Cheap Pa System

I have come to the conclusion that I really need a pa system for my music performances. I really don’t have the money for one right now so I was thinking of finding some random cheap crappy amplifier at a good will store and the same for some speakers. My question is would this be a viable solution. Would the sound quality be too crappy. I really only need this for small venues like coffee shops and house parties.

Something second hand and active would be a good way of starting. Mackie SRM450 are pretty standard and used by a lot of people as monitors even after upgrading from a smaller system but even these may be slightly above your budget. (Smaller brother SRM350 as well may be viable.)

What is your top available budget?

I kinda have the opposite problem. I have a rather huge PA from the 70s, after my father, consisting of 2 big JBL bass speakers, 2 mid-range speakers, and two top speakers (HORNS!), and a big rack with amplifier and EQ. Problem is, it’s all stashed in a storage room in city far away from where I live now, and i just don’t have room for it here :angry:

However, about brands, I have some experience with the Turbosound loadspeakers (various sizes). They’re good value for money, after what i know, and widely used, so maybe you’ll find a cheap/used pair on eBay

You could always hop on eBay and look for two active wedges, around 200-300w. China (for better or worse) has been producing this stuff extremely cheaply for years now and there’s countless re-sellers on eBay all too willing to flog this stuff off at bargain prices.

Oh and about wattage ratings: 300w ‘peak’ is not as loud/powerful as 300w ‘RMS’. Check the specs.

What budget? I have money?..No really I don’t want to spend more than two hundred dollars.

You could try asking here if anybody has any secondhand actives they have upgraded from in your area. Although it may seem a little UK centric there are members from all over the world and they may be able to point you towards somewhere better for the US if not.

http://forum.speakerplans.com/

But for that price you are going to be pushing it to get a reasonable amp to power passive speakers so think cheap actives is going to have to be the way to go.

Maybe something like these cheap, Chinese knock-off from Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-PA-DJ-Band-Karaoke-Powered-Active-Speaker-PP802A1_W0QQitemZ330420221424QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cee9475f0

Really need to get some decent pictures of my rig ;)


:)

Cool, I’ll try that site, but yeah you might be right it might be too UK centric, cause though I live in the US, I live in cesspool georgia, you know the South, just picture jim crow laws and lynchings, yay, but yeah I’ll definately check out some cheap actives, honestly I’ve already come to the conclusion that whatever I get is going to sound like shit, but it’ll be ok, just something to do little shows at the local coffee joints and metal venues and for house parties

Oh and I recently stumbled onto the Gainclone chipamp things and was considering just building my own amp for the cheap, any of yous guys do that?

Speakerplans Forum does have posters from all around the world as it is one of the main forums for DIY audio enthusiasts as well as pro audio so you may get lucky. Started by the guy who set-up Void Audio, which is a British company, so UK may be slightly dominant. At the least they might be able to help with what of the Chinese knockoffs are actually worth looking at.

+1 for speakerplans.com