Malcolm Hill Power Cubes P3 Active PA Speakers

I thought I'd add a review of the P3 power cubes as there is very little about these amazing speakers on the web.

They are fully active PA speakers suitable for any sound reinforcement requirement, eg Band, DJ, church, conference etc. Due to the fantastic sound quality they are in fact a bit of a waste for use in a DJ rig, where other cheaper options will still sound good.

I'm not a professional sound engineer so this review is based on owning and using set with a quality 6 - 7 piece function band.

Starting with the basics, for those that don't know an active speaker means you don't need a power amp or powered mixer, the amps are built into each speaker. The speakers are about 405mm x 405mm x 405mm and heavy at 28kg. The weight is due to the amps and thick wooden enclosure.

They were available as a P3 - 112 'mid high' top and could be supplemented with 1 or 2 15inch powered subs (P3 - 115) if required. We ran 2 mid tops with a single sub, was fine for every venue we played. Each of the mid top units contain a 12 inch speaker with a 1 inch tweeter built into the centre, 'dual concentric' style like Tannoy and KEF used. Without even using the subs, the bass from these speakers is incredible. The sub just makes it even better. More than just bass though, these P3 speakers had such a smooth and clear midrange and sweet top end that it just blows away any other speaker of similar size and price. They were able to handle our 7 piece band (4 keyboards, bass and drums through PA, plus 3 x vocalists, and 2 saxophones) with ease and the separation and clarity was outstanding. We once provided the PA for a solo female singer with acoustic guitar, after minimal setting up gave such a clear powerful sound it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Each speaker has various inputs and has on board filtering so you can switch between full range mode or use the low pass cut off if you are using a sub or 2.

They are wedge shape so you could use them on the floor as a monitor and also have mounting points for hanging in an array from the ceiling if required. In a theatre of course, not your front room!

Spec wise, they had a 600w (900w peak!) amp in EACH speaker, the quoted frequency range of the P3-112 was 55Hz to 18kHz. Max SPL was 132dB at 1 m, which is a lot. This is a really loud speaker - but one that never sounded distorted even though we would sometimes see the clips light flicker! Connections were powercons for mains power and XLR's in and out.

They were expensive new, we paid over £1200 per speaker, once you add padded cases for safe transporting and cabling these 3 speakers we had cost over £3500. BUT - consider you get 600watts per speaker, with huge headroom and top quality sound, with no need to buy and carry extra amps, I think they offer good value for money. 2 tops and 2 subs would give you a 2400watt sound system that would work at any gig for hundreds of people. O2 arena excepted!

There are a lot of active speakers on the market at the moment, but if you can find some of these rare speakers I recommend you at least have a listen! We bought them from a company called 'sound foundation' many years ago, I don't know if the speakers are still made but have a search around the web.