Guitar Gear Forum

My singer is looking to get a new P.A. I'm no expert on that chit, but I'm trying to be of assistance, so he doesn't buy something stupid and impractical.

So, he just asked if there is any advantage to buying a mixer and a power amp separately instead of just a powered mixer. Any thoughts?

For reference, he's been looking at getting a Yamaha EMX512SC powered mixer.

In my last cover band, we had a powered Yammy mixer that ran the monitor wedges and then we ran line-outs to our powered JBL PRX setup. Worked pretty good.

In my opinion separate components are better if you have an issue or breakdown. I don’t like powered speakers, too easy to introduce ground loops using power from all over a room and the speaker enclosure is a compromise to house the amp.
Combined mixer amps are too heavy to lug around and are impossible to upgrade. Get a cool mixer and a cheap amp, then get a better amp down the line. That kind of thing

Seperate components in case of failure.

When I was looking to buy PA gear (I never did but that's another story) I was pretty much sold on the JBL Eon powered speakers. Crown power, NEO speakers, super lightweight and they sounded great. Was gonna run it with a Mackie board with built in FX.

Never thought about the potential ground loop problem though. Hmmm...

I would go either separate amps or powered speakers. Not powered mixer.

powered monitors (if needed), and a power amp in a rack, powering the main mid/high range speakers. as everyone has said already, breakages are always happening, better it be a 5 minute power amp swap then a cancellation.