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REVIEWED
DAP Live Mini
The DAP Live Mini is a compact and very affordable portable PA system from Highlite’s DAP Audio brand. It comprises a pair of passive column-style mid/top speakers mounted above a pair of active sub speakers.
After 32 years in the mobile disco business I recently decided it was time to reassess my DJing workload and downsize my system. This, coupled with my wife’s desire to downsize our vehicle from a rather large Peugeot Expert Tepee (LWB) to something more sensible (a 5008) meant that I had to think carefully about just how much disco equipment I could afford to own and carry. In addition to running a smaller vehicle, I’m also planning to undertake a smaller range of gigs each year, most of which will be in one particular venue. I decided that four large speakers, weighing in at nearly 100kg in total and accounting for around 50% of my equipment’s bulk, were prime for replacement.
My challenge was that I had a budget that could be described as limited at best. The sale of surplus equipment and my current speakers had to cover the costs. This put most systems out of my price range. I could have opted for a pair of uprated powered 12” or 15” full range speakers, but was wary of a two speaker system, having always run separate mid/tops and subs.
After a gig a few weeks ago, I sat in the house after unloading and flicked through Pro Mobile Issue 77. I looked at all of the possible systems advertised and didn’t think my limited budget would stretch to any of them. I then saw the advert on page 11 for the DAP Audio Live Mini set, on offer for under £1000 [Highlite have agreed to extend this offer to also cover July and August 2016 – Ed]. I’d heard of DAP Audio, but did not really know anything about their products, to me it was just a random name of an equipment manufacturer. So, I was initially a little sceptical because of the price. Could it be any good? Was it too good to be true? What was the catch?
I looked up the specification and compared it against my current system, as well as some of the other advertised products. I was running a pair of Mackie SRM450 V2s and a pair of dB Technologies Sub 12 speakers. Each of these is rated around 400 – 450W RMS, and together the system has coped well with all the bookings I have undertaken in recent years, ranging from small family parties to large corporate events. However, a review of my diary suggested that I could probably get away with a slight reduction in output if the dispersal and quality was there. The rated output for each side of the DAP Live Mini system is 350W low / 350W mid-high RMS into 4 ohms. So maybe not quite up to the job for those big corporate events, but potentially more than capable for the mainstay of my work, and certainly suitable for my current gigs booked in the diary for the next 18 months.
Common sense and good practice suggest that you should always listen to speakers before committing to a purchase, preferably in a venue similar to those that you work on a regular basis. However, internet searches and using the dealer lists on Highlite’s website proved fruitless, I couldn’t find the system for sale, nor in stock, anywhere in the UK.
Eventually, thanks to Google, I did find one supplier, Lighthouse Audio-Visual. I also contacted Highlite and Pro Mobile through Facebook, checking with Eddie that the advert was genuine as I was struggling to find the system for sale. I received prompt and positive responses from both, which was reassuring, however the difficulty in finding the product was still a little worrying. Were my initial concerns proving to be well-founded? Despite my feelings of unease, I decided to take a very big chance and ordered a set with covers on the Monday morning. I was spurred on by the fact that I had a typical gig that weekend at which I could put them through their paces, and also because the car change also looked to be imminent. It was comforting that Highlite were aware quickly of my order through Lighthouse AV, which gave me hope that my system would arrive in time, despite it having to travel across from the continent.
Fortunately, it arrived just in time on the Friday, in a rather large box on a pallet. My new speakers had made the journey from well within Mainland Europe in one piece. They were well packed, and in the box were the two powered sub units, two distancing poles, two column speakers, speakon cables, and 2-pin power leads; unfortunately, no UK IEC leads were supplied. However, like most DJs, I had spares readily available. In the separately purchased cover set there were two sub covers and two padded column speaker bags with handles and shoulder straps. On initial inspection, all looked to be well made and quite robust.
