PA for home use

[davidl]

Hi all.

I'm looking at getting a PA for home use. My music building is about 500 square feet with a 14 foot ceiling, so not huge but I would like the flexibility to bring it outside for parties as well.

I'm hoping someone can advise on whether to go with a powered mixer and passive speakers or passive mixer with powered speakers.

I'd like to plug in a couple of mics, mic my wifes piano acoustic amp, plug in my drum octopad, a laptop or iPad, that kinda stuff.

Ideally, the mixer would be wedge shaped and the speakers could be wall mounted to save floor space.

Any knowledge you folks can push my way would be appreciated.

Dave

[milod]

Dave...

 

So many options... at least half of 'em practical for you.

 

Bose has some "low end" material I saw Sweetwater selling for around $1500, but...

 

Then to give a cheapie a shot a helping you figure something out, the low end Phonic from MF is only $200 for a 100-watter, speakers... probably a crappy mike too.

 

Now me, I'd go for something twixt the two, and pretty much did. But... mostly it's just me, a grouchy fat old man doin' solo material whatever genre. If my wife started relearning bass, or I got back in a band needing a PA or... I'd likely look at another option. Guitar ... piano... voice...

 

Rock or jazz or... and what will the neighbors take and...

 

Bottom line is I don't think anybody's advice can be practical if they don't know what stuff you're doing and your expectations for general quality and space filling and style and....

 

m

[charlie brown]

First off, what's your "budget?"

 

Fender makes a couple of good portable units.

Peavey make some decent stuff, at "affordable" prices.

Then, you can go UP, from there!

 

Take a look, here...for some other ideas.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/live-sound-packages

 

Really just depends, on budget, and what/how it will

be used, with what expectations...IMHO.

 

Good Hunting...which is 1/2 the fun, anyway.

 

CB

[Riffster]

Also make sure to check the Carvin website.

 

Be sure to check modern features too, like bluetooth connectivity for your phone if you want to play music wirelessly or USB to charge your phone.

[Pin]

Check out the Line6 "Stagesource" range:

 

http://line6.com/products/

[davidl]

Thanks for your replies folks. You raise some good questions. I'll try and answer them.

Budget: Upwards of $800.00 CAN or so. Some flexibility.

Use: Band practice. For vocals, harmonica and to mic amps. Plug in my laptop audio or Ipod. Drum octopad so I don't need another dedicated amp. Audio source for parties. (indoor and out). The outside area I would be playing to is about a 1/2 acre of my lawn. Indoors is about 500 square feet with a 14 foot ceiling.

My biggest question is powered mixer or passive. Why would I choose one over the other? Is there any real benefit one way or the other?

Thanks again.

Dave

[Twang Gang]

Over many years of gigging and almost always having to provide the PA for the band, I never found systems with the power in the speakers that worked that well. So just one opinion is go with a powered mixer (or separate power amp and mixer) and passive speakers. Get as much wattage as you can for the money in the power amp. It is not required for volume in the size spaces you describe, but the more power you have, the better quality sound at lower volumes (more headroom before breaking up).

[milod]

I've never owned anything with a passive mixer, from tube days to current, always a power mixer and passive speakers.

 

I've seen more than a few folks who use either a powered speaker alone for a solo/duo, passive mixer and powered speaker systems that did work well enough for a lotta different venues indoors and outdoors. Less often then passive mixer, rack power and passive speakers.

 

But here's something to think about "outdoors" especially with powered speakers, you've gotta get power to 'em as well as connect to the mixer. That's at least 2 cords per speaker wherever you may put them.

 

I'll ditto, btw, the bit about good power. Unlike a tube guitar amp that most of us seem to wanna screech with, a PA should be IMHO "clean" at its own max volumes. That means taking care to have sufficient power and speakers that will handle the power without getting funky.

 

m

[RaysEpiphone]

Being in your smaller room is going to work well using 2 speakers with 12" woofers and compression drivers for band practice but as soon as you take it out side it will fall short and you will not hear much of what is coming from them. Coverage will suffer greatly for the audience to so if you want to get some SPLs/coverage outside you'll need some real juice and more speakers. You can get speakers with sensitivity that will be louder with the power it can handle but this wont address coverage in an out-doors application. I would also advise against mounting them on the wall, get some tripod stands so you can put them where you need them and learn how to combat feed-back with a graphic EQ. Any device that produces low frequency's will need some extra power and beefy speaker's to work with out straining/destroying the rest of the signals that will also pass thru it.

 

How loud you guys play (stage level) will determine how much power/speaker you will need for monitors, you might be surprised how well a small high(er) quality speaker will perform if used properly with the proper front-end equipment behind it. The higher quality equipment will last longer, so remember that when you spend your money. I would say save up at-least 4 times what you want to spend now and get something better, that will hold up better as well.

[badbluesplayer]

Yeah - A powered mixer would fit the bill. With a couple of mains and a couple of monitors to start. You'd probably need say 400 watts minumum. More power would be good.