job in question was to provide sound for a celebration of the Living Archive project in Milton Keynes and the, appropriately named, Living Archive Band would be performing a single set, accompanied by commentary and narration. The band’s line-up was four vocal mics, amplified acoustic guitar and electric bass, and my intention was to DI the guitar and leave the bass through its own backline amp. The narrator would be wearing a headset mic, and various VIPs would be using one or more of the vocal mics to address the audience. The venue was a rather nice new theatre called the Chrysalis, and on this occasion the raked seating was all rolled back out of the way with the audience (around 200) seated cabaret-style on the main floor area. I had worked with this band before and I knew that their requirements were clarity, balance, more balance, and more clarity — all with a perfectly natural sound, of course. Time was short, so I rigged up the Flash 12HAs on stands either side of the stage area (about 30 feet apart), set the EQ and line level controls at mid-point and connected them up to my trusty old 01V mixer. I put up four AKG D5 dynamic mics, and got the vocalist to do a quick level check before setting them up for the individual singers. To be honest I was expecting a lot of messing about, but the system really did sound fine from the outset. I left the controls on the speakers where they were, and applied a bit of gentle EQ from the mixer, and that was all I had to do. They sounded good with the DI’d acoustic guitar too, although they had to perform double duty as impromptu bass cabs because the bass player actually didn’t have a backline amp, so I fed him in direct and it sounded perfectly OK at the modest levels required. I have to say that the band and myself were quite taken with the Flash 12HA speakers, which sounded smooth and well-behaved, and the required clarity and balance was there almost without asking. I liked the Flash 12HAs even more at the end of the event when I was easily able to lift them off the stands without help and then carry them outside, one in each hand.

When I got the Flash 12HAs back to base I rigged them up for a session with various CD tracks, and I was able to try them indoors and, during a brief break in the weather, out on the grass as well. The sound was free from obvious vices, although there’s clearly a limit to how much bottom end you can get out of portable cabs as compact as the Flash 12HAs. I did like the clarity, particularly in the upper mids, vocals sounded smooth and there was no shortage of top-end detail. There was a respectable level of bass considering the size of the enclosures. I did a few listening tests well off to the side and I reckon the claimed 90-degree horizontal coverage is about right; these speakers aren’t ever going to fill a stadium, but they project well enough at reasonable levels and provided a fairly even balance throughout the target area. There’s enough power on tap for most small venues and, although I didn’t have any to hand, I’d venture to suggest that for louder, more demanding work, operating them in tandem with a good sub or two would give good results and would make the most of the available output. I wound the input up until the limit LEDs came on and then ran them for about half an hour at just below max — the overall sound remained smooth and I think my ears probably lost a bit of detail before the Flash 12HAs did. I did think that these speakers would be particularly suited to outdoor, speech-type jobs as their clear vocal range was delivered well and was maintained even at the highest volume levels.

Having been happy with the sound and physical handling of the Flash 12HA speakers, I decided to take them apart to see what was inside. This proved to be an easy task and when it comes apart there’s enough length of speaker wire to allow the case to be fully opened. The amplifier modules take up very little space and the output devices are bolted directly under the circuit board through to the heatsink assembly. The drivers both had Celestion labels, which was nice to see (as opposed to some anonymous units of unknown lineage), and appeared to be mounted securely to the front half of the cabinet. The enclosure itself has a number of moulded-in bracings and three sheets of loose-laid sound-absorbent material, and even when the case was lying in two unconnected halves the mouldings felt pretty rigid and had none of that nasty ringing ‘donk’ when tapped. The horn exit is moulded into and forms part of the cabinet ‘front half’ and provides an HF coverage of 90H x 60V degrees. The whole thing is fixed together firmly enough, the screws were tight and I didn’t detect any creaks or groans from any of the joints or mounted components. It’s not built like a tank, but then it doesn’t need to be at an overall weight of just over 19kg.