The subs are made from 15mm Plywood, painted with scratch-resistant paint. They look very tidy, with robust handles cut into the cabinet along the sides of the top edges. These are quite well-placed and the covers have suitable cut-out handles to compliment them. At just a little over 20kg, each sub is quite reasonable to lift and carry - just within manual handling recommendations for most people. The front has a metal grille, which could be susceptible to scratching or denting, so I would definitely recommend covers. On the top of the cabinet there is a 35mm top hat to accommodate the distance pole.
Moving on to the passive mid/top column speakers, these are rated at 240W RMS each and are driven, I presume, from a second 350W amp housed within the sub unit. The cabs are connected by a speakon lead which is slightly longer than the maximum length of the distancing pole, allowing them to be easily set at full height. Again, these are made from ply and have the same matt black finish and metal grilles. The bottoms of these speakers are fitted with matching 35mm top hats for mounting onto the distancing poles. There are no handles, but as these cabinets contain 8 x 3.5” speakers they are quite narrow, so they are easily manageable without handles. They also only weigh 7kg each, which is quite a difference compared to my old 450 V2s!
They fit snugly into their bags, the only slight issue is the zips. If not opened fully, the zips could easily catch and potentially scratch the speakers. The only other minor downside to the bags is that there is nowhere to store leads or the distancing poles. Black velcro ties on the speakon leads would also have been nice to enable the cables to be neatly hidden behind the vertical poles.
The whole system is fairly straight-forward to connect up. There are two inputs; one with a combination XLR / ¼” jack, which is switchable between Line and Mic level, and another line level input offered via a choice of XLR / ¼” jack combo and RCA phono inputs. Each input has a separate volume control, which means that the system could be used on its own without a separate mixer as a simple PA for background music or speeches. There is also a Thru XLR output socket, for connecting to other amps or powered speakers, which is switchable between just Input 1 and a mix of both inputs.
LED indicators are provided to show when the unit is receiving mains power and when it’s internal limiter kicks in. The amps are fan-cooled and have Thermal, Overload and digital Compression protection. There is also a Live / Entertain switch, which tweaks the frequencies slightly; these changes appear to be mostly in the mid-range, with slightly higher mids for Live and lower mids for Entertain, which aligns with most perceptions on basic equalisation for disco vs. live.
After 32 years in the mobile disco business I recently decided it was time to reassess my DJing workload and downsize my system. This, coupled with my wife’s desire to downsize our vehicle from a rather large Peugeot Expert Tepee (LWB) to something more sensible (a 5008) meant that I had to think carefully about just how much disco equipment I could afford to own and carry. In addition to running a smaller vehicle, I’m also planning to undertake a smaller range of gigs each year, most of which will be in one particular venue. I decided that four large speakers, weighing in at nearly 100kg in total and accounting for around 50% of my equipment’s bulk, were prime for replacement.
My challenge was that I had a budget that could be described as limited at best. The sale of surplus equipment and my current speakers had to cover the costs. This put most systems out of my price range. I could have opted for a pair of uprated powered 12” or 15” full range speakers, but was wary of a two speaker system, having always run separate mid/tops and subs.
After a gig a few weeks ago, I sat in the house after unloading and flicked through Pro Mobile Issue 77. I looked at all of the possible systems advertised and didn’t think my limited budget would stretch to any of them. I then saw the advert on page 11 for the DAP Audio Live Mini set, on offer for under £1000 [Highlite have agreed to extend this offer to also cover July and August 2016 – Ed]. I’d heard of DAP Audio, but did not really know anything about their products, to me it was just a random name of an equipment manufacturer. So, I was initially a little sceptical because of the price. Could it be any good? Was it too good to be true? What was the catch?
I looked up the specification and compared it against my current system, as well as some of the other advertised products. I was running a pair of Mackie SRM450 V2s and a pair of dB Technologies Sub 12 speakers. Each of these is rated around 400 – 450W RMS, and together the system has coped well with all the bookings I have undertaken in recent years, ranging from small family parties to large corporate events. However, a review of my diary suggested that I could probably get away with a slight reduction in output if the dispersal and quality was there. The rated output for each side of the DAP Live Mini system is 350W low / 350W mid-high RMS into 4 ohms. So maybe not quite up to the job for those big corporate events, but potentially more than capable for the mainstay of my work, and certainly suitable for my current gigs booked in the diary for the next 18 months.
