General Music Chat

I'm in the market for a PA, but i'm not sure which way to go. go with a passive mixer, and active speakers, or mixer and amp. Money is a little tight.

You sound like a seasoned player... Why are you asking for such pedantic help?

PA system:
First define your needs
Second define your budget
Third define your set-up

1) # of inputs, size of venues, what equipment do you have now, what will you need
2) $$
3) Do it all yourselves, have FOH soundman, etc

There's no one 'right' answer. Some folks like separate power amps and passive speakers, others like powered speakers. Few like powered mixers as they little room for expansion.

Money is tight, as in how much do you want to spend?

Ive basically got 3 systems, from around $1000 up to $20,000. So the sky is the limit.

I bought a Behringer powered mixer a few years ago, and for small things use it, I think they still have these at GC for less than $400. Great little mixer, with a total of 500 watts power. Then you could get a couple of wedge monitors with pole mounts on them, 12 inch would work, I have 4 peavey monitors with wedge mounts, I have run two of them as mains and two as monitors, I have run one of the mains on a pole and one on the floor as a monitor for acoustic gigs.

If you say how much money you want to spend, what kind of music you play, how loud you play, thats the big catch, if you have guys playing loud as f**k, then you will need a pa to get the vocals over it.

More info would help.

A small basic pa system with mics and cables is gonna set you back around $1200 new, if you know what you want, you can get some things used on the cheap.

So many choices, so little information provided!

Check out Carvin - lots of choices, for as little as $580 (wich includes powered mixer, 2 speakers, mics and cables): http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/XP800L-PM10