From benjamin.kuris@hp.com Tue Apr 27 12:01:48 2004
Subject:Re: At the risk of starting a range war.........

Mike,

You left out another option (and the one I have settled on after a
progression of gear):

Build yourself a small and flexible PA w/o powered monitors.
I use:
$125 (ebay) Stewart Audio PA-100b (180W bridged Mono, 1/2 rack)
$60 (new) Behringer Mixer (fits perfectly on top of the PA-100b)
$120 (lightly used) Yamaha SM12 cab ($140 new right now)

You will save at least $100 vs. buying an active speaker and you can
replace components as you see fit or mix and match per venue. I have
all my cables wrapped so it only takes a second to plug it all in-- 1
power plug, 1 speaker cable and I'm done. I travel with it in an
alluminum suitcase which also contains my power strip, speakeasy
classic, laptop (for B4), and emergency tool kit...

I like the sound much better then my previous rig which cost twice as
much: Barbetta Sona 31C x 2. Having a real mixer is much more
flexible and allows you to optimize your gain staging (if you care
about hiss). I've never had to go past 12:00 on the mixer to keep up
w/my rock band-- I'm barely lighting up the monitor LEDs on the
mixer. I go out to house sound w/the Control room out and since I'm
in control of the EQ/balance, I feel like there is a better chance of
getting the mix the way I want it when I tack control of that submix.

Otherwise, I did like the sound of my bassist's carvin 600W rack amp
and I think the new keyboard amp uses the same power stage. I opened
it up and it was really clean inside. Toroidal power supply and
everything was well dressed. I have to recommend against Barbetta
as I had a poor customer experience with them and find the build
quality/design problematic (bad heat mgmt, epoxy potted controls that
aren't serviceable, low quality tweeter).

-Ben