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Another Thought about PA Systems
I already noted that I'm using the little Yamaha Stagepas 300 PA system, but here is something that might be of interest. Particuarly if you arent into amplifiers & live audio and all that.
I wanted a very small portable PA but I didn't really want any of the ones I saw that pack up into a case. The speaker shapes look wierd to me and the mixer winds up looking like the back side of a plastic cooler or something so I chose the Stagepas. It just looks like a small PA and has an optional suitcase roller carrier.
It has a powered mixer with 4 mike and 2 stereo line imputs. More than I would ever need. Someone else mentioned amount of inputs so DO think about what all you are going to run into the mixer. For me this was OK. Now I have a 300 w (150 per side) powered mixer and two small speakers that all sound OK at acceptable sound levels and in venues where two speakers are good enough. Think medium sized restaurant or pub. This rig is not going to stall anyone's pacemaker or peel the chrome off of a pickup truck out in the parking lot, but it's OK for a solo guy that is probably not going to do any large buildings. It's semi-useless outdoors except that I have played one neighborhood block party outdoors with no complaints except that I thought it was underpowered.
OK - The neat thing about this little rig is that we now have access to powered speakers. Years ago the amp or powered mixer had to drive the speakers. Now you can get powered speakers that have their own amplifier in them and you just have to send them a signal. Pardon my low tech audio description, but the powered speakers work just like a guitar amp. Plug in a signal and turn them up. Some of them also have a EQ on board and most all of them will allow you to daisy chain them together and run cords from speaker to speaker.
My little powered mixer has not only outputs that are powered to drive the speakers, but it also has stereo line outs are designed to run to powered monitors or speakers.
With this little unit I can use my 150 w powered mixer and two small speakers and if Eric Clapton calls and wants me to provide the sound system for the football stadium I can send a signal to powered speakers (which I do not yet need or own) and could daisy chain dozens of powered speakers together OR run a signal into a larger PA house system from my little system. The line out makes it ultra expandable.
The only limit at that point is the number of imputs.
For not much more $ than the unit I have you can get a larger powered mixer and larger speakers. I just wanted the portablity of the smaller system. I can set it up in a floor space of 2ft x 2 ft. If I had to.
Just thought the powered speaker thing was worth mentioning.
Ron
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