QSC

Have you ever noticed something without noticing you noticed it? For instance, a good friend mentions in the middle of a conversation that she just got a haircut, and you realize that this knowledge has been buzzing just beneath your awareness -- a feeling that something is slightly different, even if you haven't quite identified what.

Something like that happened at Friday night's rehearsal. Ron the Drummer and I set up, and he left the room briefly before we began playing. As I glanced at our speaker, it dawned on me that it wasn't our speaker.

Ron came back. "So you got them," I said.

See, Ron had been yearning for speakers with more power and punch than our little JBL Eons ever since our Music on the Moutain gig. The main act used Mackies (and let us use them too). The sound impressed Ron, and the little wheels in his audiophile brain started turning.

I wasn't all that enthusiastic about the prospect of dropping lots of money on a new pair of speakers when the current ones worked perfectly well. Ron thought that was reasonable, but he still wanted them, and he was willing to pay for them himself instead of splitting costs with me as usual.

He found a good deal. He took the plunge. And I have to hand it to him, the new QSC K12 sounds fantastic. I can't readily distinguish between differences in sound quality most of the time, but the difference between Eon and QSC was obvious.

Of course, now that I'm convinced of the worthiness of this purchase, I pretty much have to throw in.