Low Cost PA

[illuminatedwax]

I need to get a PA for practice purposes in my home studio so we can actually hear our vocals without feedback. However, I can't decided if I want to get a powered mixer, a power amp, or just powered speakers. (I already have a mixing console.) I thought about getting 450W Behringer powered speakers as it is cheaper than buying either a powered mixer or a power amp AND the speakers. Am I going to get 450W "worth" of amplification from the Behringer speakers, or is it smarter to go with a better powered mixer/amp?

And maybe I'm going about this all wrong -- are these the right things to be thinking about for a low-cost PA solution?

[Treeline]

If you already have a mixing console, how about springing for a pair of powered cabs, or even powered monitors? I'd avoid Behringer for this kind of thing. You also don't need 450 watts in a practice basement room - it'll be overkill.

However if you'll be using them at gigs, I have had fantastic luck with the Mackie SRM450s. I've used them both as mains and as monitors and they're nearly bulletproof. Being self contained they set up quickly and are easy to daisy chain. very clean and accurate sounding. $ 750 each. Click on the pic.


Little brothers are here as the TAPCO value leader: $ 350 each.

[illuminatedwax]

Originally Posted by Treeline

If you already have a mixing console, how about springing for a pair of powered cabs, or even powered monitors? I'd avoid Behringer for this kind of thing. You also don't need 450 watts in a practice basement room - it'll be overkill.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I won't be using them at gigs, but the reason I was looking at the Behringer was because they are $100 cheaper than the TAPCO speakers. If 450W is overkill for our practice space, do you think that it would be okay to skimp on quality and get the Behringer since I won't be pushing it to the limit? I'm not entirely concerned with sound quality, I just want to be able to hear myself clearly without feedback.

[Treeline]

Originally Posted by illuminatedwax

Thanks for the suggestions!

I won't be using them at gigs, but the reason I was looking at the Behringer was because they are $100 cheaper than the TAPCO speakers. If 450W is overkill for our practice space, do you think that it would be okay to skimp on quality and get the Behringer since I won't be pushing it to the limit? I'm not entirely concerned with sound quality, I just want to be able to hear myself clearly without feedback.

That's a matter of taste, I guess. I have a bunch of Behringer stuff and for the most part it does what it's supposed to do, although not necessarily well. It's a huge bang for the buck - until it breaks. And sooner or later it will break. right now I have my studio monitor setup running through a little Behri mixer and it does just fine. In my garage is a 16 channel Behri mixer I installed for a local church hall when its sound system died from too many squirrels. It was a pretty small system, so I replaced it with two speaker arrays of four ceiling units, each with 5 1/2" woofer and 1" tweeter, coming back to the existing PA amp where I joined the two circuits in parallel to accommodate the mono amp. I spent weeks snaking heavy speaker cabling trough the ceiling for that sucker. The idea was when they replaced the amp with a better unit, they would have stereo in place if they wanted it. I set up the Behringer mixer and built a wall snake so they could go over, hit a lighted switch on the wall, plug in a mic to the wall and start talking.

Everything worked fine until one day I was in there and heard this godawful hiss. The mixer had calved. I replaced it and have the opld one ready to tear down to see if its dirty or just died.

The point is, after all that effort it was a cheap mixer that ended up being the weak link after about a year.

You're spending enough so it may be prudent to add a bit to the bottom line and get something you know will handle what you'll toss at it. My mackies have been tossed everywhere and will probably outlive me.