One of the Tango Secrets revealed by Jonathan

WARNING: for geeks only!

"When Irina started Tango Secrets, she wanted to create a party environment where friends could dance safely to the best music. My supporting role became one of ensuring that dancers would be wrapped in sound reproduced as clearly as possible. The hunt for elements to make up the Tango Secrets sound system covered a lot of ground and I used friends and contacts for advice unmercifully. The result was that from day one we had a system that subtly enveloped our friends in the most gorgeous dance music that Buenos Aires orchestras created.

TANGO SECRETS MILONGAS
At TS Milongas we use a combination of 500 watt Yamaha powered mixer driving two Yamaha passive speakers together with two HK Audio 1000 watt Linear 5 active (powered) speakers. Now you might be thinking that running a village hall milonga with two and a half thousand watts of PA system is a bit over the top. However, there is logic to all of this and I spent a lot of tango listening time with various brands of active speakers before choosing the HKs.

The starting point was the compilation of a one hour playlist of twenty two tango tunes. The recordings covered tango, vals and milonga and, most importantly, ranged in recording quality from excellent to marginal. I wanted to hear how not only good recordings but also 'crackle, hiss and boom' recordings would sound. Listening to these tango tracks in a controlled sound studio environment on lots of different speakers taught me two things: First, the incredibly friendly, helpful, and above all, patient staff at DJ Kit in Newbury thought that I was a little odd; second, a speaker's specs on paper have almost no relevance when choosing a speaker to play a 1930s tango tune. My original plan had been to complement the passive Yamaha speakers with a cute little pair of 8" DXR Yamahas that would be powerful extra speakers but light enough for Irina to carry around. I listened to the DXRs, then the 10" version, then the 12" version, then the 15" version... I used to be indecisive... I finally left with a loan pair of JBL PRL612Ms to see how they would fair at that evening's TS Milonga in Eton Dorney. They were impressive to say the least and I took them back the next day ready to buy a pair.

Anyway, long story short, back in the sound studio at DJ Kit I glimpsed the HKs and asked, "What are those?" An hour of tango listening later and pair of HK L5 112FA speakers were ordered and paid for. You may have heard the same speakers at a rock concert but now you can also hear them at a Tango Secrets Milonga. The big reason for the HKs was they sound gorgeous when playing gorgeous tango. Even marginal recordings make the grade on the HKs. This could not be said of some of the other brands that I listened to. As we know, tango has a depth and variety of beat and melody that is a million miles away from the boom-boom-boom music of 4/4 time western pop, rock, blues and country. All the speakers tested could eat up pop music but few made my spine tingle when playing tango.

The big reason for big power is a more subjective one because I think that a purely objective argument doesn't necessarily hold up here. I wanted to wrap the dancers in lovely, comfortable sound as they move around the floor and that meant that I needed to keep the sound pressure levels reasonably low. The quality of sound is subjective but I found that by running a 'big' speaker like the HK at low volume and with the equalisation set for a small venue I could fill the floor with clear, comfortable sound. The HKs are always placed higher than the passive Yamaha speakers, the latter now being used as infill speakers. The HKs are tilted down at seven degrees which helps too. The combination of HK and Yamaha has given the floor at Tango Secrets just the sound I wanted to achieve.

TANGO SECRETS PRACTICAS
For TS Practicas we use a totally Yamaha system, dropping the HKs in favour of a single Yamaha 70W powered studio monitor on Irina's DJ desk for infill, although in the early days we used a KRK 45W Rokit 5 G2 monitor.

The TS Equipment List looks like this:

Yamaha 500 W powered mixer
200 W + 200 W (4 ohm) at 1% THD at 1 kHz

Yamaha passive 2 way bass-reflex speakers
LF 10" cone, HF 1" compression driver
Frequency response 55 Hz-20kHz (-10dB)
Max output level 116 dB at 1 metre
Weight 11.5 Kg

Speaker cables
ELV professional high flex 2x1.5mm with Neutrix PX Series 1/4" professional phone plugs

HK Audio Linear 5 speakers
LF 12" cone with 2.5" voice coil (4 ohms), HF 1" compression driver with 1.75" voice coil (16 ohms)
Frequency response 57 Hz-20kHz (-10dB)
Amp type Class D bi-amped
Power output 1,000 W
Amp to woofer 650 W
Amp to driver 350 W
Max output level 138 dB at 1 metre
Weight 23.9 Kg

Speaker stands
Konig and Meyer 438670 lightweight aluminium/steel stands

ALTO Professional Stealth wireless loudspeaker system
To minimise wiring and set-up times we use an ALTO Professional zero latency wireless system to connect the mixer to the HKs.

ALTO Stealth wireless receivers to HK speakers signal cable
Sommer SC-Source high flex screened patch cables with Neutrix XX Series XLR connectors.

Yamaha HS5 powered studio monitor (for infill from the DJ desk at TS Practicas)
LF 5" cone, HF 1" dome
Frequency response 54Hz-30kHz (-10dB)
Power output 70 W
LF output 45 W
HF output 25 W
Weight 5.3 Kg

Mixer to HS5 monitor signal cable
IMG Stage Line OFC low noise cable with Neutrix XX Series XLR and PX Series phone plug

Finally, the "last two tandas" announcement is made using an un-switched Shure SM58 professional cardioid dynamic microphone with reverb on the mixer to suit the size of the venue!

So, that is how we get Irina's lovely selection of gorgeous tango music, in the best possible condition, to your ears.

JP

ALTO Professional Stealth wireless loudspeaker system