When LifePointe Christian Church in Elk Grove, CA was looking for a sound system to compliment a new location—a converted Harley Davidson showroom—it turned to the expertise of CCI Solutions of Olympia, WA, with project manager David McLain recommending NEXO PS15 loudspeakers for the 400-seat church.
Specifically, the new system includes three PS15s and a flown NEXO CD18 subwoofer, all driven and controlled via a 4×4 NXAMP.
“Pastor Chris Delfs sought out a new location where they would not only own their space but could create a unique, new culture,” states McLain. “They weren’t looking for a NEXO system per se, but were looking for good advice. At only 60 feet deep, with less than 20 feet of trim, a line array would not have been the best tool, whereas, the asymmetrical horn pattern of a PS15 reaches the back rows with ease.”
“David actually discouraged a line array approach in this case, and if you look at how much the HVAC and lighting impacts the trim height, the PS solution was much better,” notes Steve Armstrong of PROS Inc.,an iindependent rep firm for NEXO.
“I’d been hearing a lot of talk about NEXO speakers over the past few years,” and have listened to various models and I was impressed enough to recommend them for a couple of rooms, particularly given the outstanding support I’ve been receiving from Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems,” says McLain. “I didn’t really know the extent of the NEXO lineup until I had opportunity to listen critically and extensively to their whole selection of speakers at a demo at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center in California.
“The Cerritos Center is an awesome building. We used their beautiful main room to try out the NEXO speakers. I spent the first demo day designing speaker systems for rooms using various software, and I liked the way the NEXO speakers worked in the planning, and also liked what I saw in the computer models. The NS-1 software was easy to work with, so I imported some real-world rooms, like LifePointe, that I’d been working on. It appeared the NEXO PS Series would provide excellent coverage.
“I have to admit, there’s a fair bit of skeptic in me,” he continues. “A box that promises a rectangular coverage pattern had better do more than just advertise well! It needs to offer an actual rectangular coverage pattern. And more importantly, it needs to sound good! In the next day’s listening tests, I measured 112 dB at the back of the listening room, and I have to say, it sure didn’t feel like 112 dB. In fact, it didn’t sound like a PA playing. It sounded like a woman was right there singing to me.
“Yamaha brought in a live jazz drummer and they just sounded louder, like there was no PA in between. Even the little NEXO PS8 two-way sounded way bigger than its small size. And, all of the subwoofers for the line arrays – which were shaking my pant legs at 100 feet – are cardioid subs. Even during the ‘fairly loud’ cuts (think aggressive Sunday morning volume), we could easily hold a conversation on the stage behind the subwoofers.”