Electro-Voice System 200

Name: Electro-Voice System 200
Brand: Electro-Voice

A modular pro-audio system that arrived with a reputation already built in. The S-200 set the standard, and System 200 was EV's answer to its own legend.

Overview

The Electro-Voice System 200 is a modular professional audio system. EV's own advertising framed its arrival as a response to its own past success. Ten years before System 200, according to EV's marketing copy, the Electro-Voice S-200 speaker system had "set the standard for portable, lightweight speaker systems," and the S-200 had gone unrivaled in performance - until System 200. That's the manufacturer's pitch, not an independent verdict. It does show where EV positioned this line: not as a replacement for the S-200 so much as a modular expansion of what a compact portable system could do.

The core of the system is the Sx200, a full-range enclosure weighing 39 lbs. EV advertised it as putting out more than 126 dB continuous, a figure the company claimed was more than double that of any comparable speaker. That "double" claim is advertising, not measured data. The period press is better documented. Recording Engineer (August 1983, p.108) described the Stage System 200 as housed in a black plastic cabinet with a gray grille, a 36-pound, 1.8-cubic-foot enclosure. The review noted a high-output version of EV's Super-Dome tweeter, coupled to a high-frequency "Direktor" molded as an integral part of the cabinet. Per the review, that design duplicates the performance of an EV constant-directivity horn with similar coverage characteristics.

Note the weight discrepancy. EV's advertising said 39 lbs for the Sx200, while Recording Engineer (August 1983, p.108) put the Stage System 200 at 36 pounds. These could be different configurations of the same modular family, or different measurement conventions. Both figures come from the period, and neither should be treated as the final word.

System 200 wasn't one box. It was a family meant to be assembled to fit the job. Alongside the Sx200 full-range cabinet, EV offered the Sb120a, a bass module weighing 34 lbs, containing a 400-watt amplifier and a 12-inch woofer that the company described as one that "thinks it's a 15." Then there's the Xp200, which combines a crossover with what EV called "a little electronic magic." That's vague copy, but it points to active processing built into the system rather than a passive afterthought.

The period press took the system seriously. Studio Sound (December 1984, p.77) called the Stage System 200 "the finest compact portable sound system available," and noted that at Shuttle Sound it was regarded as one of the best investments available in audio equipment. That's a strong endorsement from a trade publication writing for working engineers rather than consumers. The same review placed the system in the context of sound reinforcement for professional broadcasting, film, and related applications, so the intended market was working professionals, not hi-fi hobbyists.

By the mid-1990s the system had become a fixture of the UK gigging circuit. EQ Magazine (August 1994, p.71) framed System 200 as the culmination of a decade of EV leadership in portable, lightweight speaker design, presenting the Sx200, Sb120a, and Xp200 as a coordinated trio.

What the documentation doesn't give us is the mundane but essential stuff: no confirmed production years, no original price, no impedance or frequency response figures, no crossover frequency, no dimensions beyond the 1.8-cubic-foot measurement from the 1983 review, and no current market pricing. Anyone buying into a System 200 today is buying into a modular concept from a company that knew exactly what it was doing in the portable reinforcement market — and doing so without much of a paper trail.