Behringer Eurolive E1220A

The speaker incorporates its own signal processing to afford protection to the amplifier and driver components as well as to handle the crossover functions, and the main powerhouse is a 12-inch, long-throw bass/mid driver made in Behringer's own factory. This runs alongside a 1.75-inch HF driver feeding a horn flare, and there are ports cut into the front baffle through which some acoustic damping material is visible. The electronics pack includes a Mic/Line preamp with a Level control and Clip LED, so if your mixer blows up mid gig at least you can plug in a dynamic mic and keep singing. Unlike most similar systems, which have a switch for mic or line operation, this offers both via the wide-ranging gain control, which offers up to 50dB of gain. Failure to check that the Level knob hasn't been turned fully clockwise before feeding in a line-level signal could result in a nasty surprise! All the knobs and connectors are mounted on a safely recessed steel dish, which doubles as the rear panel and the heat sink for the electronics. As far as I can tell, the electronics are not housed in a separate compartment, as you can feel air being expelled from the jack socket when playing audio through the speaker.

Inputs are on both balanced female XLR and balanced jack (only one can be used at a time), while a Link Output on a male XLR allows speakers to be daisy-chained. As they're hardwired, either XLR can be used as an input or output if you find yourself with the wrong gender of connector. A simple High/Low equaliser providing up to 15dB of cut or boost at 80Hz and 12kHz provides a useful degree of control over the overall sound to help compensate for the room the speaker is used in. But these are not centre-detented and the knob cap marker line isn't coloured, so you need good lighting to check they are in their centre position. A Clip LED next to the Level control comes on if the input signal level is too high, and power is via a standard IEC socket with both a fuse and push-button power switch, also mounted on the rear panel. A system frequency response of 60Hz to 20kHz is quoted with the crossover frequency set at 2.2kHz, and the maximum SPL capability is specified as 124dB at one metre. On paper this seems very impressive given the very modest cost of the speaker, but how does it actually sound?

When playing pre-recorded music through these speakers, the bass end can get rather boomy in smaller spaces, especially at higher levels, but tends to sound more comfortable in typical venue-sized spaces unless you push the system too hard. If you really need to put a lot of low end through any 12-inch system, you should be thinking about adding a sub anyway. You can't really expect near hi-fi performance from a PA speaker of this price, and critical listening shows up a degree of mid-range tubbiness, especially in the lower mid-range where acoustic guitar bodies and the low end of the human voice reside. This is most likely due to cabinet resonances, as budget plastic boxes are seldom as well damped as wooden ones, but under real-world gig conditions it isn't very noticeable.

The speakers also exhibit a slightly hard top end from what has to be a fairly low-cost HF driver and horn, but then what can sound over-brash in a smaller space can also help vocals carry further in a crowded venue, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing for rock and pop music. Being fair, many plastic speakers have similar tonal characteristics, and the Behringer E1220A is amongst the least expensive you can buy.