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Hello everybody...I just got back from the local music store...and here I am asking for more suggestions.  From the previous post that Lonman and mckyj57 had suggested...I've decided to get the Mackie DFX12 Mixer and the B-52 Matrix speakers with sub.  But my local store doesn't have the B-52 speakers and they Mixer....but they have the Mackie SRM450.

So I've decided to get the Mackie DFX12 mixer online at www.musiciansfriend.com and get the Mackie SRM450 speakers local.   Here are my questions:

1.  Does the Mackie SRM450 speakers works well with the Mackie DFX12 Mixer ?

2.  I've notice there's a Mackie SRM350 speakers and it's a little bit cheaper comparing to the Mackie SRM450 speakers ...I know when it's cheaper, its probably lacking something...so what does the Mackie SRM350 speakers lacks from the Mackie SRM450 speakers ??
 a) On musiciansfriends.com there's a Mackie SRM450 V2...  Looks like it's a new release of the Mackie SRM450....anybody knows if it's good...It's the same price !!!

3.  I am planning to get the Mackie SRM450 speakers.  So do I need a sub and amp for this??  My setup is currently in my living room and it's just an average size living room.  

4.  What kind of wires do I need to setup the mixer and the speakers??

5.  What does the Mackie DFX12 Mixer and the Mackie SRM450 speakers has for warranty?  Do I need to buy the extra 12 or 24 months extra warranty??  

Thanks!

The DFX12 and SRM 450s (or SRM350's) will work seemlessly and wonderfully together. With the 450s you would have a club quality setup at least as far as speakers and mixer go. The speakers come with power cables and xlr cables (to connect to your DFX12 mixer). The mixer also comes with a power cable.
The 450s are of course larger in size, heavier and about 205 watts more powerful than the 350s. They are biamped speakers, the 450s having a 300 watt lF amp and 100 watt HF amp while the 350s have a 165 watt lF Amp and 30watt HF amp.
The 350's would be sufficient enough for home party use, throw in a mackie powered sub and you would be rockin'.

No, you do not need an amp as the speakers are powered (self amped).

You do at minimum still need a player or use a laptop setup for your player, and of course you can go on from there (it's a disease you know! ) (some might even call it a money pit-but if you love it--what the heck!)

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

I experimented with the same set-up last year using the Italian made srm450's and the DFX12 and I found out that I needed a compressor (I'm a screamer) to avoid clipping. So, I bought a Behringer MDX2600 for $34 on ebay and  all three worked perfect.

It will work, but it won't have the bass of the B-52. Also, there are stand, power, and cabling issues you won't have with the Matrix 1000. The Mackie speakers are great, don't get me wrong, but I personally don't think they will serve you quite as well.

The 350 is a 10" speaker, and won't have the power or the bass of the 450.

Musicians Friend also sells the B52 package.  



Will work fine.



The 350's have a 10 inch woofer & 195 watts power, the 450's have a 12" woofer & 400 watts of power so the output will be effectively doubled.


Haven't heard of the new release yet, but looking at the specs it don't look a whole lot better - either way still a great speaker.



Chances are you won't need a sub at all, but the way you describe how much you like bass, you may not be happy & may want to consider a powered sub down the line.



For most powered speakers you will just use standard microphone cable as the mixer is sending a low level signal to the speaker, unlike a regular amp & passive speaker that would require a mic style cable to get to the amp from the mixer, than a heavy guage speaker cable
to get from the amp to the speaker itself.



It NEVER hurts to buy the additional warranty if you can.



No prob

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When you say Italian made, you mean built by RCF??? I know this company made some speakers for Mackie and just wondering if they play better than build by Mackie? I find the Mackie's way too loud in the mid, they drive me crazy!  I'm a huge fan of Electro-Voice but I'm told that the RCF have a similar sound???

I am thinking that the main thing you will need with the MAckie 450s and the mixers is going to be some really great mics.  I wouldn't spend a penny more on anything else until you get some superb mics with it.  Unless you live in 10,000 square foot house with a 30' ceiling in the great hall of a living room you are not going to get those speakers up past about 4 without breaking plaster off the walls.  Your nearest neighbor better be at least 100 meters from your wall too.  In facvt, if you have necver stood within 10 feet of the front of a SRM450 at reasonable volume you are in for a huge surprise in your living room.

