Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

[manteca]

Hi,

Any recommendations for a PA system? I own a catering company and we'd like to get something low maintence and robust enough to survive the catering environment. Budget is abou US$1,500. Mainly used for DJs and maybe small bands. For large shows and big bands, we'll rent a proper setup.

1. Is it better to use powered speakers + mixer? Or speakers + amp + mixer. Once again with any eye towards low maintenace & durability.

2. Any brands known for low maintenance & durability?

3. How you you feel about the all-in-one PA systems that usually connect up to the size of a suitcase. Or is it better to get separate components (amp, mixer, speakers etc.).\\

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Special J · Accepted solution]

I'd say first that it depends on how many people are in the audiences. For DJ's and dance bands, you'd typically want subwoofers, but your budget is barely enough for a quality set of mains and a mixer. I run a fairly large sound company, and in our rental department we use QSC K series speakers, and small Soundcraft mixers. These get rented out by DJ's, for weddings, corporate events, etc. Both brands have proven to be very reliable for us. 

[philbo · Accepted solution]

This oughta do it.

[Anderton · Accepted solution]

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manteca wrote:

Hi,

Any recommendations for a PA system? I own a catering company and we'd like to get something low maintence and robust enough to survive the catering environment. Budget is abou US$1,500. Mainly used for DJs and maybe small bands. For large shows and big bands, we'll rent a proper setup.

1. Is it better to use powered speakers + mixer? Or speakers + amp + mixer. Once again with any eye towards low maintenace & durability.

2. Any brands known for low maintenance & durability?

3. How you you feel about the all-in-one PA systems that usually connect up to the size of a suitcase. Or is it better to get separate components (amp, mixer, speakers etc.).\\

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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I would definitely go for powered speakers and a mixer instead of a separate amp. Less setup time, fewer cables, fewer things to go wrong.

Philbo's recommendation seems pretty much in the ballpark. The one thing you didn't specify is the size of typical venues and the number of people, which makes a big difference.

I've been very impressed by Mackie's DLM system, and it's easily expandable so as you bring in more bucks, you could add the sub-woofer.

[manteca]

Thanks for the recommendations! I appreciate the help. Those are perfect for my purposes, (anything under 25-50 people, or nothing more complicated than a single DJ or a small band).

[MikeRivers]

The Mackie SRM450 powered speakers that Philbo recommended are quite good and a good choice if it's within your budget and not more than you want to carry. They'll easily handle a small band or a DJ for a crowd of 200.

For 25-50 people, you can go with a smaller, more compact, and less expensive system such as the "suitcase" systems you were thinking about. For your application, a Fender Passport 150 is a pretty decent choice. Depending on where this venture takes you, it may or may not be important to think about expandability. A Passport is what it is. You can add another set of powered speakers to a mixer to get additional coverage when you need it (rental perhaps if it's an occasional thing).

Use your gut, and your head, to figure out what you need right now and what you might need a year or three from now.

Availability is always important for "event" work, so consider what you should have as a backup for your primary system. It's easiest to back up a system based onm individual components. If one part of an integrated system fails, you're usually out of business unless you have a spare. Reliability is pretty good across the board - there isn't much any more that has a reputation for going up in flames fairly regularly - but it only takes a failure one time that you can't repair or substitute around on site to hurt your reputation. As an expample,, it might be better to own two Fender Passports and leave one in the trunk of the car than to carry a Mackie mixer/powered speaker system, have one powerered speaker fail, and you can't quickly replace it with another because you spent all your budget.