Members pktaskes Posted April 20, 2006 Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 I've used this for the past month. 4 peice band with 3 vocals, acoustic g, KB and mic'd electric through the board. Occasionally kick and snare. I offer the disclaimer that I am the one carting the PA out to gigs along with my guitar equipment. PROS:-LIGHT!!! Sheesh. Maybe 18 pounds soaking wet (not recommended). I can't tell you what a pleasure this thing is to cart around and set up. My daughter carries it to the car.-POWERFUL!! Yamaha touts this as a true Class D amp (See below!!). As light as it is, it had no problem pushing my JBL 3-ways and a pair of 12" Yammy monitors all night without a hitch. And we we're LOUD for most of the night. We got a bit too crazy and miced the drums one night with decent results (Our speakers were the limiting factor here, not the amp). I'm not saying this thing can push out low end like a dedicated sub rig but you can add a bit of thump and snap if you need to drums to fight the mains, guitar and bass amps. -They got rid of that inane bridge mode-Six channel mute switch. I use this much more than I thought I would.-Effects were noticeably better than most other powered mixers I've used.-LIGHT!!!! CONS:-The FCL lights are a joke. Would have done better to use these for signal/peak indication-Easy to catch a cable with the slightest force and have the unit shift due to its weight. Don't leave this on a hard smooth surface like a table withought some kind of pad under it.-Compressor feature is overplayed. While a bit of a nice addition, it's hard to use these with any real effect at higher volumes due to feedback. Best to even out low-level acoustic type sounds.-Controls and box feel cheap, especially the EQ.-No gain control, just the mic/line selector.-The 8 channels might come up a big short for bigger bands. UP IN THE AIR:-Reliability. Yamaha only offers a 1 year on this sucker and for the ~$550 you shell out, that ain't much. What are they afraid of? They need to get in line with Peavey and the rest. If you are a giggin' muzishin' who needs a bit more juice but want to cut power amps from the load out, I'd give this a "Buy". Did I mention it was light as hell?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SoundMan Posted April 20, 2006 Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 One correction, this does not have a Class D amplifier. It has a switchmode power supply, with a Class H amplifier. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, just didn't want anyone misled. "Yamaha only offers a 1 year on this sucker and for the ~$550 you shell out, that ain't much. What are they afraid of?" I just bought a $450 XBOX, and it has a 90day warranty. Welcome to the Walmart world. SoundMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pktaskes Posted April 20, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 Originally posted by SoundMan One correction, this does not have a Class D amplifier. It has a switchmode power supply, with a Class H amplifier. What he said! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted April 20, 2006 Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 Compressors are best used (by the less experienced anyway) on lous signal sources such as vocals rather than acoustic inputs already close to feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pktaskes Posted April 20, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 Originally posted by agedhorse Compressors are best used (by the less experienced anyway) on lous signal sources such as vocals rather than acoustic inputs already close to feedback. I always "touch" my acoustic signal with a compressor as I alternate between picking, struming and hybrid during a song/set. I always found it helped even things out a bit without always having to fuddle with the volume or modify my style. I might be sacrificing a bit of high end tone here but it's not noticable (to me or the unlearned anyway). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted April 20, 2006 Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 Which is fine as long as you are not close to feedback. Feedback margin is inversely protortional to the peak amount of gain reduction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Al Poulin Posted April 20, 2006 Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 Are you sure about the warranty? Yamaha has always had a 3 year warranty on most of their pro audio products... Al Poulin - Party-Time DJ Services Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Al Poulin Posted April 20, 2006 Members Share Posted April 20, 2006 Just noticed the 3 year warranty is for speakers and amplifiers. Al Poulin - Party-Time! DJ Services Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pktaskes Posted April 22, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2006 Originally posted by agedhorse Feedback margin is inversely protortional to the peak amount of gain reduction. Me mum always told me this but I never listened until I had kids of my own. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flip333 Posted April 22, 2006 Members Share Posted April 22, 2006 I would miss that gain control unless I had an effective pad button. I did a gig last night with my Behringer PMX2000 powered mixer. The mic preamps overload and clip under normal gig volumes, but I can use the pad button to reduce the input gain. Then they do not clip. I must push the channel level high to get volume. This leads to a bit of hiss, but not too much for a cheap bar gig. I don't doubt you had enough power PK. Good for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members saxdaddy1 Posted April 23, 2006 Members Share Posted April 23, 2006 2 questions, how many people would you guess were there, and how big was the room. I ask because I am wondering if I will need to use a seperate amp, or just my emx5000-20 for local gigs in the area. I have 2 2way yama clubs 15", and 2 of the 12inch monitors. I also have a seperate amp, but might leave it at home if I can get by without, and just use it for future expansion, like subs or some more mains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pktaskes Posted April 25, 2006 Author Members Share Posted April 25, 2006 Originally posted by saxdaddy1 2 questions, how many people would you guess were there, and how big was the room. I ask because I am wondering if I will need to use a seperate amp, or just my emx5000-20 for local gigs in the area. I have 2 2way yama clubs 15", and 2 of the 12inch monitors. I also have a seperate amp, but might leave it at home if I can get by without, and just use it for future expansion, like subs or some more mains. about 200...its a big room but we only play to half of it...another bar sits onthe other side. You'l be able to drive those 2 Clubs pretty well. You might want to think about a small monitor amp and use both internal amps for your mains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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