Good brand of powered mixer

[rbflapjack]

I am putting together a medium size PA system. I have decided on using a powered mixer. I narrowed the choices down to a few different brands. I am looking in the $500 range. The brands I am looking at are: Peavey, Mackie, Alesis, Yamaha, and Behringer. I seems that the Behringers give the most features and power for the money but I don't know if they are as good quality as the others. I am looking for any input someone might have about these brands, especially in terms of durability and quality of sound. I have already made a chart comparing power and features, so it comes down to durability and quality. The Behringer looks great, but seems almost too cheap to be good. Any help would be great.

P.S. Should I repost this in the PA systems thread? That thread seems awfully long.

[Aes820]

I think the Behringer would be an alright choise. Although you would be a sure bet with any of those above brands you mentioned.

One of those powered mixers which can be split for monitoring, or even bridged would be handy. In fact, i think all of them can.

I know that Behringer is a brand that can afford to keep their prices down because of their huge range and volume of products. Their reliablity is quite alright, I've used a fair amount of Behringer gear and have been quite happy with it.

[moaner]

yeah, gotta love behringer.

Tell me aes, if they're a german company, why are their american prices 5/8 of their british ones?

[rbflapjack]

It seems that Peavey is far and away the most expensive, but is it really worth it? For the same price as their 6 channel 2x200w, I can get a Yamaha or Behringer with 8 channels and 2x400w. The one thing the higher end Peavey has is what they call feedback ferret. It sounds great, but is it really that difficult to isolate the feedback freq's or does that feedback ferret really help that much. The Behringer has a feedback locator that lights up an led above the freq on the GEq so you can then adjust that band. That might be enough. Any thoughts?

[rbflapjack]

Sorry, forgot one more question. The Yamaha and Mackie only have 15v of phantom power while the others have 48v. Does that really matter? Do most condenser mics have to have the 48v or will the 15v work?

[Aes820]

Both 15v and 48v should be fine. And both should work.

That feedback locator on the Behringer would be useful while ringing out the room. A very handy feature, i say.
But you shouldn't have too much problems with feedback as long as you set up this PA suitably.

[ethermusic]

I just purchased the Behringer Europower 880s before Christmas.
It came in at $610 canadian and I've seen it posted on websites for about $390 US.

I checked out a bunch of powered amps and you can't beat the features on this baby.

It has 10 inputs (the last two are stereo, but if you plug in 2 DI boxes you can plug in 10 xlr connections.

It has 2x400W amps which you can run in Stereo (you need a separate amp speaker combo for monitors in this config) or Mains/monitors or bridged (to run a sub if you're using another power amp for FOH)

One really nice thing about this amp is the 2 separate effects channels so you can run (typically) reverb on eff1 and whatever other effects you want to use on Eff2. You won't find that on any other comperable amps.

The feedback detection (basically dimmed led's on the EQ, that brighten up when a signal gets hot) came in handy to isolate a bit of a touchy frequency in my first show with it. It also allows you to see where your signal is hot across the spectrum.

The footswitch plug for effects allows you to turn effects on and off with a footswitch, so you can talk to your audience without delay and reverb muddying up what you're saying.

The sound (as appraised by the bar owner) was much cleaner than my previous rig and there was almost no noise (as PA's go)

This unit is tiny to boot! it weighs much less than my previous PA amp that was half as powerful, and it's easy to carry with one hand even if you're a wimp like me.

Lastly...it's got lots of cool LEDs...even if people don't like your music, they can watch the light show.