When I first began dabbling in the DJ world, I was working at Radio Shack. It started by picking up a very basic mixer, and the adapters I needed to hook up my discman AND my sister’s at the same time — AMAZING!

Needless to say, the current GrooveBoston equipment arsenal has come a very, very long way since then, each element having been replaced, destroyed, or upgraded quite a few times since those days.

There was, however, a lone exception. And for you audiophiles, brace yourselves for some shocking news. We, GrooveBoston, have been using Optimus (as in, Radio Shack’s generic brand) personal monitors since day one. One of the most surprising things I’ve learned over the years is that the amplifier is FAR more critical than the speaker, when it comes to high quality, powerful sound. When we upgraded amps, I fully expected the monitors to blown to smithereens by the more powerful singal (eight hundred watts from a Crown K2). Surprisingly, they kept right on chugging, with enough juice to keep us satisfied behind the mix.

It went on like this for years… until recently. At BC’s Middlemarch party, we switched to a backup amp — a QSC PLX 3402 — pumping well over a thousand watts into these little heroes. We thought they were invincible — they were already cleanly handling over ten times their rated power, so what could possibly go wrong? Both monitors sounded fine, but when we fired them up before the next show, University of New England, one of them finally showed signs of abuse. Finally.

When you over-drive a speaker, the insides literally start to melt. Then they re-harden afterwards. The autopsy revealed that this was the case in one of the monitors, and the hardened speaker guts are now in the way of the speaker moving properly. Bottom line, it doesn’t sound so hot anymore.

So, Radio Shack speakers: Sorry about all that power. But great work. You were a trooper, and saw some events that no other Radio Shack speakers will ever see. We’ll get new monitors, and they’ll sound nice, and they probably won’t ever melt. But we’ll miss you guys nonetheless. Sleep well.

Stay tuned for a nerdy technical update of our hot new monitor system!