PA owners, please recommend me a new setup

[John Beef]

I know some guys here own and operate PA equipment. About six years ago we bought a pair of Carvin 12" powered monitors. They were a big upgrade for us at the time, but they have been less than reliable. I am sick of messing around with it; we have problems just about every practice with speakers cutting out entirely, sometimes just the horns work and not the woofers - it's maddening. I had to send one back under warranty at one point, but they're out of warranty now.

We really just need to amplify keys and vocals in a small practice space - something loud enough to keep up with a loud drummer and our guitar amps. The speakers need to be relatively compact. We've had no problems with volume using 12s. I was thinking about switching over to a separate power amp and passive monitors. Suggestions?

 

[22Top]

Mackie. I use the SRM450's for a variety of applications. FOH for solo+duo acoustic gigs with vocals, as monitors for rehearsal, vocals only for gigs in smaller spaces. They work great, sound great, and I've had only one issue in almost 10 years. Mackie covered them even though they were out of warranty. I have a few friends who also swear by Mackie gear, including the higher powered stuff.

 

[Huggy Love]

Mackie. I use the SRM450's for a variety of applications. FOH for solo+duo acoustic gigs with vocals, as monitors for rehearsal, vocals only for gigs in smaller spaces. They work great, sound great, and I've had only one issue in almost 10 years. Mackie covered them even though they were out of warranty. I have a few friends who also swear by Mackie gear, including the higher powered stuff.

+1 on the Mackie

 

[gush]

John I have sone experience with carvin stuff. I have carvin 12 passive monitors and shortly after buying them the nuts on the 1/4 jacks came loose so I tightened them with a wrench and unknowingly ripped those jacks off of circuit board!!#!!# put new crossovers in them and put silicone on the threads so they won't come loose again. After 13 years the 1/4 jacks dont work so I have to use speakon jacks.

Stay away from their pa amps as they are junk and could be why you are having issues. I have one carvin amp and one side quit working they will fix it at a flat rate which is equal to half the cost of a new one. They are designed to last a certian amount of time and that's it. A 1000 watt carvin amp is NOT 1000 watts.

Buy the xovers they use for the passive monitors and install them bypassing that junk amp inside. Put silicone on jack threads as soon as you get them. Buy a good used amp to power them that's big enough to serve as a backup amp for mains.

I have carvin 1588s for mains. They are great speakers , very flat response. I can use them with my 2x18 subs or without. They handle kick drum pretty well.

Good luck.

 

[gush]

Oh and most of my pa amps are Mackie.1400s and 2600s. I have some crown amps too but I bought the mackies new 13 years ago zero issues.

 

[gush]

The mackie stuff is really good but expensive and if you're on a budget that can be hard.

I replaced most all of my PA stuff 13 years ago as everything was really outdated. Bought the mackie amps new and replaced all my rack gear so I had to cut corners on cabs and that is why I ended up with the 1588s. I thought I would replace them as soon as I could afford to but they turned out to be great cabs so I still have them.

In 2010 I bought an A&H GL2400 mixer snd I love it. It has s lot of cool features. I thought about a digital board but decided against it. My next board will be digital for sure.

 

[John Beef]

Right on, thanks for all the info. It sounds like you've got a much larger setup that we really need. This is strictly for our practice space and we only run vocals and keys (and occasional samples of gongs or beer cans being opened) through it. We have only ever set it up for one show so we never move it around.

Reliability is king and I'm willing to spend extra to achieve that since we're talking strictly about purchasing one power amp, two 12" 2 way speakers, and a couple speaker cables.