PA system

Royale with Cheese

Really don't have a clue about PA systems.

Looking to buy one to set up a practice room for my band, nothing too fancy. I came across one on musicstore, speakers of their own making and a behringer poweramp. The speakers are 200w/8 ohm each with a 12" speaker I think and the desk is 250w with 8 channels. That comes to about €480 with some stands and mic cables thrown in. I'm assuming that would be loud enough for practice, would you get away with using that for some small gigs as well? Say we were just running 2 mics, the bass and a keyboard through it. Is €480 a good price? Ok it'll be over €500 after shipping.

This would be what I'm talking about.

Savman

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Really don't have a clue about PA systems.

Looking to buy one to set up a practice room for my band, nothing too fancy. I came across one on musicstore, speakers of their own making and a behringer poweramp. The speakers are 200w/8 ohm each with a 12" speaker I think and the desk is 250w with 8 channels. That comes to about €480 with some stands and mic cables thrown in. I'm assuming that would be loud enough for practice, would you get away with using that for some small gigs as well? Say we were just running 2 mics, the bass and a keyboard through it. Is €480 a good price? Ok it'll be over €500 after shipping.

This would be what I'm talking about.

That desk is 400w (200w per side) and those speakers are 150w each. I think its safe to say, I don't think you could've picked a more uninspiring PA system.

For rehearsals it'll do ok in that it'll make some kind of noise but as for using those speakers for gigging??!? :eek::eek::eek: My god, it'll be ugly.

For gigging its best to hold off til you can get few hundred quid more for at least 300w per side. Have a look at dB Technologies Opera speakers (particularly "Basic" range) and also there's Behringer and Fame active speakers for those on a shoestring budget.

Remember they're Active (ie you power each speaker individually) so you'd only need a cheap Passive Mixer (normally XLR outputs and no internal poweramp). There's some grand Behringer passive mixers with FX for around the €150-200 bracket which'd do the job for a while anyway.

There is no shortcut to a good sounding system, like everything you get what you pay for and if you plan on using the rig more than a coupla times a month you should be looking at getting more sturdy system. The chepo stuff literally falls apart if transported around in the car boot whereas the better stuff can take a beating.

Royale with Cheese

Yeah ok fair enough, I was just seeing if we'd get away with those for a small gig. I'm not going to spend any more than that (most of us are still students) because we really only need them for practicing. Setting up a practice room in somebody's house where we can just leave everything set up all the time. We had practiced for years in the past with no p.a. at all so If the sound quality of this thing is sh*te I don't think we'll really care. We played a few small gigs like 21st's last year and just rented p.a's for them and always had our employers pay for it. They were always friends of us or gigs we got through knowing certain people, we never really wanted to make a habit out of small gigs but if you can get a few and get a bit of money coming in, why not. We haven't gigged properly in town for a few years due to people being away for a 6 months here or a year there, so really we just want to rehearse properly for a few months and then get back in to gigsmart or something like that for the time being anyway.

If you go to the speakers section and select those speakers individually it states that they're 200w each. It states the desk is 300w per side at one point and then further down it says it's 200w per side. I'd be fairly sure it's 200w per side though.

Savman

If you go to the speakers section and select those speakers individually it states that they're 200w each

Yep I was looking at the smaller MC-10, my mistake they are indeed 200w

If the sound quality of this thing is sh*te I don't think we'll really care

Well, go ahead then bud but why bother posting the thread if you don't really care anyway? :rolleyes:

It states the desk is 300w per side at one point and then further down it says it's 200w per side.

Defo 200w per side http://www.behringer.com/PMH1000/index.cfm?lang=ENG


Good luck with your shopping.

Royale with Cheese

Savman wrote:

Well, go ahead then bud but why bother posting the thread if you don't really care anyway? :rolleyes:

Sound quality wasn't really my concern, more volume. I posted because I really have no experience with P.A. systems at all. Just wanted to see if people thought €500 for that was alright and if the system would be useful for anything else than just rehearsals.

Savman

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Sound quality wasn't really my concern, more volume.

So you're not bothered with how good it sounds as long as its loud?!?!? Man you crazy.

if the system would be useful for anything else than just rehearsals.

Nope. (imo)

Royale with Cheese

Savman wrote:

So you're not bothered with how good it sounds as long as its loud?!?!? Man you crazy.

Yeah pretty much. Don't see why we'd need a top notch sounding pa system for practice. I'm assuming it's not going to sound like total piss, you can try and convince me otherwise but I'm not a techy purist so it wouldn't really matter to me if it's not exactly top of the range. We all use 100w+ amps (I know they're not massive but I'm sure if you can get 15w guitar amps you can get something of a similar uselessness for p.a. systems) and like to make a bit of noise during practice so I would just want to make sure the vocals could be heard over that.

Paladin

I think it would be grand for practice and small gigs. Not outstanding mind you, but for the price...

The price of better gear is prohibitive for most people. And you dont have to be very loud for practice and small gigs. In fact you should try and play down imo. Avoid deafness and learn to balance your sound at low volumes. This is usually trickiest for drummers who dont have a volume control.

Savman

Listen, for "practice" use anything you can get your hands on if that's what you want. I never mentioned any "top notch" or "top of the range" gear, Behringer, Fame etc are entry level manufacturers. I still don't see the point of the thread but such is life.

For the record, it probably will sound like total piss but no, I'm not going to try convince you otherwise.

All you need to hear Vocals in a rehearsal situation (assuming you're a rock band set up) is a Powered Monitor and an SM58.Put simply, if a Gigging PA was a car, a Rehearsal PA would be a bicycle.

Savman

Paladin wrote:

The price of better gear is prohibitive for most people.

True but again, I'm not talking about the better gear here...;)

There's "getting one to do the job" and then there's "wasting money" - In fact I quite like Behringer but personally those Music Store speakers would be a cause of concern...

david

Get
2 of http://musicstore.de/en/PA_Homerecording/6_71_PBOXAKTIV_59_PAH0002875-000/0/0/0/detail/musicstore.html
1 of http://musicstore.de/en/PA_Homerecording/6_33_PMIXEFFEKT_20_PAH0003261-000/0/0/0/detail/musicstore.html

Adds up to just over €500 and it'd be a lot better than the first rig you mentioned for rehearsals and gigs. 600w active total and you dont have to worry about impeadance matching or power amps, very compact portable entry level rehearsal rig. I wouldnt even piss on them passive musicstore speakers. All you'll need to add to that rig is a few mics and XLR cables. (and stands if you need them)