Portable PA advice

[Metaltastic]

Ok, so I'm gonna be playing an outdoor "show" of sorts at my company picnic Tuesday the 29th - not the most prestigious gig, but the topic of my guitar abilities has come up at lunch breaks, and everyone is encouraging me to play a little somethin-somethin. So I'm planning on just bringing my guitar, Podxt, and ipod, and plugging the latter two into...something. And this is where you guys come in.

Now although this picnic thing is what's brought getting a small PA to mind, it's been on my "things to buy" list for awhile (the picnic just bumped it up in priority), specifically for band practices. Now I know the cheaper, more powerful, more versatile option would just be to get a pair of powered PA speakers (I want two) and either use their built-in mini-mixers or just get a cheap unpowered mixer, but I would like some portability, and that's what leads me to look at this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Escort/

The most important things are:

1) Will it have enough power and headroom (75W per channel) for a pair of vocalists & mono backing keyboard tracks to be heard cleanly over a standard roaring metal band (two guitarists and a bass, both playing at volumes loud enough to be heard over a full drumset)

2) Is there a SIGNIFICANTLY (like, at least $200) cheaper option that will provide as good/better sound quality?

Thanks guys!

 

[Metal Overload]

no Dude,
That thinks is ridicously overpriced and let me tell you is a piece of shit. it only works for voice, it has so little volume and sound shitty, a friend of mine has one and it´s not good.
you´ll sound much better with a powered Speaker, and a small behringer mixer.

 

[Metaltastic]

Thanks man, I appreciate the heads-up! I guess I'll suck it up and go the powered speakers/mixer route, though the portability of the Peavey was pretty cool. Any recommendations for mixers? I'd love something rackmounted like this, except not Behringer

 

[Metal Overload]

Hehe, yeah, i said behringer because is cheap, but in fact it sounds good, never tried one of those rackmountable through.

 

[Sloan]

Check out those Mackie powered speakers. You can go super minimal and just plug a mic straight into them for an easy as shit small vocal pa.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Mackie-SRM350-2Way-Active-PA-Speaker?sku=605268

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, I was looking at those actually, they seem like good basic speakers that'd do the job perfectly - plus, I remembered that I have a semi-old mixer that my Dad got when my parents' church upgraded their PA (still in great condition though, I think!). Thanks dude!

 

[Metaltastic]

Ok, so I've narrowed it down to two choices: the Carvin LM12A or the Yamaha MSR250. They're both are under $500, and both have 3 separate inputs (FUCKING AWESOME, no need for a separate mixer!), but while the Carvin has a 12" speaker and 300 watts, the Yamaha only has a 10" speaker, but a still ballsy 250 watts, and more importantly, is bi-amplified, and just seems higher quality. Thus, I'm leaning towards the Yamaha, and I'm sure I can get sweetwater to come down on the price of it, whereas Carvin strike me as a bunch of douches from my few inquisitive phone calls to them, so really the only advantage the Carvin has is the 12" speaker and an extra 50 watts - think it's worth it?

EDIT: Actually, I see the Carvin is bi-amplified, 300W low/50W high. Hmm...

 

[Sloan]

I really like Yamaha stuff.