Opinion on local PA system for sale
 

Found an ad on CL for a PA System for $650:

Carvin RX1200 12 channel mixer
(2) Kustom KSE215 speakers
QSC RMX850 power amp

I'm a real noob when it comes to PA equipment. The mixer is passive, as are the speakers, hence the need for a power amp. The speakers state 4ohm 350W RMS, and I think them amp puts out 430W at 2ohms in stereo mode. Does everything jive here? I'm thinking this is plenty of ooomph for club gigs and smaller outdoor stuff.

Since we're a septet, it might be a tight squeeze on the mixer. (3-4 vox, sax, 2 percussion, kick drum, DI bass, guitar, L-R keys = 12) That leaves nothing if we want to overhead the drums, although we may be able to sub that off a 2nd smaller mixer. Again - noob (and a little on the poor side of budget).

Thanks in advance.

Nope. You'll be buying something with too many limitations (feature and performance-wise) from the git-go. What's your budget? You can do much better, IMO, buying component-by-component in a manner which more closely reflects your long-term needs.

Riis

The speakers are junk. The mixer is OK but limited in channels and the amp is heavy at 35 pounds although they are reliable. I would pass.

The price is a little dear for that equipment. You can probably do better like Zooberwerx said by finding the gear piece by piece.

The mixer is really worth about$125, the speakers are worth about $125 each and the QSC amp is worth about $150 all In good shape. So that would make this rig worth about $500-525. While I agree with others that the Kustoms are nothing to get excited about, you might keep your eye out for some older JBL MR series boxes, which you should at some point find a pair of say MR825 boxes for $300 for the pair. The Carvin mixer is marginally better than a Behringer so lots you can find in a 16 channel mixer in the under $200 range. Since the new QSC GX series amps have come out and carry a sub $200 dealer cost for the GX-3, you an actually buy a brand new QSC for under $300. The good news here is that it makes the RMX series amps almost worthless in resale. You should stat seeing some of the Crown XLS and QSC RMX and USA amps going for closer to $100 a pop in the very near future. A used amp in perfect condition is only worth basically 10% off dealer cost. So if a QSC GX-3 dealers out at say $190,then used, one should go for bout $150-170 used. So what does that make a 5 or 10 y.o. RMX worth? Less than the GX would be the right answer.

I'm with the other guys, I'd pass on this package. But if you toss the guy an offer of say $400, it would make a decent rehearsal PA. And not be way out of line price wise. But I'm rally just not a few of the generic two way boxes you get from people like Kustoms and Yamaha...Crate....etc.

Thanks for the help everyone. Since it hasn't been selling, I figured it was priced a little rich. Plus they had the mixer listed separately for $125 a couple of weeks ago, so after a little research, I found that the amp & speakers would be selling for the price of new at that $650 price minus $125. As was mentioned, since it's been up a while, I was thinking of offering $450 or so, but based on your input, I may go with another option: a former band mate is selling his 2yo pristine A&H 16:2 for $550 (complete with BNC light & road case with custom angled side plates to make it fit by yours truly).

Yeah buddy! That AH board while small, will give you Pro results. The mic preamps are drastically better, the EQ's are far more responsive as well. It also gives you six aux sends so you can have separate monitor mixes, and it also does have internal fx engine with some ok sounding reverbs. That would be a great direction to head in. You PA is only as good as its weakest link, and an AH Mix Wiz is an excellent first building block.

Kustom speakers=junk

Mix wizard is a very good mixer.

^
This

Unless they put new drivers in the those Kustoms, the power rating is incorrect. They handle more like 150w and the stock speakers don't have much xmax. Having said this, I have 2 of them along with an entire Kustom PA I bought off craigslist many years ago for cheap. Have used it many times and it has worked very well and was loud enough for my needs. The powered mixer has just now (after 5 years) lost one of the amp channels.

Anyway.......save your money. Check out some Carvin setups for around the same money.

+1 more on the mixwiz

skip any 2x15 PA boxes, it's just a bad idea.

Yeah, I think I'm going to call him and take him up on the A&H MixWiz 16:2. Thanks all.

Thought I'd chime in again. Just wanted to clarify I have the single 15" cabs. Not the dual 15" cabs. Hence the power rating difference. My bad. I'd never buy or use dual 15" cabs.