Mac 300...

Josh512

Member
Hello! I've been on CB a while but never created an account. My Friend is selling Two Mac 300s and a dual road case for $360.00 Is this a good deal or a trap, I would use these lights for EDM and Rock songs, Thanks!
 
Don't bother. They're old, long discontinued, and if you have to buy your own clamps or replace any sensors, you'll have more money invested in those than if you just went out and bought some cheap LED movers. The LED's will even be half the weight, half the size, will rotate on their motors faster, will be brighter, and won't be as susceptible to DMX timing errors.

The Mac 300's aren't great as dissipating heat and unless those two have been maintained well, there's a good chance the sensors are cooked and will start giving you errors. Not impossible to overcome, but you need to be comfortable with a soldering iron and a basic understanding of electronic circuits.

Most importantly, 300's just aren't very bright. And for EDM, I don't think you can get the strobe or color wheel mechanisms to activate nearly as fast as you would want them to.
 
Don't bother. They're old, long discontinued, and if you have to buy your own clamps or replace any sensors, you'll have more money invested in those than if you just went out and bought some cheap LED movers. The LED's will even be half the weight, half the size, will rotate on their motors faster, will be brighter, and won't be as susceptible to DMX timing errors.

The Mac 300's aren't great as dissipating heat and unless those two have been maintained well, there's a good chance the sensors are cooked and will start giving you errors. Not impossible to overcome, but you need to be comfortable with a soldering iron and a basic understanding of electronic circuits.

Most importantly, 300's just aren't very bright. And for EDM, I don't think you can get the strobe or color wheel mechanisms to activate nearly as fast as you would want them to.


What led movers should I get? I've used many movers but they are easy $7,000 a pop. What good movers should I get that's near $360 a pair?
 
I don't think you'll find anything quite that cheap, but it depends what you want to do. If you really need them to be movers, then you'll pay a premium. Otherwise for the cost of movers you can do twice as many static fixtures.

The unfortunate trick here is that it's not really $360 you're comparing against. By the time you get those Mac 300's into shape, fair chance you'll be invested upward of $750, and if one of them loses its main PCB, you now have a single fixture that won't match anything else in your rig. Again -- I'm saying all of this as someone who purchased 4 units a year and a half ago, at a "steal" until I had to bring them up to snuff.

At that price point, I would look at the stuff Chauvet has. They've really turned around their quality of manufacturing in the last couple years. (Paging @CHAUVET Professional for a recommendation...). Blizzard Lighting has some products that are another option I've seen a lot of in the wild -- with mixed reviews, particularly on their support side.
 
What led movers should I get? I've used many movers but they are easy $7,000 a pop. What good movers should I get that's near $360 a pair?
There aren't any good movers that are $360/pair - including the used pair of Mac 300s. You will need to lower your expectations or increase your budget.
 
I don't think you'll find anything quite that cheap, but it depends what you want to do. If you really need them to be movers, then you'll pay a premium. Otherwise for the cost of movers you can do twice as many static fixtures.

The unfortunate trick here is that it's not really $360 you're comparing against. By the time you get those Mac 300's into shape, fair chance you'll be invested upward of $750, and if one of them loses its main PCB, you now have a single fixture that won't match anything else in your rig. Again -- I'm saying all of this as someone who purchased 4 units a year and a half ago, at a "steal" until I had to bring them up to snuff.

At that price point, I would look at the stuff Chauvet has. They've really turned around their quality of manufacturing in the last couple years. (Paging @CHAUVET Professional for a recommendation...). Blizzard Lighting has some products that are another option I've seen a lot of in the wild -- with mixed reviews, particularly on their support side.



That's good to hear chauvet has changed! I'll start looking into their products instead of buying mac 300.
 
Even the newer Chauvet DJ stuff has been getting a lot better - for low cost, reliable EDM movers check out the Intimidator line. The Intimidator Spot 255 and 355 are both great little lights, just depends on what size rooms you are doing. The Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Wash is a great unit if you're looking for color mixing wash lights, they have a great beam at narrow zoom but zoom out to a wide wash.

If you're playing smaller rooms and scraping the bottom of the barrel for price, check out the Intimidator Scan 305.
 
I don't think you'll find anything quite that cheap, but it depends what you want to do. If you really need them to be movers, then you'll pay a premium. Otherwise for the cost of movers you can do twice as many static fixtures.

The unfortunate trick here is that it's not really $360 you're comparing against. By the time you get those Mac 300's into shape, fair chance you'll be invested upward of $750, and if one of them loses its main PCB, you now have a single fixture that won't match anything else in your rig. Again -- I'm saying all of this as someone who purchased 4 units a year and a half ago, at a "steal" until I had to bring them up to snuff.

At that price point, I would look at the stuff Chauvet has. They've really turned around their quality of manufacturing in the last couple years. (Paging @CHAUVET Professional for a recommendation...). Blizzard Lighting has some products that are another option I've seen a lot of in the wild -- with mixed reviews, particularly on their support side.


Thanks for the plug here for CHAUVET Professional. We do appreciate it. I think that the recommendations made here for our fixtures are pretty dead on.
 

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