"I used two Barbetta Sona 32s for about three years. They lack the clarity that I like. My Mackie SRM 450s surpassed them in volume and clarity. I have the little Barbetta Sona 31 on loan with me this month and it's clarity is disapointing."

While I have not used the Sona 31, the 32-Cs have incredible clarity. I listened to more than a dozen systems, including the Mackie 450s, before making the decision to buy the Sona 32-Cs. All sounded good to excellent, even when used at large venues, but the Barbetta's, IMO, sounded best. They were crisp, clean, distortion free and filled a huge VFW fall with incredible sounds,

The one thing I discovered with the mackies was they had a thermal cut-out problem, especially when used outdoors during the summer and played at higher levels. The heat-sink on the back became so hot you could not touch it without getting burned. Others on this forum have also reported similar problems using the Mackie 450s indoors when the unit was placed on its side. I don't know if Mackie has corrected this problem, but I would have hoped they would have addressed it by now.

On the other hand, Barbetta's 32-Cs are fan cooled with a 120mm, PM computer fan that is so quiet that it's almost impossible to hear it running. This was a big improvement over the fans on my Peavey PA amp heads, which were somewhat noisy.

Good luck on whatever you eventually go with. When you do make your final selection, post some MP3s.

Gary