Best Wedding DJ Speakers That Won’t Break the Bank

by Chris Brower
Last Updated: November 8, 2021

(Note: This isn’t a sponsored post – I just legit love these DJ speakers!)

After six years and over 100 weddings, I was ready to upgrade my DJ speakers. I needed to.

My current DJ speakers were banged up, looked bad, and didn’t always give the best sound. There was occasionally a lot of noise and hiss (ughhhhh).

I was tired of gambling that everything would be okay, and when a client is paying you hundreds (and sometimes over $1000) to DJ their special day, you shouldn’t be taking those kind of risks.

So I was ready to upgrade to great wedding DJ speakers, but I also didn’t want to spend thousands.

The Wedding DJ Speakers

I scoured review after review and those led me to two of the best purchases I’ve ever made for my DJ business: two Electro-Voice ZLX-12P speakers.*

(Another best purchase was a hand truck/dolly, similar to the Rock-N-Roller Multi-Cart. My cart has greatly sped up moving equipment in/out of weddings, and reduced the risk of back pain. Seriously!)

I was nervous to buy DJ speakers I hadn’t actually heard before, but the reviews were overwhelmingly positive (many of them from other wedding DJs). Plus, the speakers looked fantastic.

At the time, they cost about $350 each, so not cheap, but not insanely expensive either. (Wedding DJ speakers can easily be over $1000 each.) And quality DJ speakers are such a big part of what a DJ needs (duh), so you shouldn’t skimp.

And thanks to how much money you can make DJing weddings, that expense was covered within one wedding.

So I rolled the dice and bought these DJ speakers without hearing them, which I don’t necessarily recommend, but thankfully they worked out even better than I would’ve imagined.

The Sound of the EV ZLX-12P

One of the first songs I played over the speakers to test them out was “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin. That song has such a powerful, atmospheric beginning: John Bonham’s huge drum beat recorded in what sounds like a large, cavernous room, followed by the rest of the band playing that distinctive riff. It’s a great song beginning, but how did it sound over these speakers?

It gave me chills, honestly. The DJ speakers sounded so good, so clear, so rich in sound.

I tried other songs, and it was the same result: the sound was just very clear and clean for seemingly all styles. It didn’t sound choked or clipped – it just sounded good. White noise was minimal. And I could get tons of volume, way more than I’d probably ever need.

I then set up my old DJ speakers nearby and did a side-by-side comparison. To be fair, my old speakers still sounded quite good (most of the time…). But these new ones sounded noticeably better. It was exciting. Really. I had spent a decent chunk of cash and didn’t regret it – that rarely happens for me.

What about the low end? For my tastes, these speakers provide more than enough bass, but if you’re not satisfied you can always buy a separate subwoofer, such as the Electro-Voice ELX200.

EDIT: No exaggeration, a few weeks after first posting this article, I DJed a wedding, and the videographer, who has been in the business since 1994 (someone I didn’t previously know), brought up multiple times how good my DJ speakers sounded, that other DJs’ speakers don’t always sound so good. He later told me he was going to recommend me to a coworker who’s getting married. Wow, I can’t make this up. I might’ve earned more business, not just from my DJing skills, but also because my speakers sounded so good. Cool!

Ready for the complete guide to becoming a wedding DJ? Here you go.

**How Do Your Wedding DJ Speakers Look?**

That’s something you don’t always think about: How do your wedding DJ speakers look?

First and foremost, they need to sound great, but if they can look great too, that’s a HUGE plus.

The Electro-Voice ZLX-12P speakers have a very clean, solid black look. No awkward colors, huge logo, or weird shapes. Just a very slick, streamlined look. It reminded me of the beautiful designs on Apple products.

The LCD Display

This is pretty cool. The LCD display on the back makes it easy to adjust the EQ right on the speaker as well as try different presets (Club, Speech, Live, Music – I keep it on “Club”), giving you more sound options.

Specs

12″ woofer
1000 watts
Powered, meaning you don’t have to buy a separate amplifier. Make sure you get the ZLX12P and not the ZLX12, or else you’ll have to buy a separate amplifier.
34.3 pounds. It’s certainly not the lightest DJ speaker out there, but it’s not bad. And again, make sure you get a hand truck/dolly for all your DJ equipment to save your back (and save your time).

Note: The particular model I have is not Bluetooth-capable, but Electro-Voice has also put out a Bluetooth-capable model, the ZLX-12BT.

Don’t Forget Cases for Your Wedding DJ Speakers

I didn’t have cases for my old wedding DJ speakers. It seemed like a wasted expense. But you know what happened to those speakers? They got scratched and banged up in my car and when I was moving equipment in and out of a tight space and accidentally tapped them on a door frame or something else.

So once again I swallowed my fear of spending money and bought cases for my new EV DJ speakers, and they’ve been great. I use the ones put out by EV, the Electro-Voice ZLX-12-CVR Padded Covers. They’re soft and easy to use. They just add a little peace of mind and will keep these fantastic speakers looking clean and slick.

After I take the cases off the DJ speakers, I can easily stuff them into the plastic tubs I use to transport cables and other small items.

Note: These cases are soft cases, after all, so they’re simply not going to stop all damage from occurring if the fall or hit is particularly aggressive (say, falling off a truck bed while the truck is speeding down the highway, though I haven’t tested that).

That said, once I had my speakers stacked high on top of other things on my cart, and the cart hit a bumpy part in the sidewalk, and a speaker fell off, and I freaked out. But I couldn’t see any noticeable damage. The cases had helped! That also speaks to the durability of the speakers themselves.

Again, take care of your DJ speakers so they’re not banging into things or falling off carts onto the sidewalk. But it’s nice knowing you have a little more protection.

And after a year of owning these speakers, they still look practically brand new.

What Else Will You Need?

Speaker stands - You'll naturally want speaker stands for these. I recommend speaker stands that come with a bag/case. This will keep the stands looking nice too. Yep, along with my old speakers, my old speaker stands had gotten badly scuffed from years of moving them to wedding after wedding. Cases help reduce that happening. You need your equipment to look good!
Power cords - Your wedding DJ speakers will likely come with power cords, but it's not a bad idea to buy backup power cords in case your cords should fail for any reason. You don't want this to be the reason a wedding goes bad.
Extension cords - Sometimes the power cords that come with DJ speakers simply aren't long enough for how close the speaker will be to an outlet, so I always recommend having a few extension cords of considerable length (50 feet, 100 feet, etc.) in general just in case you should need to use them, for your speakers or for other things.

Conclusion

I have serious buyer's remorse with almost everything I buy. Clothes, food, concert tickets, whatever. But I haven't regretted these, and I think they took my DJ business to the next level. No more crossing my fingers that the sound would be perfect. No more wincing at the bad appearance. It's brought a much-needed piece of mind.

I hope they work out for you too.

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