Common sense and good practice suggest that you should always listen to speakers before committing to a purchase, preferably in a venue similar to those that you work on a regular basis. However, internet searches and using the dealer lists on Highlite’s website proved fruitless, I couldn’t find the system for sale, nor in stock, anywhere in the UK.
Eventually, thanks to Google, I did find one supplier, Lighthouse Audio-Visual. I also contacted Highlite and Pro Mobile through Facebook, checking with Eddie that the advert was genuine as I was struggling to find the system for sale. I received prompt and positive responses from both, which was reassuring, however the difficulty in finding the product was still a little worrying. Were my initial concerns proving to be well-founded? Despite my feelings of unease, I decided to take a very big chance and ordered a set with covers on the Monday morning. I was spurred on by the fact that I had a typical gig that weekend at which I could put them through their paces, and also because the car change also looked to be imminent. It was comforting that Highlite were aware quickly of my order through Lighthouse AV, which gave me hope that my system would arrive in time, despite it having to travel across from the continent.
Fortunately, it arrived just in time on the Friday, in a rather large box on a pallet. My new speakers had made the journey from well within Mainland Europe in one piece. They were well packed, and in the box were the two powered sub units, two distancing poles, two column speakers, speakon cables, and 2-pin power leads; unfortunately, no UK IEC leads were supplied. However, like most DJs, I had spares readily available. In the separately purchased cover set there were two sub covers and two padded column speaker bags with handles and shoulder straps. On initial inspection, all looked to be well made and quite robust.
The subs are made from 15mm Plywood, painted with scratch-resistant paint. They look very tidy, with robust handles cut into the cabinet along the sides of the top edges. These are quite well-placed and the covers have suitable cut-out handles to compliment them. At just a little over 20kg, each sub is quite reasonable to lift and carry - just within manual handling recommendations for most people. The front has a metal grille, which could be susceptible to scratching or denting, so I would definitely recommend covers. On the top of the cabinet there is a 35mm top hat to accommodate the distance pole.
Moving on to the passive mid/top column speakers, these are rated at 240W RMS each and are driven, I presume, from a second 350W amp housed within the sub unit. The cabs are connected by a speakon lead which is slightly longer than the maximum length of the distancing pole, allowing them to be easily set at full height. Again, these are made from ply and have the same matt black finish and metal grilles. The bottoms of these speakers are fitted with matching 35mm top hats for mounting onto the distancing poles. There are no handles, but as these cabinets contain 8 x 3.5” speakers they are quite narrow, so they are easily manageable without handles. They also only weigh 7kg each, which is quite a difference compared to my old 450 V2s!
They fit snugly into their bags, the only slight issue is the zips. If not opened fully, the zips could easily catch and potentially scratch the speakers. The only other minor downside to the bags is that there is nowhere to store leads or the distancing poles. Black velcro ties on the speakon leads would also have been nice to enable the cables to be neatly hidden behind the vertical poles.
The whole system is fairly straight-forward to connect up. There are two inputs; one with a combination XLR / ¼” jack, which is switchable between Line and Mic level, and another line level input offered via a choice of XLR / ¼” jack combo and RCA phono inputs. Each input has a separate volume control, which means that the system could be used on its own without a separate mixer as a simple PA for background music or speeches. There is also a Thru XLR output socket, for connecting to other amps or powered speakers, which is switchable between just Input 1 and a mix of both inputs.
LED indicators are provided to show when the unit is receiving mains power and when it’s internal limiter kicks in. The amps are fan-cooled and have Thermal, Overload and digital Compression protection. There is also a Live / Entertain switch, which tweaks the frequencies slightly; these changes appear to be mostly in the mid-range, with slightly higher mids for Live and lower mids for Entertain, which aligns with most perceptions on basic equalisation for disco vs. live.
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 78, Pages 76 - 78.
