Harbinger M100-BT Portable PA With Bluetooth and Custom Carry Bags 8" Mains

Most Liked Positive Review

Maybe okay, but I returned mine

I bought this and enjoyed it for listening to music in my basement and doing a bit of jamming with a guitar and mic. Within about two weeks of daily use the mixer went dead. I returned the thing and bought two actively powered Harbinger 8" speakers instead. Why? Because now if one amplifier poops out, I'll still have the other to play through. The m100 and m200 are passive speakers, meaning that the amplifier is in the mixer. No mixer, no sound at all. Single point of failure. Worse, most mixers on the market do not provide power to the speakers. So if you want to use the speakers but replace or upgrade your mixer, you will have to spend like $400 on a large powered mixer or buy a separate amplifier and an unpowered mixer. Either way is expensive and seems overly complicated. I'd say check out the Harbinger Vari speakers. Two 8" speakers still give you Bluetooth and you can use an XLR cable to connect them for stereo sound. No mixer, but if I want one i can get a cheap 6 or 8 channel one for $80. I can still plug my guitars and mics into the back of the speakers. So the only feature I'm missing is the echo from the mixer, but whatever. Now I have active speakers (with the amps inside the speakers), so my gear is flexible, easy to add new elements like a sub or a good mixer, and more robust to failure. Oh also I think they're a bit more powerful and the bass definitely comes through more in the powered speakers. I recommend you think hard about whether you want passive vs active speakers. What will you do if your m100 mixer fails after it's too late to take it back? Or during a gig? What will you have to spend to upgrade or add equipment? Think about it.