Buying my first p.a. system!

[Harrison's Discos]

(i know what some of you may be thinking >>>>:eek: :eek: :eek: Hi guys, as you will probably know, the title of this thread might come as a shock to some as i am going to buy my first p.a. system with the funds being supported from my dad! :D

We are basically going to have a party comming up in july (summertime yeay!:) ) and we want to purchase a disco p.a. system! :Hi there: :evelgrin: sooo....... i am on the hunt for a bargain :lol:

Now we are thinking of going 'straight to maplins' and seing what cheapest p.a. speaker system they have got to offer as it is going to be in our back garden so we dont want to annoy our neighbors too much :D

We will send notices prior to the event to let people know of the noise level that will be produced. People have had a few partys up our street once or twice so hopefully they will not mind :luck: and the street my dad lives in is quiet usually so its not like people are fed up with noise :devil: :whome:

[spin mobile disco]

Noooooo don't buy p.a from maplins, tried this a while ago and they are overpriced for what they sell.
You can get a much better price and quaility buying on line. Peavey st15 speakers for example are only £150 or £170 a pair with stands and cables. You can even buy amplifiers from thomann that are much better and cheaper than the ones in maplins. Please please shop around before jumping in the deepend and regretting it later.
Heres some links to some cheap P.A suppliers

http://www.stagebeat.co.uk/P/4344/ for the speakers stands cables etc.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/power_amplifiers.html for cheap amps, own brand im told are very good.

[Vibrant Sounds]

I agree go with the Thomann option, although I would go straight to powered speakers if you have the budget, either of these PA202A (http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa202a.htm) 250watt RMS with 2 amplifiers built into each cabinet at £125 each or the more powerful PA302A (http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa302a_biamped_fullrangebox.htm) 400watt RMS with 2 amplifiers in each cabinet for £165 each. I had a pair of these and they are great speakers for the money.

Speaker Stands (http://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_bs2011.htm)are about £15 each.

All Thomann stuff comes with a 3 year warranty as standard so you have some piece of mind.

If you buy a pair of non-powered speakers remember to allow for an amplifier, and a flightcase for the amp., You will also have no backup going down this route. If you buy powered speakers, if one goes down, you still have the other.

If you bought the suggested Peavy Speakers above and an amplifier to suit (http://www.thomann.de/gb/tamp_ta600_endstufe.htm)and 2U case £40, you would be well over the cost of a pair of PA202As and a pair of stands with only 60% of the power available.

The Peaveys are only 150Watt RMS against the 250watt RMS of the PA202As.

A Pair of bi-amped PA202As and a pair of stands will cost you about £280 all you need then is to add a couple of leads from your mixer and you are good to go, with a modicum of built in backup.

[spin mobile disco]

No peaveys are currently 175rms stagebeat havent updated there specs yet, also the peaveys are 15inch bass drivers that outperform in the low range compared to 12" drivers. I have mackie s300z's and the peaveys still out bass them considerably.

[Shaun]

We will send notices prior to the event to let people know of the noise level that will be produced. People have had a few partys up our street once or twice so hopefully they will not mind :luck: and the street my dad lives in is quiet usually so its not like people are fed up with noise :devil: :whome:

Why not invite your neighbours, then you wont have to worry about complaints. ;)

[Dragonfly]

Why not invite your neighbours, then you wont have to worry about complaints. ;)

always used to do that as mates dad was the local copper ...... when the neighbours phoned and told us to turn it down or theyd call the police we just said " theyre already here would you like a word?"

on the subject of p.a. this thread has got me thinking is this a viable route to go down ? Ive been really preoccupied with discos upto now and getting very little work midweek in honesty except summer weddings.

So my thought today was P.A hire to places like hotels and companys who run courses and conferences during the week? what are the pit falls? does anyone do this? have I just got far too much free time on my hands and should stop thinking altogether?

All these questions and more answered next week same dragon place same dragon channel .......

would appreciate any comments.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Hey Dragon, a few years ago, the company that I worked for used to do that and we would go out, set up speakers on stands, a mixer under the table and a radio mic. It was easy work and we had about 3 a week. I remembered that when I first started out which is why I purchased the actives in the first place. It turned out (and this is quite wide spread as far as I know), most places have their own now.

I did enquire at the hotel where I have a contract. They said that they used a company which charged them £90 a day. I said I would do it for £75 and as I lived over the road (still do), I could do stuff at very short notice. As I said, in the end they got their own stuff. It's a good idea though.

The other option available is to contact schools etc for outside stuff for fetes, sports days etc...

[Dragonfly]

Thanks for that reply mate interesting stuff the figure you mentioned was almost exactly what I had in mind was thinking £80.

the schools thing sounds a promising idea as well may give it a whirl those speakers at thomann at 165 quid each made me think.

[TonyB]

I've got a mixer amp, couple of speakers and cheap mic's that I let schools use, mainly fetes, but they wouldn't want to pay anything near £80, more like £40 hence why I just use old gear. Even have some of the classic orange lawnmower speaker leads which are better for outdoors. You can get some free advertising out of it though.

Schools round here stopped doing sports days. Something with not doing anything competitive anymore.

[DMX Will]

Schools round here stopped doing sports days. Something with not doing anything competitive anymore.

Maybe they decided that taking away the vending machine's was enough, so they don't have to put effort into arranging sports so much!

School Sports Days can be quite a pain though. At our school we have 3 areas that all need seperate sound systems, and the main field one is 200m from the nearest power socket, and over the 400m running track. Setup starts at 7am every year for a 9am start.

[DMX Will]

I agree go with the Thomann option, although I would go straight to powered speakers if you have the budget, either of these PA202A (http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa202a.htm) 250watt RMS with 2 amplifiers built into each cabinet at £125 each or the more powerful PA302A (http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa302a_biamped_fullrangebox.htm) 400watt RMS with 2 amplifiers in each cabinet for £165 each. I had a pair of these and they are great speakers for the money.

Is the price per pair or per cab....it doesn't say per pair....however it doesn't say per cab!

Cheers.

[Vibrant Sounds]

:whistle:
Is the price per pair or per cab....it doesn't say per pair....however it doesn't say per cab!

Cheers.

It does say 'each' if you read my post again:whistle:

[DMX Will]

:whistle:

It does say 'each' if you read my post again:whistle:

I meant the Thomann site :) But cheers :)

[Harrison's Discos]

yet again my dedication to this site fails misurably but THANKS to everyone for suggesting the ideas. I keep trying to talk about it to my dad but he is waiting for me to come round and discuss it with him in person :confused:

[Arnold_disco]

Noooooo don't buy p.a from maplins, tried this a while ago and they are overpriced for what they sell.

I have used pa systems from maplins for along time and never had a problem.

[spin mobile disco]

Not saying they have a problem Arnold, just that they are over priced and underpowered compared to makes like peavey, mackie, etc

[Harrison's Discos]

great news guys!! :lol:

We are going to bet a gemini p.a. system from a catalogue and its going to be LOUD!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D