# Small PA advice



## shortstrings (Oct 20, 2008)

Greetings
I am ready to buy a small PA for a Duo or vocals and acoustics jamming with drums and electric guitars. 
From snooping around the net I like the Mackie PPM608 and I would use there passive speakers most likely the 12" but would consider the 10". 
For the most part it will be setup in my basement for practice and jamming but some gigging as a 2 or 3 piece. 

Any suggestions or thought would be welcomed.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Bigger is better. Especially if you introduce drums. I used a small system on the weekend with 10" speakers. 4 mics and one instrument. Small hall but probably 130 people. It had a hard time keeping up even with a monitor.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

If you want small, the QSC K series powered speakers are fantastic, depending on your budget (they're not cheap). Two of the K12 boxes and one or two Ksubs will do the job nicely. Add a Mackie Onyx board and a small rack and yo0u can fit a kick assed PA in your wife's Smart car.


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## shortstrings (Oct 20, 2008)

I would have never thought to check QSC, had a look, nice stuff your right though a little pricing.

I also came across Soundcraft Gigrac ... I would prefer a powered mixer dont want to find AC for each speaker.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Any idea what their monitors are like?


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## shortstrings (Oct 20, 2008)

I have settled on a Yamaha EMX 512sc with Yamaha S112V speakers I can get the system new tax in under 1500.00. Local dealer is strong on Yamaha. 
I read lots of negative review on the Mackie PPM608 so I steered away from that also the SC Gigrac had quite a few bad reviews. The Yamaha has built in SPX effects and 4 channels of Compression also the angle design is a nice touch. 

Thanks for your input


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## shortstrings (Oct 20, 2008)

Yamaha has just dropped there pricing on product sold into Canada. I assume other maufactures have or will follow suit. Mainly to do with the strength of our dollar.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Yamaha makes great stuff. I have a set of old yamaha 15's that are old ..and still great... Gee I have a yamaha acoustic and trombone too


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Can't knock Yamaha. They make EVERYthing well. I used to use a powered Yamaha moxer for rehearsals. I think it was around 600 watts and maybe 8 channels. Worked great.

Looked a lot like the one you've bought.


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## shortstrings (Oct 20, 2008)

Snow is good .... espically when your riding big boards in the back country. 

Will give a bit of a review once the gears arrives and I have had a chance to use it. I sold MI for 7 years and was always impressed with Yamaha gear. They do seem to struggle though in selling electric guitars for some reason they just dont have much appeal (mojo).


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## jazzmaster61 (Oct 17, 2010)

I,ve got Yorkville 750-watt powered speakers and a Behringer 12-ch. passive mixer


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## shortstrings (Oct 20, 2008)

I wanted to stay away from powered speakers as I thought it would be a pain finding AC at each speaker placement. I would image it would be a little quiter system. 
So far I am very happy with the Yamaha system. the 4 channels with compression are fantasitic and take a lot of grief out of mixing. Overall great design. I havent really cranked the system but It will have more than I will need. 

cheers


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Powered speakers have the advantage of eliminating long runs of speaker line and the associated power loss you get with that condition.

For example, if you use 50' runs of 18 gauge speaker wire (pretty thin, but surprisingly common) you lose 23.44% of your available power, so a system that s rated at 1000 watts now delivers 765 watts. That makes a difference.

There's a handy reference chart oin the Yorkville Sound PA guide.
Here's a link.
Yorkville Sound: Professional Audio Guide


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## jlube (Dec 12, 2009)

I have a Yamaha Stagepas 500, and owned a Stagepas 300 in the past.
They are both great, and relatively inexpensive. I upgraded to the 500 and it's loud enough to do small bars and pubs, and more than loud enough for your everyday meetings and events.
It's light and small enough to throw in the back seat. You can carry it in in one trip and be set up in ten minutes.
The only downside is the reverb kind of sucks. I use an outboard mixer with an effects loop, and hook it up to a decent effects unit .
That does the trick for me.


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