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Mackie SRM450V2 12" Powered PA Cabinet (Single) Review

Distortion at high volume

"I bought two of these v2's when one of my older (manufacture in Italy)450's stopped working after 7 years. I took them home and compared side by side with my older working srm450. The first V2 speaker I tried was much quieter and lacked the hard hitting punchy mid/low end I was used to from my older 450. It also distorted even at low volumes. Thank god for the 30 day return policy. I was about to pack them up and return them when I decided to try the other v2 just in case after I heard the Mackie quality control has been suffering since sending all manufacturing to China. And to my surprise, this V2 came alive and gave me the good old punchy mackie sound that matched my older 450. I ran a test, cutting mids, lows and highs and swung the sound from v2 to 450. The v2 had a slightly different, maybe more electronic sound through the mids and lows but sounded very good. The highs were comperable, but the v2 seemed to "scream" a little bit more. The clarity was good, but was a little overbearing and some EQ my be necessary. Overall though I was happy with the non-lemon V2 until I played my 1st gig...When I pushed the V2 at higher volumes it distorted very noticably with all types of music and various EQ settings. So much for the beautiful studio quality sound when you need it most...Conclusion: Very light and portable and sounds great at low volume. But if you intend to use it as it was designed, for larger than studio or small house parties, I would keep looking.. I love the Mackie sound and may look at picking up some older 450's but the sudden closing of the factory in China and the 4-8 month lag on parts while they try to open another factory is more than troubling. [...]"