Jim Roese, owner of audio company RPM Dynamics and production manager/monitor engineer for Blondie, recently specified Mackie SRM loudspeakers in upgrading the stage setup at Bernie’s Bar, a live performance venue in Nashua, NH.
Previously, hard rock and punk bands like Dop, The Misfits and Soil playing at Bernie’s were having a hard time with the club’s mix-and-match stage monitoring setup. For loud acts, stage volume is a primary concern, and the artists weren’t happy. At the same time, for owner/booker Bernie Goulet, matching price to product was a primary concern.
Roese ordered 10 new Mackie SRM650 compact loudspeakers for the project, sight unseen. “I’ve been using Mackie gear for many, many years,” he explains, “including the SRM450 and the DL1608 mixer. The SRM450s in particular always sounded great, and never had a problem. So I was pretty confident the SRM650 would be a quality product.”
He adds, “I looked at the specs, and saw this all-wood box, with a list price of around $900. Knowing Mackie, I knew it would be built like a tank, and would compete with boxes selling for twice that much. And we were right…Mackie delivered.”
The next evolution of Mackie’s SRM line, the self-powered SRM650 is driven by up to 1,600 watts in an all-wood frame with an 18-gauge steel grill. Further, Roese added other players in the Mackie line, including an SRM1850 as a drum sub and a pair of the SRM550s.
“Mackie has always built a great product,” Roese concludes. “Their stuff works, and it sounds great. I wanted Bernie’s to get great quality gear that fit their budget, and I placed my confidence in Mackie, knowing that their new products would be as good as they say. So we purchased it, put it in the club, and everyone loves it.”