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[Steve Moland]

Looking for alternative to the older Mackie 406M and 808M mixer amps which work great for us at 2 ohm loads per channel.

I work with a group on running road race announcers where we may need 2 to 4 setups of 4 8 ohm speakers per channel (IE 2 ohm load without the amps tripping out and resetting.)

The Mackies work perfect for us, we just can't find enough of them on the used market.

We don't normally drive them hard but we do need lots of speakers spread out over distances.  Power amps front ended with line mixers are just too many power supplies and patch cables and often looks like a hack.

We often have to move or take down a setup after it's used so that it won't get stolen while we move on to the other setups. IE we're only at the start for 15 minutes but at the finish for hours and post event may even be in another location.

Steve Moland

[Scott Wagner]

Looking for alternative to the older Mackie 406M and 808M mixer amps which work great for us at 2 ohm loads per channel.

I work with a group on running road race announcers where we may need 2 to 4 setups of 4 8 ohm speakers per channel (IE 2 ohm load without the amps tripping out and resetting.)

The Mackies work perfect for us, we just can't find enough of them on the used market.

We don't normally drive them hard but we do need lots of speakers spread out over distances.  Power amps front ended with line mixers are just too many power supplies and patch cables and often looks like a hack.

We often have to move or take down a setup after it's used so that it won't get stolen while we move on to the other setups. IE we're only at the start for 15 minutes but at the finish for hours and post event may even be in another location.

Steve Moland

It's not exactly what you're asking, but this is a perfect situation for powered speakers.  You can run balanced cable for miles without any damping factor or impedance issues.  Also, there are LOTS of powered speakers available for cheap that will work fine for speech reinforcement.

Scott Wagner
Big Nickel Audio

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Looking for alternative to the older Mackie 406M and 808M mixer amps which work great for us at 2 ohm loads per channel.

I work with a group on running road race announcers where we may need 2 to 4 setups of 4 8 ohm speakers per channel (IE 2 ohm load without the amps tripping out and resetting.)

The Mackies work perfect for us, we just can't find enough of them on the used market.

We don't normally drive them hard but we do need lots of speakers spread out over distances.  Power amps front ended with line mixers are just too many power supplies and patch cables and often looks like a hack.

We often have to move or take down a setup after it's used so that it won't get stolen while we move on to the other setups. IE we're only at the start for 15 minutes but at the finish for hours and post event may even be in another location.

Steve Moland

Steve....

Have you thought of switching over to a 70v system?  Quicker setup, much more forgiving technically and expandable if you need to run more than 8 speakers.  Otherwise there's always "the Google":

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=2+Ohm+powered+mixers&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=19a59778de2c65e2&biw=1280&bih=685

   

[Steve Moland]

Looking for alternative to the older Mackie 406M and 808M mixer amps which work great for us at 2 ohm loads per channel.

I work with a group on running road race announcers where we may need 2 to 4 setups of 4 8 ohm speakers per channel (IE 2 ohm load without the amps tripping out and resetting.)

The Mackies work perfect for us, we just can't find enough of them on the used market.

We don't normally drive them hard but we do need lots of speakers spread out over distances.  Power amps front ended with line mixers are just too many power supplies and patch cables and often looks like a hack.

We often have to move or take down a setup after it's used so that it won't get stolen while we move on to the other setups. IE we're only at the start for 15 minutes but at the finish for hours and post event may even be in another location.

Steve Moland

It's not exactly what you're asking, but this is a perfect situation for powered speakers.  You can run balanced cable for miles without any damping factor or impedance issues.  Also, there are LOTS of powered speakers available for cheap that will work fine for speech reinforcement.

Scott Wagner
Big Nickel Audio

I should mention that we almost always outdoors, in parks, trails, parking lots, beaches for open ocean or pond swim start for Triathlons.

We also have almost constant music so we need a bit more than just speech.

In ideal conditions powered speakers would be a solution. I've got a pair of older Mackie 450s that I love for certain venues but I'm getting a bit old to handle them.

However, 110 volt power availability is very often an issue and we can run off small Honda 1000 or 2000 generators for mixer amps.

Running road races are almost never cancelled for bad weather and often the speaker stands are standing in puddles. We use mostly Peavey PR15 and PR12 speakers which seem to take whatever nature tosses their way. Power speakers and 110v and extentions cords would be dangerous. The combo sound line and power cables would solve the extension cord issue but they are far from cheap.

There is also a regular wind issue. Not only are powered speakers heavier to place and remove but they hit the ground much harder than a passive speaker when they go over.

We try to minimize the possibility of tipping over but sometimes the speakers are out away from people and there just aren't enough sandbags to hold the bases down.

[duane massey]

Carvin (I know, I know...) makes a powered mixer with 4 amps onboard. Not certain about 2 ohm, but you could run 2 spkrs per channel and still use 8 spkrs.

Have you considered maybe setting up a series/parallel interface? (or two..).

[John Roberts {JR}]

Most powered mixers designed for powered mixer customers will drive a dead short but won't make full power, or play loud for long.

I don't know if they still make them but Peavey used to have an auto-match transformer that you could use backwards to step down the amp output voltage. This way you could parallel even more speakers before melting anything... Of course if you are covering enough distance wire losses will suggest the merit of 70V,,, a powered mixer with step up transformer will get that done...

I vaguely recall some old Peavey powered heads with 70V transformers inside, but i don't know if these are still around.

JR.   

[Adam Sykes]

Looking for alternative to the older Mackie 406M and 808M mixer amps which work great for us at 2 ohm loads per channel.

I work with a group on running road race announcers where we may need 2 to 4 setups of 4 8 ohm speakers per channel (IE 2 ohm load without the amps tripping out and resetting.)

The Mackies work perfect for us, we just can't find enough of them on the used market.

We don't normally drive them hard but we do need lots of speakers spread out over distances.  Power amps front ended with line mixers are just too many power supplies and patch cables and often looks like a hack.

We often have to move or take down a setup after it's used so that it won't get stolen while we move on to the other setups. IE we're only at the start for 15 minutes but at the finish for hours and post event may even be in another location.

Steve Moland

Hi Steve,

I believe we've met before.  I'm the guy with the orange crowd control fence out of Boston.  I think we both know Bill Burnett.

Anyway, you could always move to a small mixer and power amp set up in a small rack.  I'm sure your options would be better if you looked for a separate power amp.  It could also be kind of risky running a powered mixer with such a low load.  Regardless, Dicks google search showed that Yorkville makes a small powered mixer that will run with 2ohm loads.  Looks like it would run about $750. http://www.yorkville.com/products.asp?type=31&cat=13&id=266

take care,
Adam Sykes

[Geoff Doane]

I'm surprised JR didn't mention it, but the old Peavey XR600B (and later variations) was rated at 2 ohms.  They may have only had 200 or 300 watts, but they were pretty hard to kill, as I recall.

GTD

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