I’m sure that Peavey encompasses many adjectives that start with “P,” like “proficient” and “pugilistic.” (They’re feisty.) My favorite Peavey adjective, though, is “predictable.”

Now, don’t get me wrong! I love innovation and “cool new stuff,” but I also love being able to get cool new stuff that I know is made well. That’s where Peavey delivers: They make affordable gear that delivers usable performance and holds up under the rigors of live-audio. You know what to expect when you order a box with the Peavey badge, and that is tremendously valuable for live-sound humans.

When it comes to speaker enclosures, the big “P” has never let me down. Even when a box has suffered some sort of problem, the issue was either too subtle for most people to notice, or correctable with a few minutes of work. Almost every Peavey loudspeaker that I’ve ever owned is either still in service somewhere, or was traded up for the next box. I had some cheap subs that I overpowered (because I was young and dumb), and they endured the punishment that I was dishing out for gig after gig after gig. The voice coils did get pushed a bit out of true, but the drivers never entirely quit – in fact, the only component to actually fail was the crossover on one of the boxes. A quick bypass operation later, and I had a working sub again.

It’s fitting, then, that my monitor-wedge woes would be brought to an end by a bevy of Peavey units. After some disappointing misadventures with offerings from Avid/ M-Audio and Seismic Audio, a sextet of PVXp-12s has put the smile back on my face.

I Don’t Have Lots Of Numbers, Because I Don’t Need Them

When I did my review of the monitor wedges I procured from Seismic Audio, there was a fair bit of testing involved. Numbers…you know, quantitative analysis.

I haven’t done anything like that for the PVXp-12s. They might be able to do what Peavey claims they can do, or they might not.

But I don’t care.

Why?

Because, whatever the PVXp boxes do, they do enough of it to satisfy my needs as a small-venue audio human. What’s more, they do what they do in a seemingly effortless way.

You might not think that says much, but it actually says a lot – and loudly. I measure when a piece of gear is giving me a reason to be skeptical. If I have no reason to “pick at” a manufacturer’s claims, then I don’t. Peavey claims that PVXp-12s can produce a peak of 127 dB SPL with music. Of course, every time a manufacturer says “peak,” you can subtract 3 – 6 dB to get an idea of what the box will actually do in real life. My guess is that a strong vocal input through these units has a fighting chance of doing 120 dB SPL continuous at a listener’s position. That guess is backed up by the fact that, over a good number of shows, I have never been able to observe the DDT™ (Peavey’s proprietary limiting system) indication on the units that I have. In contrast, other monitor wedges that I’ve had in service would either light their limiting indicators regularly, or be in audible distortion.

The bottom line is that I don’t have to nitpick the PVXp-12s. I don’t care if they can actually reach the claimed 325/ 75 watts continuous into the LF (Low Frequency) and HF drivers, because whatever wattage is actually being dissipated is plenty. I commonly “double up” two units, which gives a theoretical “maximum continuous vocal output” of 123 dB SPL.

Quite frankly, if you need more than that on stage, your show doesn’t belong in a venue that seats 200 people or fewer. Either that, or somebody is playing WAY too loud and needs to be fired.

I’ll also mention that, at one show, the lead singer asked for a pretty good amount of kick in the wedges. A box loaded with a 12″ LF driver can’t be asked to deliver crushing “boom,” but for that show (which was of about average overall volume), the PVXps delivered enough thump that I didn’t need any kick in the FOH (Front Of House) PA. Not bad for a box that retails at $350 – at least, in my opinion.

As far as sound-quality goes, I don’t really know what to say. PVXp-12s “sound like music to me,” which is to say that they seemed to be tuned in a pretty sane fashion. No, you’re probably not going to have a spiritual experience when you listen to these boxes, but that’s not what they’re for. The primary purpose of a sound-reinforcement box is to deliver sufficient output, cleanly, with a smooth response across the critical frequencies for music (about 100 Hz to 12 kHz, or a little more depending on the application). That’s what these Peavey’s seem to do.

If your experience is similar to mine, you may actually need to apply a 3 to 6 dB, 1 – 2 octave wide boost at around 2 kHz, along with a less pronounced, 1-ish octave wide boost at 8 kHz to make the boxes “flat.” It all depends on what you want, though.

Again, there just isn’t much to say. As monitor wedges, my PVXp enclosures pass signals and don’t make me struggle. That’s all I want, and judging by the number of compliments I get regarding the sound on deck, that’s all that most bands seem to be looking for. I know there are better sounding boxes out there because there is ALWAYS a better sounding box out there, but everything beyond the basics is gravy…and gravy is pretty expensive.

The Quibbles

Another piece of Peavey’s predictability – at least for me – is that they always seem to make some kind of design decision that causes me to scratch my head. It’s a different thing for every product line, but I swear, it isn’t Peavey unless I want to write a letter to them that reads: “In regards to this design aspect of this product…REALLY?”

The PVXp-12 is no exception in this regard.

To start with, the XLR input on the boxes is connected to circuitry with much higher gain than the TRS input. On one hand, this makes some sense. It allows people to plug a microphone directly into the box and get results without having to hit a mic/ line switch. On the other hand, not having a switch to select mic/ line gain means that using the XLR jack for line-level input requires that the input potentiometer be set quite low, in its “finicky” range. Even there, I have to trim my monitor send masters down about 6 dB to keep my on-channel sends in an operational area that’s consistent with other things.

Now, this isn’t a huge deal. It’s certainly a “first world problem,” which can be corrected with just a bit of doing. I can acknowledge that. Still, I’m a little surprised at Peavey apparently thinking that a robust, multipin connector shouldn’t be the first choice for line-level AND mic-level audio.

There’s also the issue of how the input plate is located. For some cables, you may find that a monitor placement causes a certain amount of shearing (sideways) force on your cable’s strain relief. This may or may not be enough to cause a problem – it’ll depend on your usage patterns, though.

Another oddity is that the Peavey design department apparently lives in a world where only one side of a box needs to be angled for monitor usage. This means that, whether you want it or not, a PVXp-12 doing monitor duty will have the HF horn on the stage-right side. If you want to “bookmatch” a pair of these boxes when doubling them up, you’re out of luck. It’s hardly a critical issue, but I swear, even manufacturers who build questionable boxes have figured out how to let you lay the enclosure on either side.

Going back to the level potentiometer, I’ve found myself wishing that it would be easier to get a “repeatable” setting for the knob. If you’re using the XLR input for line-level signals, it’s impossible to accurately see where the knob is if the box is in a monitor placement. In fact, to accurately set the knob, the box has to be rotated onto its face. Further (and this isn’t just a Peavy thing), the knob is of a “continuous sweep” variety. I just don’t understand why – on a piece of gear that is probably going to be used in multiples – level controls aren’t given clickstops for easy and accurate repeatability.

All of this is just nitpicking, though. Sure, you can spend more on a speaker enclosure. Sure, there are other boxes which may be more or less “your taste.” Still, my opinion is that the PVXp-12 is a great example of how far we’ve come in terms of affordable gear. Think about it: These boxes are biamped, with all kinds of nifty processing that’s been set at the factory, and it’s all been stuffed into a pretty compact package. I got started in pro-audio during the ’90s, and the functionality in a PVXp-12 wasn’t even something we were dreaming about then.

Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be a lot of “bang” in these Peaveys for the bucks you’ll pay for them. The boxes aren’t flashy, and there’s no hype surrounding them…

…and there’s no need for any of that, because these units just go to work, get to work, and consistently deliver.

Well, they do for me, anyway.