Bill, I've been using the little 6 channel 200 watt Carvin for years. Usually, I set the head on a Carvin 12 cabinet and use a little Hotspot monitor pointed towards me. The little powered mixers are $299.00, have OK on-board effects,RCA in, a line out, are small and weigh about 13 lbs.

I've never fried one, but have replaced 2. An assistant left one out on a patio all week-end in a two day thunderstorm (just forgot to take my equipment inside), and a drunk kicked one into a swimming pool (actually, it bounced off a brick wall first). The ones I have now are 4 years old. I have used the main one for over 1200 jobs.

One unit with two 12 cabinets does fine for 300 folks on a patio. I generally use a small Roland CM-30 monitor.

On one of my jobs, I use both with two monitors and 4 speakers for a patio and a terrace where the place does 600 dinner covers a night.


Great little portable unit at an almost disposable price.


Russ

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 04-19-2010).]