Mackie Powered PA System

shaneymac33

Hi All, this is my first ever post so bear with any mistakes I make!
We are a 4 piece folk/trad/ballad group consisting of acoustic guitar/bouzoki/banjo/tin whistle/3 mic's.
We are currently in the market for a new pa system : have looked at the HK Audio Premium PR-O12a tops with PR-O18a subs. All the advice there is that this is the bee-nee's, however combining this with a new deck and all the extra's it's a bit outside our budget.
I have a very competitive quote for 2 x Mackie SRM450v2 tops with 2 x Mackie 1801 subs (total 1800w), an Allen & HeathPA12, leads, poles and cases for the 450's : 2900euro total. Has anyone any experience using Mackie's (not just hear-say!) as it's a very tempting offer, also they look great and it's a complete system with no more to spend. we played support to the Young Wolfe Tones recently and they were using Mackie, however it was at low volume and we had a later gig ourselves so we did'nt hang on for the Tones gig. Some bad review's are comming back about the original release of these, however the supplier say's that production for the last 2 years has moved to a new factory so they have sorted out any teething issues with them.
If anyone has any actual experience using these then I would appreciate greatly any advice you can give me.
Many thanks, Shane!

Savman

Why are you looking at 18" subwoofers for a 4pc trad folk band? Makes no sense tbh, 18's are good for Rock kick drum and Dance music, for a trad band it'll just be mostly rumble you don't want or need IMHO.

Not a fan of the Mackie SRM's but they do as they say on the tin, the earlier ones were nasty but I have not heard the new V2 yet, they look fugly in blue

I like HK Audio, a lot smoother sounding boxes and made in Germany whereas most the Mackie stuff is China made FWIW.

I think you could be looking at better/more suitable speakers for the intended application, and you could certainly do a lot better than the SWA sub and a lot lighter too. The RCF Art range is a better self powered option IMHO, lighter on the back too. Being an RCF user myself, I'd be willing to wager it would outperform the Mackie.

I also see JBL have some new powered PRX600 boxes out which look cool, the tops are only 17kg too.

Lots of options out there, so I'd suggest casting the net a little wider and doing lots of research.

artvandulet

Like Savman said, subs are going to be quite unnecessary for your application. Buy a pair of decent full range speakers instead. You could spend the money you would have done on subs, on a couple of monitors instead or put it towards a better overall PA.

PMI

If you had a Bodhran or something happening I would say possibly add the subs for some thump but nothing in the instruments stated has anything happening in the low frequencie region.

Also going from an 18 - 12 is not idea as you will notice a bit of a hole in the low mid area where a 15 would come into use.

I usually say 18" sub with 15" mid hi's or 15 sub and 12" mid hi tops.

Again as the guys said above you really looking for decent clarity in the hi mids etc.. so maybe look at the fohhn stuff?!? www.fohaudio.ie its great stuff and sooooooooooo clean sounding, run 10k of it myself and have never looked back.

shaneymac33

Thanks for all your replies.
I suppose i only looked at the 18" sub's as they were part of set, also like i said we used them with the Young Wolfe Tones and were fairly happy with the full sound. We may have a Bodhran player and bass guitar from time to time so I would still like at least 1 sub, maybe I'll look into a 15". Any other recommendations on active speakers? Any views on the Allen & Heath PA12?? Also anyone hear much about the new HK Audio elements???
Thanks again, Shane

Savman

shaneymac33 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies.
I suppose i only looked at the 18" sub's as they were part of set, also like i said we used them with the Young Wolfe Tones and were fairly happy with the full sound. We may have a Bodhran player and bass guitar from time to time so I would still like at least 1 sub, maybe I'll look into a 15". Any other recommendations on active speakers? Any views on the Allen & Heath PA12?? Also anyone hear much about the new HK Audio elements???
Thanks again, Shane

Forget the 18" IMHO. A single 15" sub would be fine, yes on its own, the advantages of using 2 are negligible for a folk act with occasional Bass.

Active speakers: RCF Art, JBL PRX, anything from dB Technologies, EV ZXa, there are many...you are only as limited as your imagination

HK Audio Elements is the new thin looking lego PA which I think they are pitching at the Bose L1 market, I have not heard the HK so cannot comment but I'm a skeptic of all things that sound too good to be true. Very hard to get demos of most of this stuff on this island unfortunately.

I've not used the Allen & Heath PA12 but A&H make great mixers so you can do no wrong there tbh.