bobbymack Posted March 1, 2005 Posted March 1, 2005 Well, the Mackie 808 is showing signs of age or wear or something with an intermittent problem with the onboard effects.Word is that many of the parts for these as well as the Mackie powered speakers come from Malaysia and it is taking a REAL long time for some of the stuff to come off backorder etc, so...Anybody tried the Carvins? Yamaha? Peavey? Others? The Mackie is 600 watts X2, Yamahas I've seen look nice but are 400 X2. Need at least 8 channels, good power, nice effects (reverb) a plus, reliability a must.What say you?
DavidE Posted March 1, 2005 Posted March 1, 2005 There's a Carvin I'm interested in. 3 power amps, so I can go stereo out front and have another amp for monitors. Graphic EQs, two digital effects units. Light weight...My little PV does me pretty well, but I have some ideas.
hardheartedbill Posted March 1, 2005 Posted March 1, 2005 Soulbone use the Yamaha EMX 5000 it's amazingly loud and clean, we have been loving it. It has 2 500 watt amps built in , we run fronts off one side and monitors from the other ( these are loud amps, we have never needed more out front ) and every effect in the book ( tap tempo delay and all ) In larger venues we run subs off another pwr amp and submix the drums on a seperate small mixer , but most places we use an overhead and kick and thats it , enough inputs for 3 vocal, 2 guitar, bass, overhead and kick, highly recommended
tafkathundernotes Posted March 1, 2005 Posted March 1, 2005 I've had one of the Carvin PA 1200's and I liked it a lot. They do use heavy plastic shafts on their pots instead of solid aluminum. Protect the front if you get one - that goes for all mixer/amps of this design. If I were to get another Carvin, I'd upgrade to the Road Warrior case. It was a great sounding system.In fact, I have a 16 channel Carvin with a DCM 1500 power amp now. That's why I sold the portable unit. They make good stuff.
bobbymack Posted March 1, 2005 Author Posted March 1, 2005 HHB, your Soulbone rig sounds identical to what we've been doing with the Mackie, including running the subs thru an extra amp in the rack when we want subs in the mix...Glad to hear about that Yamaha, we've been using one of their 6 channel units for rehearsal for years. I'll have to check it out, cuz truth be told I've never been thrilled with the effects on the Mackie anyway...Most of the Peaveys seem underpowered, and I keep hearing conflicting stuff about the Carvins -- mostly that they sound good but aren't built that great.Thanks guys, anymore???
hardheartedbill Posted March 1, 2005 Posted March 1, 2005 I tell ya , I wanted the monitors turned down the other night, they were cuttin like a knife, the Yamaha has DB's to burn ( my monitor has an EV in it and really torques! )
HamerHokie Posted March 1, 2005 Posted March 1, 2005 We use that same Mackie with a pair of JBL 2-ways on sticks for most small rooms.When it's time to play a bigger venue we ditch the power from the mixer altogether and use powered 3-way Mackie hi-packs and powered subs, which gives us about 2500 watts. The Mackie power section is used only for monitors at this point (which points out a glaring shortcoming of the Mackie - you can bridge the amps for mains only but not for monitors only).
Brooks Posted March 3, 2005 Posted March 3, 2005 Soulbone use the Yamaha EMX 5000 it's amazingly loud and clean, we have been loving it. It has 2 500 watt amps built in , we run fronts off one side and monitors from the other ( these are loud amps, we have never needed more out front ) i have the smaller version of that yamaha mixer, it has 2 200w amps, & less FX.great unit, plenty loud. i also have a monitor w/ an EV (that i got from HHB), and my mains have JBL's, i think the speakers are very important to a PA's overall performance.
hardheartedbill Posted March 3, 2005 Posted March 3, 2005 Brooks, our EV's came from the Papp Theater in NYC , home of the Shakespear festival LOL . Soulbone uses the whole Yamaha package, our speakers are the upgrade from the club series but I can't recall what they call em, anyway, the Yamaha system is amazing for it's size
bobbymack Posted March 3, 2005 Author Posted March 3, 2005 Thanks guys, I just bought a new EMX 5000-12 for an awesome price. Got in just under the wire too as Yamaha Corp has been clamping down the supply to resellers selling them "too cheap" on ebay...the first guy I ordered from had to cancel the deal saying his dealer had been threatened by Yamaha and therefore could not fill his order. I found another guy who had 2 in the pipeline and got one of those... Looking forward to it, I've heard only great things since HHB pointed me in that direction. More features than the Mackie too - 2 separate monitor mixes, 2 separate effects banks, etc! HHB I owe you a cool one I think...
bobbymack Posted March 3, 2005 Author Posted March 3, 2005 Actually, there is one left from this guy for $549....Ebay item # 7302791015 ... 6 hours left.
Jimbilly Posted March 3, 2005 Posted March 3, 2005 If you ever decide to fix the Mackie, I've ordered parts from them a couple of times, even after they moved their warehouse. You just call up the parts dept, describe the part, give them your credit card #, and the parts show up at your house in a week or two, really easy and quick.
bobbymack Posted March 3, 2005 Author Posted March 3, 2005 Thanks jimbilly. I'm not even positive there's a problem with it.Last gig the effects clip LED lit when we powered up, and stayed on the whole show. No performance problems however.When I tried it at home the next day, the clip LED stayed off as normal.My local guy said he doubted it was a dirty power issue, though possible. Probably an intermittent something, possibly an op amp(?) starting to go, or maybe just a freak thing. He said he wouldn't worry about it if it's back to normal and works fine.But, I just don't like the idea of waiting around for "the other shoe to drop". I'm sure it would choose to happen at the worst possible time...Once I get the Yamaha, I'll have my guy check the Mackie over and probably sell it...
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