What is a decent affordable PA for vocals?

adjason

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So I have been meeting up and playing with people ....drums bass etc. Nothing too loud. I've got a big old pa in my basement from probably the 70's- suffice to say its not practical to move. What is a decent portable system to sing through?- I've thought of something like this https://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender...punn9djpEfbz2J5iwMelQaoltUE_lxjRoCGLgQAvD_BwE

or maybe this:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...portable-pa-speaker-with-rechargeable-battery
as I'd like to keep it around $500...I could spend more but I'd hate to sell one of my nice old Fender amps to buy this. Any good choices out there? thanks and sorry if this is the wrong forum
 
schmee

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Buy an old Peavey or Mackie powered mixer with 8 channels and 500- 800 watts. $300-350. Like an Mackie 808S etc. Buy a couple of decent passive speakers off CL, they are often cheap. Maybe $200-300
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harpdog

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If you want something with battery, Bose S-1 is nice. I don't know that the Fender acoustic amp would be my choice.
The powered speaker route may be good, but you can find better performance for the money.
 
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nickmsmith

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Harbinger powered 15 inch speaker and a small cheap mixer. Has been great for me, for solo gigs. With volume to spare. Can’t beat powered speakers.

BUT I would avoid the little “PA in a box”packages with the small speakers. Fender Passport was one of them. Most of them pack very little volume and aren’t cheap.

I would get a powered 15 (pick your brand/price) or two. Two stands, and a small mixer. And you have a PA for anything but big events where you have to compete with a full drum set
 
adjason

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Thanks folks- I don't want a battery, I just want something that is not too big that I can take to folks houses just to sing through
 
haggardfan1

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12 inch speakers are just fine for vocals, IMHO. Lots of members here use even smaller ones for mains. If you expand your system later, 10's or even 8's make dandy monitors, and you can still carry them to small venues for FOH.

One suggestion, from forty years experience with all this...buy a little more PA than you think you will ever need. Nothing is more disheartening than running out of channels or clean headroom.
 
The Ballzz

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I'll bet that JBL would sound pretty darned good and has a lot of cool features! Plus, you can run it off the rechargeable battery OR plugged into the AC in the wall. Mackie and/or behringer may have an item or two that may seem like more bang for the buck, but if the price were close, I'd bet the JBL would have the best sound of those three!

I would expect that linked Fender to sound pretty OK, but the downside is no pole mount facilities!

And yeah, 12" & 15" speakers can certainly sound bigger and fill more space, but are usually more laborious to deal with and often way more than what is really needed.

Just My 2db,
Gene
 
NoTeleBob

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adjason said:
Thanks folks- I don't want a battery, I just want something that is not too big that I can take to folks houses just to sing through
Click to expand...

If it's really just for house parties, I would strongly consider a used Fender Passport. It's not great for full band in a club type stuff, but for reasonable volume to sing through? Sure. Inexpensive and portable.
 
Dacious

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Yamaha StagePAS. 400 but the 600 if you can swing it.

These are great for a small pa and depending on how loud your bandmates are good enough for rehearsal and small gigs. All you need is leads and mics.

I had the SoundKing badged version and for acoustic and even low volume band work it was pretty good. Good effects too.

 
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Old Deaf Roadie

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Yorkville makes/made some real good powered mixers in a wedge shape, 2x400W RMS. Find a couple of speakers on CL or eBay.

-or-

You could find a cheap analog mixer and find a pair of the old Mackie powered boxes that are loaded with the RCF drivers & Harmon Kardon amps they used to use. The new ones just don't sound as robust, IMO.

Personally, I think a PA that costs less than $500 for something that sounds okay, has enough EQ for feedback control, and is tough enough to last more than a couple years is a bit on the wishful side, but I am sure it can be done with enough searching. I buy a lot of PA gear. Current street price for a QSC K12.2 powered box is about $800, IDK about the JBL EON, as I don't care for how they sound & do not use them.
 
41144

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Just to sing through for yourself with no one trying to play at stadium volumes ... just buy a powered speaker like the Alto TX series ... they do one 15" @700W for c. $300(US) and plug your mic into it directly. (Others are 8" and 10" @ 350W around the $200 mark.)

As you seem to not be currently gigging with it (right/wrong?) ... If you then want to connect more mics to it later on .... just buy a cheap mixer like the Behringer Xenyx, they do a x4 XLR channel one for c. $200 or a x2 XLR channel one for c. $100.

Gigging? Different matter altogether and doubt you'd find anything worth buying that'd be below $1000, unless you're just playing small coffee houses.
 
nojazzhere

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adjason said:
So I have been meeting up and playing with people ....drums bass etc. Nothing too loud. I've got a big old pa in my basement from probably the 70's- suffice to say its not practical to move. What is a decent portable system to sing through?- I've thought of something like this https://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender...punn9djpEfbz2J5iwMelQaoltUE_lxjRoCGLgQAvD_BwE

or maybe this:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...portable-pa-speaker-with-rechargeable-battery
as I'd like to keep it around $500...I could spend more but I'd hate to sell one of my nice old Fender amps to buy this. Any good choices out there? thanks and sorry if this is the wrong forum
Click to expand...
If I understand your question, you DON'T want a full size PA (two speakers+mixer) like you already have at home, right? I have a little Kustom Profile One, which is two speakers (two sixes in each cab) and small mixer/amp, 4 channels, which is VERY compact, which does ok in a small ensemble. But REALLY what you want will double your budget, and that's a Bose L1 system. Even a used L1 is in the $7-800 range. Maybe you could just buy a used inexpensive PA and leave at the rehearsal space?
 
nedorama

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Used QSC K10 powered speaker
Used Mackie 1202 or 1402 mixer

Buy the best speaker you can afford - one at a time. Mono is fine for stuff like this as these speakers have a pretty wide horizontal coverage. I had a big PA, and now for most things just bring a used K10 I bought in May for $450 used and it sounds great. get a tripod stand to get the HF horn above peoples ears.

I wouldn't waste money on:
Yamaha MG Series
Mackie Pro FX series mixers, Thump speakers
Behringer - low end mixers, speakers
JBL used EON speakers (older, round plastic)
Harbinger (GC internal brand)
Samson
 
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