REVIEW: Yamaha Stagepas 1K

We’ve tested out some of the previous Stagepas entries from Yamaha in the past, and our spellchecker still hasn’t forgiven us. Joking aside, the Stagepas (yes, just one ‘s’) 1K offers up 1,000 watts of PA power in a compact, portable column design that can fit into the back of any car or tour van.

Assembling Stagepas 1K is a pretty simple affair. The base unit houses the main speaker, inputs and mixer section. Then you just plug in the three additional sound columns like LEGOs. They all snap into place in the base station, and you’re off and running. What we love about the new Stagepas model is that with increased wattage comes plenty of clean headroom, so if you plan on using this in a band situation, you’re not going to come up against gnarly clipping and wooliness once you start turning up the volume, or adding in more instruments to the mixer section. Speaking of which, the new design allows for up to 3 mic/line inputs, plus a stereo input and Bluetooth connectivity. So, you could conceivably mic up a small combo and stream backing tracks without the need for a stand-alone mixer and additional cabling. That’ll be handy for a lot of users.

Or for the solo artists out there, you can mic up your vocals, an acoustic guitar, and perhaps a keyboard or laptop all at once, without the need for more gear to lug around. Each channel has a fairly convincing reverb built-in, as well, and the ability to change the style from plate, to room, to hall and echo with a simple master rotary dial. All of this is done on the unit itself, which can be a bit inconvenient since the subwoofer bass station sits on the floor and the columns protrude upwards, meaning if you want to do any mixing on the fly, you’ll be bending over, trying to access the rear of the unit. Which isn’t really ideal for a lot of stage situations. 

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Thankfully, there’s an app for that! Meaning you’ll be able to adjust settings (and save them) from your smartphone, regardless of where you are in the venue. This makes things much easier, and is something we’ve seen in the Mackie lineup for years, so we’re glad it’s making its way to other manufacturers, as well. App connectivity should be standard for any live mixing device from now on. 

There’s not much more to say – we threw our standard Moog bass tests at this beast, and it got down into the sub-40Hz territory with no problem, so your bass issues should be non-existent with this unit. You can even link a few of them together (they play nice, don’t worry) to perform at bigger venues and outdoor situations, which will be a handy feature for a lot of artists and event producers out there.

The only issue we see artists running into is price. Previous Stagepas setups only ran about $600-800, depending on the deal you could score. Now, you are getting more watts, a programable app and better sound quality here, so in our mind, the added price is probably worth it. But your mileage may vary when it comes to that. All in all, this is a more than capable live juggernaut, which should make a wonderful portable solution for a lot of different types of applications. Recommended. 

PROS:

great sound, plenty of connectivity, clean headroom.

CONS:

none.

STREET PRICE:

$1199

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