Mackie Thump212 1,400-watt 12-inch Powered Speaker Reviews

We use a pair of these as our main speakers for dance recitals in a 1,200 seat auditorium. Last year was the first year we used them and they rocked. Sound was clear, loud, and plenty of low end, which had been a problem in the past and caused some cutting out on our previous set up. We have plenty of sound without needing to crank the volume.

This powered speaker is perfect for my music teaching studio. The 2 channels are exactly what I needed for my students to practice performing as they get ready to hit open mics. It will also come in handy for my songwriter group when we perform at small venues. My only regret is that I didn't get 2 of them!

Great Sound, Simple to use !!

I usually perform as a singer accompanying myself on guitar and Wazinator. For amplification, I use either my big Bose L1 with the B1 bass module, or for smaller venues my L1 compact. In either case, I use the Bose Tone match mixer. The big Bose is a beast that can handle any venue (indoors or out) and I love it, but for ease of transport I prefer the small Bose. For medium size venues however, I worry that the smaller Bose may not have enough cojones – that's why I was looking for an extension speaker to reinforce the little Bose if needed. The Mackie Thump212 fills the bill perfectly.

The Thump212 connects easily to my little Bose via a tip-ring-sleeve connector to the Line Out jack, and the combination of the Bose and Mackie gives me plenty of coverage for any medium size venue. I brought the Mackie to a winery gig and was not planning to use it until the owner let me know that an overflow room had been set up where it was difficult to hear the music. Easy fix – I just ran a cable and put the Mackie in the overflow room where it produced high quality sound that the patrons clearly appreciated. What's more, the "Thump" lived up to its name by providing plenty of bottom end for my Wazinator. The very next day I played at another show where the room was larger than I had been told. Same solution – I connected the Mackie to the Bose and between the two of them, I had nice high-quality sound coverage for the entire room.

Anyway, I love this little speaker – it's powerful and lightweight with good tone, and makes my Bose compact a lot more versatile. I'm going to put it in my car for all my gigs so that I'll have it if I need it. The bonus is that if my Bose craps out, I can plug a mic and guitar directly into the speaker as an emergency PA. Weighing less than 30 pounds with 1400 watts, it's hard to go wrong with this nice-sounding speaker.

I'll close with a shout out to my gear advisor Aaron Cieslikowski. I ordered the speaker and while it was in transit to me, I saw the price had dropped. I let Aaron know and he quickly and easily made sure that I got the sale price. This is typical of the excellent service that has made me a regular Sweetwater customer.

After using heavy keyboard amplifiers for the past 44 years I was over at a friend's house to practice with our quartet. He had me running through a single powered PA speaker. Wow! Full rich tone, plenty of power, super light weight. I decided right then to invest in a pair of powered PA speakers. This particular series is unbelievably light weight, very natural sounding ( not over bloated lows a shrill highs ) and more than enough power to have serious headroom for medium to large rooms. I run them stereo out from a Korg SV1. First gig, I was immediately blown away by the massive sound and clarity. Never turning back. For small gigs, one is plenty (however I love running in stereo). No buyer's remorse here. Just plenty of great tone, power, super light weight and you cannot beat the price point!!

I've been acquainted with the Thump series since high school. I needed a new pair for my own ministry and DJ work. I bought these with the understanding that they would be just as good as the previous generation. I will update when I first use them later this month. Also, a HUGE shout out to Paul Koehn. He is an amazing sales engineer and helped me pair these with rugged and durable stands.

We bought two of these to use as our main speakers for dance recitals in a 1,200 seat auditorium. They filled the room with the best sound we have ever had. We even received complements from the audience on the quality of the sound. I cannot compare these to more expensive speakers, but for what we spent we are more than happy with the results.

I purchased this particular model for 2 reasons: I needed a small powered speaker with dual inputs for light solo performances with acoustic guitar and vocal. I also needed a stage monitor when with the 6 piece Country Rock band. This unit handles both just great. Plus it is light and just the right size.
Jim

Solid speaker (for the price) with stellar power for small-medium events. We have 4 - 12" Thumps which we currently use for a weekly adults with disabilities ministry. Great sound and easy to use and manipulate. Love the anti-feedback option. Sure, there are other more expensive units but, if you're small or, just starting off, these Mackie's are fantabulous!

