I am at a loss, technology changes so fast, and I really don’t keep up on the live side of things. Probably picking up an XR18 tomorrow or an X32 Rack. Leaning towards powered speakers, but maybe you have other ideas? I really love my Alto TS-210!
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For most small PA’s – audience less than about 300, modern active speakers are probably the best solution, cos of integrated DSP which provides active digital crossovers, rather than the typical passive crossovers in passive speakers of about similar price range.
Active and especially DSP based crossovers are more accurate, and provide all manner of good things, along with the integrated amps – such as better quality audio, speaker protection, dynamic equalisation and limiting, all in the box, so [even when the speaker is operating at the limits of its loudness, rather than leave the audio quality 100% in the hands of the operator as in a passive speaker, an active DSP managed speaker has some intelligence built in to assist in giving you the best possible sound from the box, even when you “abuse” it, by feeding it signals that are too loud, or run its outputs too loud.
They are not indestructable, but you get better protection, up to a point.
On choice of active speakers, while I have enjoyed owning an Alto TS310, these lower quality speakers though they sound good, for most purposes, if you are fastidious about your sound, they need more user intervention by way of EQ and feeding them with the highest quality mix, i.e you need a really good mixing engineer who understands systems equalisation, and not just channel based eq, to “tune” the speakers to the room, and also tune out inherent imbalances in the speakers manufactured frequency skew – a bit too much top end, and assistance with getting the bottom end right.
They also do not have any filters for integrating them with a subwoofers, so if you have subwoofers, you must filter out the frequencies going to the sub, – from the signal going to the speakers, and the only way to do this is external from the Altos, such as via your mixer or via pass through a filter on the subwoofer, to the Altos.
Their main selling point is price, nothing else…. ok performance for the price.
I consider that the Yamaha DXR which is now in a version 2, and the JBL SRX 800 series of speakers, represent a step up in more balanced consistent audio quality, and higher quality components, especially the tweeters, and the low end of the bass, will sound definitely more balanced than the ALTO’s. But these products are in a higher price bracket, with a longer warranty – at least 6 years for the DXR – that is a long time to warranty a product – so they have quite a good confidence about what they have sold to you.
Ultimately only you can decide what’s important to you price or sound quality.
If it was me, I would spring for a higher quality audio, especially if its a product that I will use for the long term. A Yamaha or JBL should be in operation for at least 10 years if used judiciously, so in the long run, you actually save money, over replacing an Alto every 2 to 4 years, in a worst case scenario..