MSR400 Powered Speakers Discontinued

Much of the work in putting together a high-performance sound system involves amplifier and speaker selection and setup. Here are a pair of solutions that can take you directly to great sound without the usual complications. The MSR400 powered speaker can be used alone or in combination with the MSR800W powered subwoofer to assemble sound reinforcement systems from modest to massive. They look great, too. So good, in fact, that they can be used as-is in many permanent installations without requiring any cosmetic cover-up. And, of course, they're more than rugged enough for demanding tour applications as well.

Whether for use on the road or in permanent installations, powered speakers offer numerous advantages over their separate counterparts. The most obvious is that you don't need separate external amplifiers or the extra connections required – you can plug your mixer's outputs directly into the speaker inputs. In a modest-size system this alone can eliminate an entire rack of amplifiers. But there are sonic advantages as well. Optimum matching of amplifiers and speakers involves much more than simple impedance figures, and can be a formidable engineering task given the vast number of choices available. In the Yamaha MSR400 and MSR800W the internal amplifiers have been ideally mated to their respective speakers in every way possible, delivering reproduction quality that only such stringent matching can achieve.

In this system, the main house speakers are a pair of MSR400s with speaker stands and MSR800W subwoofer, driven directly from the mixer's main stereo and mono outputs. The MSR400s feature punchy bass and exceptionally clear midrange that delivers vocals with outstanding quality. The MSR800W subwoofer takes care of the ultra-lows so the audience hears – and feels – the full impact of the music. A second pair of MSR400s is used for stage monitoring, connected via a graphic equalizer for feedback control.

The MSR400 is a bi-amplified 2-way system, featuring 400 watts maximum burst power that drives the 12" cone woofer and 1.75" V.C. compression driver. Frequency division is accomplished prior to the power amplifiers via a line-level electronic crossover. This eliminates the problems with loss, distortion, and phase that are virtually unavoidable in conventional passive crossover networks. Another advantage of this type of system is that power can be optimally assigned to the low-frequency and high-frequency units for optimum efficiency as well as smooth, natural balance across the entire audio spectrum.

The MSR400 accepts nominal input levels ranging from –36 dB to +4 dB, meaning that you can directly connect any source from microphones to professional line-level gear. Three parallel-connected connectors are provided – two balanced XLR-type connectors and one balanced phone jack – that can be used as either inputs or parallel outputs. The MSR400 also features an input level control for matching with the source signal. Low and high EQ controls can be used to adjust the respective bands over a plus-or-minus 3dB range.

Speaker placement is as much a performance issue as it is a convenience and aesthetic issue. Proper placement will give you optimum sound as well as coverage while being as unobtrusive as possible. Of course, the more options you have the better. The MSR400 can be stacked or pole-mounted (there's even a pole-mount hole provided on the companion MSR800W Powered Woofer). And it's flyable so you can benefit from the unrivalled coverage and positioning precision that only ceiling suspension can provide.