• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

mackie m800 or behringer pmp6000?

morgansterne

morgansterne

Geek U.S.A.
Oct 25, 2011
2,075
1,691
Cleveland Ohio
#1
hello all,
I'm playing tomorrow with a band and we usually use the behringer pmp6000 powered mixer. It's labelled 300 watts @ 8 ohms. I have a mackie m800 power amp which is rated 175 watts @ 8 ohms.
The behringer is turned up high enough that the clip light on the main vocal channel is frequently lighting up and sometimes resulting in audible distortion. (yes, I know about gain staging) Although the behringer is supposedly more powerful, is it likely that using the mackie power amp will result in a cleaner sound just because it is higher quality? (for instance, the mackie has a low cut filter on each channel that actually works. the behringer's makes little audible difference.)

The reason I'm asking instead of just trying it out is that we'd have to buy a few new speaker cables since the mackie has different output jacks.

we have lower end 15" jbl's speakers plus one sub.
I'm sure having more/more efficient speakers would help as well, but it's not in the budget right now. We don't need more volume, just looking to get more power to clean up the sound.

ok, last question -- would it be better to run the two speakers in bridged mode, wired in parallel with each other? The ohms rating is not a problem for the mackie with this setup and you'd be theoretically getting 800 watts instead of 175+175.
thank you all

Morgan
 
#2
monitors? We have a pmp6000…it's okay, the guys in the band don't have lots of cash and we had to settle on that….

So, run it L/R, use the Mackie for the monitors (how many monitors?)

if no monitors, there's a 1/4 "mono" out that runs the subs (and the mono slider on the board controls that)…power that with the Mack…

you can also "main/mon" it, but your JBLs would have to be 8ohms and daisy them, then only 2 8ohm monitors out of the mon side, and Mackie the sub. but when you use this method you'll get half the power, plus if those JBLs are 8s you'll still not get all the power.

That's what I know…which ain't much I'm really new at this sound stuff, I never gave it any thought. And in my band, compared to them I'm like the Albert Einstein of live sound. They think I'm a genius…it's like being the smart kid in the dumb room.

With a powered board it has all those plates spinning…


grab a xls1000 for $225 somewhere. let the board run the mains, one power amp for the sub, one for the monitors, get your ohmage stuff straightened out and you should be okay.

Again, there are LOTS of sharp sound guys here…you'll get great advice here.

But let me say this about Berhinger…their stuff is better than it used to be…(better get a case)…but whoever writes their manuals is a complete moron. They're terrible, can't make heads or tails out of ****.
 
#3
stay far far away from the pmp6000, had one, never abused, used properly , one month over wnty it crapped one of the power sections and behringer would not do crap for me on it. The mackie while probably not much more reliable , at least their wnty dept you can work with
 
#4
Well, ours seems to be hanging in there even with those mopes messing around with it when I'm not around. Believe me, I'm no control freak but you should see some of the stuff they did with it. It finally got to the point where I had to say "go ahead and keep messing around with it, when you fry it DO NOT look to me for my share of any repair money". They've backed off.

I'm gonna knock on wood, and try to put together my own system. I'm getting pretty interested in this stuff.
 
#6
Bridging is good. Bridging is right. Bridging works. (Well, when you can find the right configurations.)

I think I agree with much of what's been suggested.

I've used the M800's bigger brothers -- M1200 (early model, discontinued) and the M1400's. Love 'em love 'em -- really gutsy amps. I'd be comfortable bridging that M800 and asking for plenty of power, for the sub.

The pmp6000's amp won't bridge into 4 ohms, which is what you'd need to drive the mains in parallel. Bridging only into 8 ohms is often an indication of a "less than really gutsy" amp, so maybe it's best to serve as monitors.

For the mains, get another modest-but-solid amp (personally, I have a thing for most Crown's and the old Mackies) that will run into 4 ohms bridged, and you'll probably have enough power to melt the main speakers. (So... ahem... don't do that. Respect the ratings.)
 
#7
thanks for the suggestions.
Our PMP6000 has been used for all our gigs for about three years with no maintenance problems. I won't speak to its sound quality but it's reliable for us.
Sorry I left monitors out of the equation. We do use a separate power amp for our two monitors (normally an old samson with one channel broken!). Yesterday we used the mackie in bridge mode and it was WAY more power than we needed for monitors. The monitor send fader was up only about halfway.
We did bring a sub, a single 15", and powered it off of a smaller PA head that's rated 800 watts (bridge mode). this is one part of our setup that isn't working well and I'd like to get a better, powered sub soon.
I did not notice the vocal clip light lighting up last night.
One possible idea is running the pmp6000 bridged into one main speaker and using the mackie bridged into the other. This would be a crazy amount of power and should allow us to keep the gain much lower on each channel. Just occurred to me on the way to the gig but I didn't have time to go buy an extra banana clip speaker cable so we could try it out.
It was a really great gig by the way with quite a few people staying for the whole time. We had people dancing on the first song, which is pretty unusual for us, and they were still there four hours later when we finished.

Morgan
 
#8
I think i could start a "my singers addicted to karoke" like series with my knuckleheads. My brother is now picking up words like "bridge" and "drivers" and using them all the time without knowing what the hell they mean. Driving me crazy. Good drummer and dinger tjough.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back