Anyway, it's a great system and since you are going to have mucho power to spare anyway your main trouble is going to be feedback.  This is the main reason you need a really decent mic.  Get something with a real super-cardiod pattern so it wil tend to only pick up the sound from right in front of the mic.  Any cheap mic is going to feedback like crazy in a small room with big system.  Even a Shure 58 isn;t going to cut it, the Shure Beta 58A might work though as would the Sennheiser e945.  You need a super tight pattern to only pick up what is coming from the mouth right in front of this mic.  

As to bass you are going to have plenty with this setup I think as the volumes are going to be low, ( for a this kind of system), you can just cut the mids and highs and boost the bass to suit.  

This is a really nice system, just the way it comes is going to be great for what you are doing and I wouldn;t buy anything else but decent mics until you have tried it out thoroughly in your setting.  My guess is that as long as you aren't ptting more than 200 of your friends into your huge living room this is going to be more system than you will ever outgrow.

BSR

Only problem with super cardiod mics is the avg singer don't understand that they need to sing right into the mic itself, not off to the side, not down from your belly button, not held up a$$ end in the air with the ball pointing down, cupped as they are trying to be their favorite rapper & a tight pattern mic like those will only make things worse as far as trying to pick anyone up signal wise.  I've had my entire system set-up in my living room before (tri-amped 3600 watts turned up shy under halfway) with SM58's & never got feedback, but I did ring out the room first.

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IMHO the SRM450 is the more of a PITA for producing feedback in a small space than most other similar speaker systems, that was why I pretty much think the super-cardoid mics with a bit of instruction to the guests would work out better.  I like JBLs for exactly that reason, they seem to put out a less direct stream of sound, maybe a wider dispersion, that doesn't seem to be as tough to work with in a small space.  That said, outdoors or in a big or CROWDED room I like the Mackies better, way better and it's probably for the same reason.  They just sound better in the back of the room.  The SM58 may be fine really but if it isn't pointed right at the face of the singer it's going to have a bunch of trouble by picking up the early reflections and feedback looping.  For just about any of the cheaper mics, forget about it.

I'm kind of surprised folks don't like the Bose Stick and Brick for home and hobby use, it is really way more adaptable for small to medium spaces and has incredble sound, generally doesn't need additional monitors and as the newer L2 systems are getting out there are some used ones coming available.  I read that someone on here is using them for Shows but these make a great home system too, they just seem to work in more spaces than anything else I have seen.

BSR

Don't get me started on Bose sticks, I tried them in my club & quite frankly, they couldn't compete with what I have & had numerous complaints.  Now when I tried them as a monitor on stage (hence the original name PAS = Personal Amplification System) they worked AWESOME, however quite expensive for a moniotr system.
It doesn't matter how much instruction you give someone as far as holding the mic, the more they drink, the less they will listen!

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Yeah, I know what you mean about the Bose in a big noisy room Lonnie, I love them for small places though and if a band is using them the way they are intended, one per person, all behind the band, there are very few dead spots in the room.  They are really pricey for that though and for a big crowded room a trad PA is just way better.  Still, for a living room, just about any living room, they are really hard to beat!

I also will agree about the mics in a bar situation, and in a big room it's generally not a problem getting enough gain on a SM58 to let them work it the way they want to but in my experience home parties are the toughest to get big volume with no feedback.  I figure you really need at least 35 feet, (10 meters), of open space in front of a SRM 450 before it hits a wall that can reflect off of to get any kind of volume without undue hassles.  Most folks don;t have a living room that will work that way.  The original poster may though so perhaps it won;t be an issue, just saying what experience I have had.  I would probably go with a pair of Tapco "Thumps" instead of the SRM 450s for anything where I couldn't find the 10 meters and enough bodies to fill it up.  It goes back to moving a lot of air a little or moving a little air a lot.  The 15" speakers in the Thump will be able to get more percieved volume in a small space in my experience and save him some bucks too.  I play a small coffee house/ Book store that has this system and it works way better than the 350s they had before.  

In any case I don't think he can really go too far wrong with what he is getting, the Mackies retain so much of their value in the resale market that if they don't work he can swap them out pretty easily and not be out a huge amount of money.

