Scott,

I’ve been using EV’s for many years now. I currently own the S-100’s, S-200’s (long-throw) with sub-woofers, SX-300’s, and the SC-80-BP speakers for “side-fill.”

They are excellent sounding speakers, but I’m finding although they have good crystal-clear coverage, they don’t give me any depth of sound. I only use them for smaller rooms.

Lately I’ve been listening to the Mackie 450’s. Although they sound a bit muddy next to EV’s I admire the power they (the Mackie’s) put out for dancing. I have to set up two S-200’s and two S-300’s to match what Mackie puts out in just two speakers.

One thing that DID help a lot was my amp head. I went into the music store to buy a new QSC high-power rack mount amp and was all set to plop my money down when I saw an aberration sitting on the shelf. A DYNACORD POWERMATE 1000 MIXER/AMPLIFIER. I tried it and was blown away by what it did for those EV’s…woke them right up. And the amp is rated at only 500 W.

The amp weighs quite a bit (appx 50 lbs.) but I won’t go out the door without it now. I’m eventually going to listen to the 450’s Version 2 that just came out and consider buying those if they’ve managed to clear out that muddiness.

Lucky