Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I got LOTS of helpul insight when I asked for input on synths the other day.

Now I need some inut on speakers. I have a ...

MP400 Powered Mixer Head (80 Watts) Features
• :
• 4-channel compact powered mixer
• 80 watts RMS into 4 ohms
• Each channel features gain, contour, and reverb controls
• XLR balanced and 1/4 in. line inputs
• Master section features gain, low, mid, and high EQ and effects send/return
• +15 volt phantom power
• Internal spring reverbTechnical Description

I play with brushes when I loop. So I'm no too loud. I will be playing at low volume gigs. Coffee Houses etc. At home I run some old sansui home stereo speakers with 12's. They actually do just fine. I don't ever distort them. I get sort of loud ( you can't talk over it.) I run bass, guitar, drums, keys, and vox through 1 channel on the peavey PA. The other channels are not used as everything runs through my looper. The sansuis just aren't road wrthy as the particle board housing tends to crumble when it is abused. I might like something with a little more bottom end but not a ton more.

I am just needing to know what numbers I need to be looking for for compatible speakers - ohms I guess? I'm Looking for 15" woofers at the most. Would this be compatible? http://roanoke.craigslist.org/msg/1045216659.html

thanks in advance!

This is what I have, and I couldn't be happier:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... X&ZYXSEM=0

Thats the cheapest price I found for such a great product...that things got power.

If you dont need the whole thing and just need the speakers, they're easy to find too, and they're really good quality, and not very expensive.

Also check out Phonic.com for more of their stuff

That last review is pretty convincing. He was saying they run bass guitar and vox. The bass is the hardest to push through a pa. Thanks bro!

If you can go up to $400-$500, I would STRONGLY recommend getting a similar model to what Ryan suggested, but with more inputs. Nothing worse than living with the regret that something you bought 6 months ago is just shy of enough inputs because of a change in your band/career situation.

If you can't tell, it happened to me lol. With a mixer, rather than a PA, but same difference.

I just need speakers really.

neanderpaul wrote:I just need speakers really.

well derr lol.. I just learned how to read or something.

I like JBL's personally - they seem a little crisper than your average Peavey's, and a little more expensive, but the old line about getting what you pay for is very true with PA speakers. Yamaha's aren't bad either, although somewhat middle-of-the-road'ish.

We use JBL's in TFRB, for both mains & monitors, & I like 'em lots more than Peaveys.

I am a Carvin fan myself. If you could find some three ways with good crossovers that will match your watts / ohms you will get a cleaner sound all around. My two ways were getting kind of muddy with all the low end were running untill I began using the sub out and crossover on my PA.

neanderpaul, I highly advise the JBL MRX series they are very light so if you are going to be doing a one man show and will be moving your gear by yourself you are going to want something light, plus they can handle more power if you decide to expand your power requirements later on, stereo speakers make terrible p.a. mains and p.a. speakers make terrible stereo speakers this is due to the cone thickness stereo speakers have thinner cones and are designed for very low S.P.L.'s while p.a. speakers are just the opposite. 80 watts is not very much power and I cannot stress enough how important it is to have way more power than you need. Power power power this is due to if you have appropiate power amplifiers you are going to have less distortion at lower levels especially if you are running speakers full range, because your internal crossovers send most of their power to their lower frequencies and when you turn the volumn up to its maximum SPL level it muddies up the sound and will cause your horns to distort if you don't have enough power you are asking your speakers to do more than they are capable of. So many times I see local bands by the best JBL SR series (double 18's for the bottom and double 15's with 3" horns for the tops then they skimp on the power and they get in a medium to large size club and turn them up and they get massive amounts of distortion and it sounds like $hit. Power amps are expensive and you will spend as much money on power amps as you spend on speakers my advise to you would be to get another power amp from ebay for small coffee house gigs around 500 watts and use your powered p.a.'s (amp in or PA in) this reroutes your p.a.'s internal power to the monitors and and plug your monitor speakers to that output and use the alternate p.a. outs to run to your front of house. The properly powered p.a. has a minimum of 2 to 3 times the power the speakers are rated for and there are reasons for this but this reply is already getting to long. Trust me I know this because I learned it the hard way

Wow J! That's why I posted here! Thank you!

Ok, I have 2 12" peaveys and 2 15" jbl . It's a no brainer. the JBL are better, Cleaner all arount. However the Peavey Have One great feature, Changable buakets. If you blow one and have an extra basket you can change it in 5 minutes. the peavey's i got were not new nor are the jbl. the peavey came with 12"Scorpion and i'll probally upgrade them to Black Widows. and if the Jbl go up i'll replace them with black widows which 12" = 700watts. i might be wrong but check peavey's web site. The Lbs you have to replace the whole speaker which will cost at lease three time over a basket replacement.

Hey neanderpaul... If you're looking for a road worthy and inexpensive speaker try the Peavey PR-12.
As a point I don't care for most Peavey equipment however the speakers in these very light cabinets are not Peavey speakers but actually Eminence (used in Carvin, SWR, Yorkville, some EAW, Bag End, Genz Benz, Ampeg, Yamaha and many other companies).
These speakers have a simple extended range stamped frame 12" that handles about 150-200 watts of continuous power combined with a simple Peavey compression driver/horn.
They run about $170 each, get decent volume, are very light and are right at home for weddings, kareokee or solo performers.
Many here are giving you great advice however based on your own personal requirements (budget, weight, convienence etc.) these would work quite well.

Neanderpaul,
check these out.
I've been useing a pair of these Peavey International 15s since the 80's,and they still sound great!
Cin and I paid about $800 apiece back then, so if you can find a good pair used, you would be set ! They are a fairly large cabinets, but you can still fly them on poles for good dispersion.
They can be biamped with an electronic crossover (like I do) or , for your present setup, they have a passive crossover built in. For what you want to do, I wouldn't recomend anything smaller,and top quality used speakers seems a good option.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-PEAVEY-PA-SPEAKER ... dZViewItem

later,
Howlin'