# Recommend me a PA system



## Diablo

Thinking about picking up a basic system to amplify vocals. Needs to be small, just powerful enough to go over drums in a rehearsal space/basement, and preferably very affordable.
Any in particular that you would recommend or things I should look out for?

Thanks in advance.


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## Big_Daddy

When I was working on the road we always used Yamaha stuff and it never let us down. I recently bought a NIB Yamaha EMX 312 SC powered mixer, 300 watts per side (600 bridged) on eBay for $450 and it's a great, lightweight unit. Decent, used PA speakers are cheap on CL or eBay. Hope this helps.


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## Mooh

I have, for the same purpose, a small Yorkville mixer and a pair of McBride cabs. Works great. The cabs can double as stage monitors for live work too. One of my bands uses a Behringer mixer in the practice space...*NOT *recommended.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Diablo

Thank you for the info so far.
Ya, I definitely try to avoid Behringer.
Older Peavey and Traynor stuff seemed to be used for this purpose back in the day as well. Any good?


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## Milkman

Yorkville makes some excellent powered mixers.


I've used the M810 and M1610 units a lot with great results. Portable, powerful and cost effective.

http://yorkville.com/products.asp?type=31&cat=13


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## JBassJohn

Milkman said:


> Yorkville makes some excellent powered mixers.
> 
> 
> I've used the M810 and M1610 units a lot with great results. Portable, powerful and cost effective.
> 
> http://yorkville.com/products.asp?type=31&cat=13


+1 We use the M810 with 2 Yorkville YX12 cabs for rehearsal. For bar gigs we supplement with 2 NX35's and a 15" powered sub.


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## marcos

*PA recommended*

I would go with the old Peavey XB 600.Built like a tank and good for practice and small gigs.They still sell for about 300.00 plus Yorkville or Peavey speakers will get the job done and it wont break the bank.Try and get the older models if you can. Electro-Voice is also very good but a bit more pricey.


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## lbrown1

I have a Fender Passport - works great for vocals in a rehearsal situation....very portable.

we also use it for a personal monitor system for the drummer.....just plop the speakers on some stands and he can control how loud he wants it

The wife uses it for Karaoke parties as well


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## Milkman

lbrown1 said:


> I have a Fender Passport - works great for vocals in a rehearsal situation....very portable.
> 
> we also use it for a personal monitor system for the drummer.....just plop the speakers on some stands and he can control how loud he wants it
> 
> The wife uses it for Karaoke parties as well


My dad has one of those. The portability factor is pretty cool.


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## Milkman

JBassJohn said:


> +1 We use the M810 with 2 Yorkville YX12 cabs for rehearsal. For bar gigs we supplement with 2 NX35's and a 15" powered sub.


The M810 is a very nice little unit. The effects are very nice and there's very usable eq on the strips.

I really like the M1610 as well. 800 watts for mains and 800 for monitors is a nice little unit for coffee shops or small bars. And yes, adding subs can make it a starter kit for full production (mic'ing EVERYthing).


I do a big country fair each year and rely on a bunch of these two little mixers to drive a variety of systems around the grounds. Tough, portable and sound great.

Made in Canada.


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## davm444

Diablo said:


> Thank you for the info so far.
> Ya, I definitely try to avoid Behringer.
> Older Peavey and Traynor stuff seemed to be used for this purpose back in the day as well. Any good?


Okay, so what's the problem with Behringers?


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## Milkman

davm444 said:


> Okay, so what's the problem with Behringers?


Reliability mostly. They're built cheaply and I've heard too much smoke for there not to be any fire.

Put it this way, you'll rarely see a sound man use one.


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## davm444

*But the Price?*



Milkman said:


> Reliability mostly. They're built cheaply and I've heard too much smoke for there not to be any fire.
> 
> Put it this way, you'll rarely see a sound man use one.


The Behringers are about 1/2 the price of Yorkvilles that I was looking at. Do the Behringers just get noisy pots (nothing drives a sound man crazier) or are the reliability problems. like dead channels and things? The reason I'm asking is that I don't mind cheap if they can be fixed, but if they fail catastrophically that's bad. I have an Acoustic Image Contra, top-of-the-line (supposedly) amp for my upright bass, and it often craps out. AI has a great warrantee. They always fix it. But I can't depend on it. So why buy an expensive rig if they fail? Why shouldn't I buy a cheap rig and let it fail too? Short question; what exactly is wrong with the Behringers?


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## Milkman

davm444 said:


> The Behringers are about 1/2 the price of Yorkvilles that I was looking at. Do the Behringers just get noisy pots (nothing drives a sound man crazier) or are the reliability problems. like dead channels and things? The reason I'm asking is that I don't mind cheap if they can be fixed, but if they fail catastrophically that's bad. I have an Acoustic Image Contra, top-of-the-line (supposedly) amp for my upright bass, and it often craps out. AI has a great warrantee. They always fix it. But I can't depend on it. So why buy an expensive rig if they fail? Why shouldn't I buy a cheap rig and let it fail too? Short question; what exactly is wrong with the Behringers?


Sorry I can't answer directly, but I CAN tell you that Yorkville's warranty is bloody bulletproof! Drop your board down the stairs during load in....covered. Spill a pitcher of draft into it....covered. 

Again I have only the rolled eyes and shaken heads of other soundmen warning me against Behringer, no first hand experience.


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## Mooh

Theoretically, there must be lots of happy Behringer customers or they wouldn't have been on the market so long. Overall I'm not one of them, though I do have a Behringer Eurorack 602A mixer that has worked very well for several years. I use it as a sub mixer so that I can free up PA channels for others, ie my vocals and some of my instruments (piano, mandolin, banjo and sometimes an amp mic, not all are used at the same time) go through it before they go to the PA.

I also have a bass preamp pedal and an acoustic preamp pedal which haven't seen the light of day in ages. Neither does much more than act as a DI, and I've used them for going direct to the PA a few times. 

I bought all my Behringer products (one little mixer, and 2 pedals at the same time, years ago) when they seemed to be good bang for the buck. Things aren't always what they seem. I was lured by rock bottom prices.

The band leader is currently experimenting with 2 Behringer powered speakers in our practice space, and they're okay for what they are, but the bass is a little tubby and there is something weird about the mids that I haven't put my finger on yet...might be the band leader's boxtop Behringer mixer which has 2 faulty channels and spikey EQ. For the practice room they're okay, but I will hesitate when it comes to gigging them. 

Peace, Mooh.


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## RIFF WRATH

here's another happy Yorkville owner.......I have the MM4D powered mixer with Yorkville small wedge monitors.........150W system that has as yet never needed to be cranked in my jam space........I am currently using an OLD Yamaha 12 channel passive with a Juice power amp (Mackie) and 2 sets of speakers that I rebuilt.....even for assembling the 12 channel system on a budget it can get expensive assembling componants........the Yorkie 4 channel has inputs for tape and CD and is also great for practising, the drawback being limited inputs.........any interest in a vintage Shure vocal master system........100W 2 speakers and the board.........weighing in at 240 lbs combined.................lol...............come to think of it, the Yammy system probable weighs in at more..........


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## Mooh

I've often used rented Yorkville stuff with no complaints whatever. Even in rental departments the stuff seems to take a licking. I played a smallish festival last year that had Yorkville stuff at their smaller stages. Very pleasant experience, nice monitor sound, and the front of house (so to speak, it was a circus tent) sound was excellent..

Peace, Mooh.


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