dB Technologies ES503 Stereo

I bought these for my keyboard setup, which is rock orientated, Hammond clone, prophet, moog, piano etc. and I am delighted by how good the ES503s sound – they have far exceeded my expectations. Being able to use in stereo and not just mono is a huge plus point (and not sure others around the same price offer this).

I normally practice in a home studio with Adam studio monitors and I expected to lose a lot of clarity and definition when switching to these relatively low cost PA speakers, but actually they sound very hi-fi like with a nice sweet top end and plenty bottom end, none of the harsh brittle sound that you would normally expect from cheap PA speakers, I am actually really surprised by sound quality for the price.

I’ve not gigged them but they seem to have easily more than enough power for what I need.

Out of the box they do sound quite bass-heavy, and the bass while powerful is very slightly wooly, but I’m pretty sure some messing about with EQ will improve that.

The only slight criticism is the controls on the back are quite awkward to get to, a phone app would have been great, but not such a big deal as it remembers your last settings and you can also save your settings.

Bluetooth works very well and is very well behaved (and because they sound quite hi-fi like I connect them to my laptop when watching vids or listening to music).

All in all I would highly recommend, they sound great, are very easy to use and are extremely well priced.

Positive: I was very pleasantly surprised about the sound quality and loudness. It is absolutely sufficient for a small outdoor venue of ~100 people. Sure, the bass is what you would expect from 12'' woofer, so it wouldn't do for a rock band live venue, but for a reproducted music, this is a perfect small system that fits in a small car trunk along with the speaker stands, cables, mix, and there's still a place for a keg of beer. The audio quality is good even for home use (I didn't expect it from a PA system) - I am really not any close to being an audiophile, but I believe can tell a good sound from bad one.

Negative: On the other side, the control using a single knob is just silly. The system has many functions, and having to switch between different menus just to adjust channel volume vs. overall volume, that's bad. I would not recommend using it without an external mixer for any purpose than playing a single (mono or stereo) channel.

Neutral: The satellites are relatively directional, place it in a corner if you can, or farther from people when outside.

These speakers are great, so much in fact i know use 2 of these as my main set up at the moment and they both fit in my car boot along with all my other lights and stuff. For most venues they are more than enough power and the quality of sound from them is delightful. I get lots of compliments on the sound quality. Be aware of the Bass though they are punchy and in some venues if you have two of them you may need to pull the bass down a little depending on you and your audiences taste. Very light for what they are and easy to carry, i only wish they came with the cases as these have to be paid for separately and it would be great if they had a bluetooth or wifi mixer onboard like some others do.