Built-in Power Supplies

If wall warts aren't the single most frustrating invention of the last 20 years, we don't know what is.

"Wall wart" is our name for that chunky black cube that eats up several spaces on an outlet strip. This poor substitute for a real power supply is prone to falling out, easy to lose, and has an extremely fragile wire connected to equally fragile little jack –that is also prone to falling out. Even worse, wall warts (and their cousins "line lumps") use wimpy transformers that have to be run on the edge of overload at all times. This generates magnetic interference that can be picked up by signal-carrying cables. And if that's not bad enough, just try to find a replacement for one of those little buggers!

From Day One, Mackie has put real power supplies inside even our smallest mixers. You get a nice, long, rugged IEC power cord that plugs into just one outlet receptacle – and can be easily replaced if you happen to leave it at a gig. But convenience and practicality are only two reasons.

Our robust internal power supplies also provide high current for our VLZ circuitry and allow us to provide phantom power for condenser microphones and little extras like ultra-high-output headphone amps.

Of course, our bigger mixers, like the 8•Bus series and SR40•8, require more power than a built-in supply can – umm... supply, so those mixers come with their own rackmountable outboard power supplies. Just thought you'd like to know.