Recommend me a small powerful PA

[chrisanthony1211]

My band has about 1k to spend on a new PA. It's got to be small, portable and powerful enough to play medium venues and halls.
Our current PA is pretty cheap and far too big for what it does, i understand that powered speakers are the best for portability, other than that I'm at a bit of a loss.....

[grandad]

I bought a Yamaha Stagepas 600i earlier this year. Well worth consideration. I also have 2 x Yamaha DBR 10's for foldback & a MG10XU mixer as a 'never required' back up . Have a look at the Yamaha lineup. I've never had a fault over 10+ years with any Yamaha PA and I've used all the EMX powered mixers and still have an EMX 5015cf for bigger gigs.

Alongside the wattage and portability consider the number of inputs and outputs you need.

The 1 button feedback control works effectively. Compression is also built in.

I've used other makes but find the Yamaha EQ to be "musical" for the want of better term. Like myself, folk tend to recommend the PA they have used and become comfortable with. In my case it is Yamaha. The manual is very well written too.

Good luck, it's an important decision so do take time to make the right one for you.

Edited September 25, 2016 by grandad

[EBS_freak]

Is this for putting things like a kick drum through too - or just vocal?

And do you need a desk? How many people in the band? Give us as much detail as you can!

Edited September 25, 2016 by EBS_freak

[chrisanthony1211]

Thanks for advice so far, the band is Hammond organ, one guitar, bass, vocals, and yes, the kick drum will be going through the pa too.
We already have a good unpowered passive desk so would be looking at powered speakers.
Our drummer has no transport so we share his kit out between the rest of us, hence the need for the pa to be on the small side so can fit everything in..!

Edited September 25, 2016 by chrisanthony1211

[EBS_freak]

Hmm, Im not sure how small you need to go - but if you are putting your band through with a kick, you'll need quite beefy cabs. I know that they are above your budget, I would look at something like the Yamaha DXR15s or RCF 735s - purely because they will give you a bit of beef without having to run subs. Those 15s will give you some extra headroom, especially if chucking through bass, kick and hammond. These are all instruments that are pretty hard on speakers. There are other 15s out there - but their SPL output is not in the range of the two I've just mentioned - and these both have fairly chunky horns to enable those vocals to cut through without ragging everybody's ears. Out of those two, I would favour the RCF, but appreciate that's an extra £400ish to find as opposed to £300 for the Yamahas.

Personally, I would avoid going with smaller tops unless you are running subs - but I would wager you aren't going to get anywhere near the performance out of a sub and two tops for under a grand for the size venues you say you are looking at.

As a brucie bonus option, you could go smaller boxes with a small sub - RCF 702 and a pair of RCF 310s would come in at around 1400. It may be a better fit in the cars... but if you were to ask me what I would buy with £1400, it would be the 735s.

I think you will need to find a bit of extra cash to do what you want to do successfully but I think its worth the difference as for a little bit extra cash, you get a significant improvement in performance. It's no point buying speakers that you are going to be ragging people's ears with - and you don't want speakers that can't cope with what you are throwing at them.

[JTUK]

If you want to push the P.A into medium size venue/halls..?? I think it it would be better to give an indication of how many people..
It sounds like you are talking tops only but you want kick in it, you should be looking at 15's.
RCF 725's would be a start point/benchmark, IMO but you'd have to search hard for the money you have available

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1474804996' post='3140596']
If you want to push the P.A into medium size venue/halls..?? I think it it would be better to give an indication of how many people..
It sounds like you are talking tops only but you want kick in it, you should be looking at 15's.
RCF 725's would be a start point/benchmark, IMO but you'd have to search hard for the money you have available
[/quote]
725As have been discontinued some time now - but you might get lucky and get a deal with some folk who have them in stock and just looking to shift them on. I'm pretty sure that they have the old poweramp in though - and they tended to fail :-/ All the new stuff has the new Digipro amps in - and they are solid. You'll see that the 715 mk2 are essentially the same as the mk1 - but with the new poweramp. The 715s would come in budget too I guess - but I would urge you to listen to the differences between the 715s and the 735s to see why that hf horn counts. The more vocal you can crossover to the horn, the more bandwidth is available for your instruments in the main woofer.

Edit - as should have said the 725A (active) are discontinued. The 725 (passive) are still available - but not what the OP wants.

Edited September 25, 2016 by EBS_freak

[moonbass]

You might want to also consider the cost of mics, DIs, cables, and some form of monitoring. This could equal, or be even more than the PA cost. I think people often underrate the benefits of finding a friendly sound guy and cutting him in on the proceeds of the gig. I'm a complete mug, but I did a 7 piece band with lighting for £30 on Friday, and I suspect there are other wallys like me who will do it cheap if the music and venue are good!

[chrisanthony1211]

We have all cables that we need, and the plan in the short term will be that once we get our new pa our current active pa will do the monitoring, they're wedged and will certainly do for monitors until we can get something a little smaller.

Edited September 25, 2016 by chrisanthony1211

[Dan Dare]

It's all down to budget. Small/portable plus powerful and high quality invariably = expensive. Have a look at Line 6 Stage Source active speakers. Portable, powerful and much better sounding than plastic box types. For more money, Nexo, Fohhn (what I use) or D&B Audiotechnik (if you're feeling flush).

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1475074783' post='3142840']
For more money, Nexo, Fohhn (what I use) or D&B Audiotechnik (if you're feeling flush).
[/quote]
In that case, throw Claire Brothers and L-Acoustics into the mix! A Danley Jehrico may be exactly what is being looked for!

[chrisanthony1211]

Well Yamaha DXR15 arrived today, they are quite large, and very well made, cant wait to gig with these..

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='chrisanthony1211' timestamp='1476824699' post='3157663']
Well Yamaha DXR15 arrived today, they are quite large, and very well made, cant wait to gig with these..
[/quote]
Top choice!