We Caught On Fire!

Our Carvin RX800 recently caught fire. We like its compact versatility, but its a bit under-powered for our needs.

As a working class band, ie. a band that plays 1-4 times a month and has weekly rehearsals, a compact powered mixer set-up is ideal for us. It fits perfectly into our small rehearsal space, and it’s portable and quick to set up when we need to provide our own sound at corporate parties, weddings, etc.. We’ve had a Carvin RX800 for a good number of years. Despite it being a bit under-powered, it served us well until it recently caught fire for what I can only assume is some sort of internal electrical problem.

Carvin powered mixers are very unique. The RX800 and RX1200 both have four 300 watt amplifiers, which allows you to run stereo mains and two separate monitor mixes. No other power mixer on the market has this versatility. It comes in very handy for a band with two lead vocalists. The problem with this unit is its low power. You only get 300 watts per channel if your speakers impedance is 4 ohms. Our speakers have an 8 ohm load, which means they only get 150 watts each. This results in less than ideal sound quality.

We’ve toyed with the idea of getting something more powerful. Now that we’re in this situation, this is the time for us to try something new if we so decide. We’re currently using a vintage Peavy powered mixing console at rehearsals. It is extremely clean and sounds much better than our Carvin amp, but the cost of repair is much more reasonable than purchasing a new powered mixer. The Peavy powered mixer is way too unwieldily to take anywhere.

Repairing our Carvin unit would cost $400. Purchasing a new powered mixer would run upwards of $600. Do we want to sacrifice stereo mains, and the ability to run multiple monitor mixes for better overall sound for an additional $200? This is our dilemma.

If you have any thoughts on the subject, shoot us an email. We’d love an outside opinion. If you are a maker of powered mixers, we’d really love to talk to you about ways you could improve your products.