Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Thanks to everyone who helps me out on this board. It's really great.

I've been pricing speakers and amps all day. But I have yet another 
question. Is it foolish to play directly through a PA system, given 
that it has enough power? Would it be better to buy an amp and then 
run that into a PA? 

The problem is that in Japan, the places to play are all screwed up. 
Most bands play at a "live house" which is a special club for live 
bands. Here's the catch. THE BAND HAS TO PAY TO PLAY. The cheapest I 
have seen is about 500 dollars for a 2 hour show.On top of that there 
is a rental charge for every piece of equipment you use, PA etc, even 
a guitar chord=5 bucks an hour. Some bands spend over a 1000 dollars 
to play on a Saturday night. It's impossible to get that money back. 
So ,what my group does, is find places with enough space to play and 
ask if we can play for free. But these places don't have any PA. So 
we gotta bring it all. 

My problem lately is that the clubs are getting bigger and our sound 
sucks. So I'm looking into a reasonable PA / drum amp that can fit 
the bill. Our band gets money for the gigs, but not a lot.

I'm not sure what advice I'm looking for, but if anyone has any 
thoughts, I love to hear them.

Thanks again.

Jon in Japan

--- Jon in Japan wrote:
> Is it foolish to play directly through a PA system, given 
> that it has enough power?

NO, it's not foolish. Controlled power is the key. Running an amp 
right on the edge (as you were) is like having a car engine that can 
only do 55mph. You need "headroom" to give you the control.

Perhaps you could consider a "powered mixer" system, like the Yamaha 
EMX 5000? This has 250W per channel, and sounds very sweet indeed. 
I've heard it in anger (one of my kids music teachers has one) and I 
was impressed. This comes in a 12- or a 20-channel version, and has 
all the facilities you would need live. And you can usually find a 
bundled deal with speakers / top hats / stands / leads (at least over 
here anyway).

Stewart