Interesting stuff, the amplification for rooms of different sizes.  The real bottom line is that if a guy has the experience and the ear he can really make just about any system work in any room if he has the EQ to do it.  It's just going to be tougher for a newby and every little bit of help is going to make a difference.  

BSR

The mackie-dfx-12 is a nice mixer, i owned one , BUT it has no midrange eq on the vocal strips so i upgraded to a mackie-cfx which does have them, a little more money but it is worth it for the increased vocal clarity in a karaoke enviroment, I also own 2 mackie-srm-450s that i use on the floor for vocal monitors, great speakers but a little pricey at close to 700$ a piece. I have also heard the Tapco Thumps (designed by mackie) and they are a great sounding powered speaker with a 3 band eq on the back and are about half the cost of the srm-450.

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Man Must Know His Limitations -Clint Eastwood

You guys are great!!!...Thank you for all the input and comments.....After reading all the comments..now I have to re-think....

1.  Everybody here saids that the Mackie  SRM450 are great speakers..but you all mentioned of feedback because it's such a loud speaker....Now that makes me worry.  I wanted to get the  SRM450 because I don't want to worry about under-power when I needed the extra power... My living room is not big..just normal size house.. I am guessing from where I plan to put the speaker  and to where I sit is about 10 feet...give or take 2 feet.  So is the  SRM450 going to give me a lot off feedback?

2.  TOMMIE TUNES has posted that the DFX doesn't have the mid range...and the CFX does...But the price differences are almost double from the DFX to the CFX... So what's the different between the DFX and the CFX besides the controls for the vocal mid range?  


Thanks!!

I would go with the DFX and a pair of the Tapco Thumps, at 10 feet away it will still be WAY more volume than you really need but with the bigger 15" speakers you will be able to get enough bass without over-running the mids.  The "Thunps" are so named because they really deliver a nice bass response and they really do work great in a smaller room with under 100 people.  Although the adjustability of the DFX mixer is somewhat limited I have found that it is really set up to be a very musical EQ anyway.  It was designed to be easy to operate and get a good sound without a lot of adjustment.  I like the 9 band EQ on the CFX series mixers myself but I play the one place that already has the DFX and the Thumps and it works great in my opinion.  Good enough that I don;t see a need top bring my own stuff anyway.

BSR

Any speaker will give you feedback if you turn them up, also cheap mics will help cause feedback.  Mic & speaker placements are the biggest cause for feedback, if you get feedback, you change the speaker or mic position.



I suggested the DFX first because you are new to this kind of equipment, it is a great starter board & for home use is more than adequate.  
The CFX is more of a club board and a little more complex.  It has a slightly bigger eq (9 band vs a 5 band), channel strips eq's have swepepable mids control (this is where you can actually adjust not only how much midrange to boost/cut, but also the requency to boost/cut), the stereo channels have a 4 band (hi, hi-mid, lo-mid, lo), the effects are a little more controllable but they are essentially the same effect.  It has 2 monitor sends for stage, it has an extra send/return loop for an external effect.  The DFX has 4 XLR mic inputs & 4 stereo inputs.  The CFX has 8 XLR mic inputs & 2 stereo inputs.

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Oh no, not the Bose Stick and Brick! If you want one of these systems, I have a bridge I'll sell you almost as cheap  :D

I don't know what you mean by RCF. All I know is that in the back of my 450's it says "Made in Italy".

These are very good speakers. You won't have any trouble with small or larger rooms with these. You can turn them down, and they will sound just fine in your living room. The SRM350's are excellent sounding as well, but as other's have said, less power and smaller speakers. They are more compact and lighter, for moving around, if that's important.

Overall, your selection is one of the better one's I've seen on here, for someone just starting out. These components will serve you well for many years, and you won't go through the painful and costly chain of upgrading a number of times until your satisfied (I did that).

You should purchase good quality microphones as others have said. The Mackies, are much better at feedback, and I don't think you'll have a problem wth the way you intend to use them, with good quality microphones. It's not just the feedback issue that warrants good mics, the range and sound quality is also an important part of it. Cheaper mics will distort and many have a hollow sound quality. Personally, I wouldn't be afraid of an Shure SM58, or a good quality wireless set. I like Audio Technica mics as well.

450's are fantastic.
DFX has no headroom. = FEEDBACK.
I tried it cos it had all the things I wanted.
It is however worth every penny.
Go VLZ