New Sound System for Community Theatre

You can also just get a hard top rolling rack to use as a table and out the x32 tour version on top in its case.
 
Roma,

I see no reason that you shouldn't be able to put together a decent little system for $5000. The EV powered speakers are excellent and aren't that expensive. I have several EV ELX112 powered speakers. Most of mine were bought brand new for under $400. There are sellers on the web that have great prices on EV gear. I use them over the EV ELX118p subs.

I know several sound providers that use the Behringer X32 mixer. For myself, doing theatrical work, I prefer to have all my channel faders available at the same time. In my 20 years of experience, I've discovered that there are situations when I don't have time to switch banks in order to access channel faders during a show. Sometimes there are actors coming and going in rapid succession. I went with an Allen & Heath Qu32 (excellent digital mixer, btw!). The A&H Qu16 can be found for under $1800 and might be a great fit for you.

I normally provide a full system, as most gyms/auditoriums/schools don't have a great PA system. I do have some clients that have a professionally spec-ed and installed system and in those cases, I'll generally tie into their house system. Works great for me. Just be sure to have any cables/adapters that you might need to connect into the house system.

Best of luck!

Joel
Glaser Audio Productions
 
I have done community, albeit non-musical, theatre for a couple years now on an X-32, after a long career doing various types of sound on various other types of equipment, and I love it. I've been keeping my eyes on that market, and I've seen the fullsize board under $2k, sometimes scaring hell out of $1500. That leaves a fair amount of room for the stagebox and speakers.

I've also heard, because I've asked around, that the repair experience on the line has been pretty decent in about 400k units moved since release, and that people who've bought them to rent out aren't seeing an appreciable amount of trouble with them either, so that's comforting.

The Compact might be a good enough deal if you're not mixing broadway, or are very good with scenes and DCAs; my appraisal was that the Producer had too many tradeoffs.
 

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