Pure Resonance Audio Mixer Amplifiers on Pro Acoustics Tech Talk Episode 17
On this week’s episode of Pro Acoustics Tech Talk, Nathan and Coltin are talking about the ins and outs, features and differences of the Pure Resonance Audio RMA120BT Mixer Amplifier and the Pure Resonance Audio MA120BT Mixer Amplifier.
Hey everybody, thanks for joining us for another edition of Pro Acoustics Tech Talk. I'm Nathan, I'm Coltin, and we are here with you guys back in our Salado, Texas location. We’re going to talk to you a little bit about a couple of our Pure Resonance Audio mixer amps.
Absolutely. I am excited about this episode, man. This is going to be great.
Yeah, yeah. I've got a couple of models here we want to make sure you guys know all about so you can know which one might be best for you in your application. And on with the show. On with the show. Okay.
We have some top-quality mixer amps right in front of me today. It's from our very own Pure Resonance Audio. So, I want to dive into both of these guys and really get you guys a good idea of what we're looking at here, what's the ins and outs, features, and the differences. That's the main thing here. So yeah, tell me a little bit about the story and you know, we've given them a little insight on the main entities of these guys. But, I want to know the differences.
Cool. Will do. So, this is the MA120BT over here. This is the RMA120BT. R stands for rack mount. As you can see, you've got 19-inch rack ears here on the RMA120BT, so that it can be mounted into a 19-inch-wide server rack. If you're unfamiliar with 19-inch-wide racks, that's basically the standard width of racks. Whether it has you know, servers or cable boxes in a restaurant, 19 inches is basically the standard commercial audio/video and IT protocol as far as the width goes. So one of these is designed to slide right in. This is what's called 1U 1 Rackspace. That's 1.75 inches tall. So, it's designed to slide right into a rack.
MA120BT - no rack kit. We do not currently have a rack kit available for this mixer amp or for any of the other MA Series mixer amps. That's the MA30BT, MA60BT. So just to be clear, this is the only guy that comes in a rack mount. We've got our RZMA120BT, our multi-zone, if you recall from a previous video, if not, check out that one actually. It also has a rack kit, but, yes, basically this is the only of the smaller single-zone mixer amps designed to go into a rack. However, you can set these on top of a shelf if you'd like to. They make rack shelves, things like that where you can house it in a rack if you need to. But we have more differences beyond just that.
We also have some different input and output configurations on both. Okay. The microphone input, which is XLR input one on the MA120BT is what's called a priority input. It has built-in ducking. Basically, I think we demonstrated this in a video before - talking to the microphone, the music background, music's playing, it lowers it down, you know, number 51 please to pick up your order, car 54, where are you? Whatever kind of deal you have going on, that's built-in permanently in the input one here. So as a result, we tend to use these quite a bit for hospitality, retail, those kinds of applications where you need that priority input. We've got priority inputs over here on the RMA120BT also, but the priority is defeatable on all the inputs. So that means, defeatable, I can turn off the priority input on mic input one.
And then I've also got three additional mic inputs on this mixer amp. It means I can do four microphone inputs on this mixer amp without touching the Bluetooth, without touching the additional RCA inputs. That kind of opens it up for more of a conferencing or classrooms or small church or things like that where I might need a microphone and a handful of different locations. Okay. You know, I can have one input for the podium, one input for, you know, the presenter, a lapel mic, and then a handheld for question and answer. And all of that still is before we even touched the RCA inputs where we hook up the laptop music, or the cable box or the Bluetooth streaming from the presenter’s PC or personal device.
This is also the new model of the RMA120BT version 2.0, it also adds a 4-ohm or 8-ohm bypass on the output section. So, this originally was just a 70-volt mixer amp when we first came out with it. We now have the option to connect it to low impedance speakers like the VCA8 or the SD4 in low impedance. That makes these amps actually a little bit more similar. The MA120BT can do 70-volt, it can do 8-ohm also. So, you've got options on which type of speakers you want to hook up to each amp. Right. But that's great news. We've got four, you know, a 4-ohm output here. So that means we can do two VCA8s off of the MA120BT or multiple SD4s in low impedance or in 70-volt. Also, things are just a little bit more premium on this side of the fence. Sounds a little bit better, in a side by side, but we still absolutely love the MA120BT as well. Very popular. You just get a little bit more upgraded product and have a little bit higher price point as a result.
Every microphone on the RMA120BT has the option for line level, mic level or phantom power and the inputs are balanced. Balance means positive, negative and ground essentially. So, you've got three terminals and those are euro block connections where you can just undo the screw, pop your wires in, tighten them on down. Simple enough. Whereas you know, your MA120BT has a little bit more pro or consumer-grade connections, RCAs, XLR, a quarter-inch, and that kind of thing. Just kinda scratching the surface here. I mean, we've got a lot of other options here. The RMA120BT is also fan-cooled. So, you know, since it is in a rack, so it's going to be designed for a little bit more rigorous performance. You've also got some options for emergency override and things like that. But both are very powerful units, work very well. Pair great with our Pure Resonance Audio speakers like PD6s as well as the speaker arrays or any other speakers you might want to pair with it.
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm just so excited about both these guys because as we may know, they're, they're expanding. I mean there's so much that is jam-packed into both these units as far as feature sets to what you can do. It almost checks off every single box that you'd be looking for, ideally in most commercial applications. And that's what I love most about being able to give to our customers that it checks off, you know, so many different things and accomplishes so many different things in just one unit.
And not to overlook, both have a built-in media player on the front. Both come with remote controls for controlling the media player. The remote control controls the media player on the front, doesn't control all your mic levels, but it gives you the ability to turn up and down the volume of the SD or USB card slot, the built-in Bluetooth, or the built-in FM tuner that you have in both units. So, you don't have to have your own standalone FM tuner any more, when you're using these units. And you don't have to have your own USB or SD card media player. So, lots of great features built into two quality units that are both shipping now. Great availability.
If you would like to go ahead and pick one up, you can bounce on over to our www.proacousticsusa.com website. We have these available on our Amazon stores and other e-commerce channels as well. If you'd like to talk to one of us about your audio needs and what we can do to help, you can reach out to me at nathan@proacoustics.com. Now, I'm coltin@proacoustics.com. That’s Coltin with an i. Or give us a call on our 800 number - (888) 256-4112. Once again, let us know if we can help you out or if you like what you see here. If you've got a product you want us to talk about, let us know. We'll do what we can to squeeze that into the schedule and just let us be a part of your audio needs if we can help with anything. All right. Until next time, I'm Coltin. I'm Nathan. See ya.