Musicians: Opinions please

Thanks for the input guys, it is helping me…:)

I have my own small PA hire company and have both the Behringer Europowers and would recommend them highly…I guess it boils down to what power the speakers you are wanting to use with them Obviously the PMP1280 would give a lot more headroom than the PMP 2000. Not a fan of Yamaha powered mixers seem to remember some trouble with the amp section “sweating” heavily, not good enough heat dispersion on them, and when they are left to cool down the amp sections got mouldy after a time and needed replaced (expensive) remember after getting one repaired the repairman telling me Yamaha PM’s were notorious for this… NEVER had a bit of problem with any of my Behringer desks to date… and i punish them quite heavily…very well used and reliable every time.
For good speakers for mostly vocal/spoken word/light music uses check these baby’s out:
http://www.mackie.com/products/c300z/
Great speakers by a quality manufacturer the sound dispersion on these is awesome for their size. also very portable and very sturdy (drop one when mounting it on a pole it will bounce back up:eek:)

PMN, gotta choose speakers too. I have to present a package to management which will include 4 speakers and 4 microphones, and they will consider it for purchase as our present system is no more than an amateur home setup. As I said, it is mainly for speeches and sometimes music at official embassy functions and must be portable. I’m out of the loop as to which brand names are the best quality for this type of equipment – I did this sort of thing years ago.
Cheers

Isle of Wight?:D

Melanie returns!!:)

Hi 27vet,

I have to admit, most of what I deal with tends to be more on the ‘pro concert’ level so the gear you mention isn’t actually familiar to me. I’m out gigging for the next two days but I’ll have time to check the links you gave on Monday and give a rough opinion if that will be of any use? One thing to bear in mind is that you very much get what you pay for with sound equipment, so gear costing roughly the same will tend to be roughly the same quality, so it’s really more a case of weighing up the features you need and choosing the unit that’s most appropriate. If a more basic model will do the job you need then go for that; it’s less things to go wrong! One of the main considerations if you’re looking for a powered mixer is choosing one that will happily drive the speakers you’re using. If they’re big Peavy Hi-Sys 4-type speakers with power-hungry passive crossovers then you’ll need a more powerful amplifier to drive them happily, so look for a unit with a higher powered amplifier. If you’re driving something smaller like little 12″ + 1″ units then your amplification can be more modest (and usually lighter!)

As I say, unfortunately I can’t really have a detailed look at the links you’ve given until I’m back home on Monday (I’ve set a festival system up today and need sleep before the madness starts tomorrow), but give me an idea of the kind of speakers you’re using, exactly what you’re using them for (how many inputs you need, etc) and I’ll happily have a closer look on Monday and give as honest an opinion as I can if it will help. 🙂

Paul

Tsssssssssssssssssssssssssk…I’m more into guitars & amps, I work in a guitar shop & thats what we mostly deal with along with the likes of foot pedals for FX, Marshall, Deizal, Mesa heads & cabs etc, a few digi things but not much in the way of mixers.

Out of those three I’d personally go for the Behringer PMP1280S 1,200-Watt 10-Channel Powered Mixer, purely because of its watts but thats just because i’m into the like of death metal. But the Yamaha EMX512SC Powered Mixer should be just fine for what you need it for. Yamaha are renowned of producing quite good gear at decent prices so I think you should be ok with something like that.

Peavey also do some really good P.A mixers too, you should look up the likes of the Peavey PVi 4B, Peavey PVi 8B & Peavey PVi 8B Plus, they’re starting around 100 to 700 watt powers output and prices staring around £170 to £370 for those particular models. Very good quality & easy on the pocket too.

Hope this post has helped.
Kind regards

PMN’s your man!

He does this sort of thing for a living. 🙂