Great speaker - fills the room with a lot of sound. To get the "full" content of sound at a lower SPL, you should consider running this through a mixer to best control the speaker output. Also it is very efficient at forward projection - so you may need a monitor. I would certaily put this speaker on your audition list in the $ price bracket. The Mackie won out for me considering not only the sound, the volume and weight but also the brand's reliabilty record.

I wanted to purchase another pair of Mackie Thump 12a's. I bought them from Sweetwater about a year ago for a local show choir who needed to upgrade and update their FOH system. I really liked them, but when I started researching, I found a package deal for a pair of stands (which included a lightweight carry bag), a couple 25' XLR cables, and the NEW NEW Mackie Thump 212. The specs are comparable to the 12a, but is 100 watts more powerful, and the available power was reallocated. The 212 sends 1200 watts to the 12" woofer and 200 watts to the tweeter , as opposed to 1000/300 watts on the 12a.

Another difference is the lack of preset EQ settings. The 12a can be optimized for different purposes, but the hype with the 212 is that it's "gig ready". I'm going to agree with that. By giving the 212 slightly better bass response, and taking a little off the top end, there's less to mess with, and in a small club makes needing a sub woofer not essential. But the biggest feature to me is the "anti feedback" circuit that's built in to the speakers. I would recommend never turning that off!

Finally, the best feature for me is the lower weight, which I think is about 25 lbs. Quite manageable for my 72 year old body! If you're looking for a speaker system that punches far above its weight class, and on a budget, I don't think you could go wrong with the 212. Set up for the first time in a club, essentially right out of the box, they sounded fantastic! (Behringer Xenyx 2442 mix desk)

Still wouldn't mind having those preset EQ curves though!

Love that's it is light weight but also looks nice. The Mackie protection bags are high quality and tough.
More than 1000 watts comes in handy for sure. Smooth punchy sound.

It does OK, don't really like the design. Time will tell if it holds up like the old Mackie's

The last Mackie product I owned was the 1202 mixer. Mackie speakers were all the rage, though, when I was in my mid-gigging years and using the 1202 to sub-mix my keys. A stubborn friend/slash associate of mine rambled on about how Behringer monitors/mixers/(insert any Behringer producer here) but I didn't hear what he heard. That said, I preferred JBL Eons ... even though Mackie speakers were high-quality and Mackie's mid-to-high-budget mixers were better than a lot of other mixers in similarly price ranges.

The Mackie Thump212 1,400-watt powered speaker has a power overall sound w/decent base-level unity tone. Side-throw is controlled, if not limited. Both the punch up front and throw to the back of the venue are quite good. The Thump212's "ducking" and feedback "(FB) eliminator" features range in quality from interesting though odd to awesome. The ducking feature seems to carve out the vocal (or XLR) signal almost like a multiband compressor pushed to (or just beyond) it's functional max. Rather than what I thought this unit's ducking feature would be (a sidechain effect squashing CH1 input esp. when vocals are active) the Thump212 sounds more like it activates a preset highpass filter on the sound source.

The FB eliminator is perhaps the weirdest sounding feature I've ever heard on a live stage monitor. I (carefully) pointed and waved my mic at and around the Thump212 from unity gain to maybe 75% max volume. Feedback ='d zEro. This features makes the Thump212 a great speaker for open mics and various types of other events (such as wedding receptions) where people are not experienced w/using live mics and powerful pro speakers. So what's the problem? The Thump212 sounds as-if Mackie thought the solution to eliminating feedback was to double and/or flange the input signal. To my ears, the FB eliminator feature reduces the quality of both the targeted input signal aNd the Thump212's overall sound/range.

All this said, Sweetwater offers a significant amount of buyer protection on purchases made either online or in-store. The Mackie Thump212 is lightweight (enough) to not be a large physical burden. It has more than enough power to reach the back of large rooms and is therefore perfect for solo, duo and trio acts. While one highpak is usually not recommended for live settings, this unit allows performers to stand near, to the side or even in frOnt of it with minimal issues if any). I find it best to submix into the Thump212s if it/they are the only source of monitoring and sound front-of-house (FOH). The speakers has some unexpected quirks but nothing impossible to adjust to your needs. It's a good buy overall.