Messenger MkII Pro12 & Sub P - Peavey

REVIEWED
PEAVEY
Messenger MkII
Pro12 & Sub P
Peavey’s recently upgraded Messenger
Pro cabs follow the U.S. brand’s
ethos of delivering big sounds at a
reasonable price. Playmusic teams up
the Messenger Pro 12-inch cabs with
the Messenger Pro powered sub to see
how they hold up… Words: Tim Slater
Despite facing some pretty
stiff competition lately, Peavey’s
sound reinforcement (that’s PA
systems to you and me) speaker
enclosures form the core of many
working musician’s setups and
there is no question that the U.S.
manufacturer still commands a loyal
following among the grass roots.
It’s certainly a fact that you can
walk into virtually any live venue
in the country and find plenty of
relatively ancient Peavey PA gear still
going strong on the road, which is a
testament to the Mississippi- based
manufacturer’s popularity whilst also
validating its claim to build powerful
Peavey
Messenger Pro12 & Sub
Pro 12 £139.00
Pro Sub P £449.00
All prices include VAT
CONTACT
Peavey UK
T: 01536 461234
W: www.peavey-eu.com
road worthy gear that is also
competitively-priced.
Whilst Peavey is typically still
something of a ‘Marmite’ brand -
people are either completely won
over to the Peavey way of doing
things or else remain steadfastly
unconvinced – when you visit
Peavey’s UK facility in Corby it’s
difficult not to be impressed by
the sheer amount of research and
development that Peavey puts into
its sound reinforcement products.
The overriding impression is of a
company that genuinely really cares
about what it does and nothing
illustrates this as powerfully as its
sound reinforcement line; whether
you’re looking at a carrying handle or
a high-frequency horn, everything is
designed in-house, nothing is sourced
from a generic parts bin and Peavey
innovations like field replaceable
baskets (whereby damaged speaker
components can be quickly unbolted
and replaced
on the road
without
need for a
qualified tech)
demonstrate
that Peavey
certainly
design stuff
with working
musicians in
mind.
Peavey also
includes a free five year warranty
with all of the Messenger Pro
series plus many more of its sound
reinforcement products too, so that
is also something else to take into
consideration when weighing up the
best deal.
The Messenger Pro series
enclosures occupy a position
between Peavey’s entry level Eurosys
enclosures and the more upmarket
Messenger UL series. The Messenger
Peavey certainly design
stuff with working
musicians in mind…
Pro range comprises a four-strong
range of speaker enclosures: two full
range 12-inch and 15-inch mid/tops
and a pair of powered and nonpowered
sub bass bins. This review
focuses on the Messenger Pro 12
and the powered Messenger Pro Sub
P, the ‘P’ delineates the active sub
from its passive stable-mate in the
Messenger Pro series.
Build quality
At the beginning of this review
we remarked on the fact that you
see plenty of bands using fairly old
Peavey gear and, the relatively large
investment notwithstanding, the fact
that a lot of bands choose not to
upgrade their Peavey cabs for several
years speaks volumes about Peavey’s
road worthiness.
38 3pickup

Peavey Messenger MkII Pro 12 & Pro Sub P
The Messenger Pro’s carpet
covering isn’t necessarily the most
impervious material you’ll find
but this and the lack of corner
protection is really the only really
obvious clue that the Messenger Pro
cabs represent the budget friendly
end of Peavey’s pro audio line.
Generally speaking you’ve got a
fairly robust design highlighted by
a heavy-duty steel speaker grill and
a general air of solidity; the subs
and the smaller 12-inch enclosure
both feature large carrying handles
which help to alleviate a lot of the
stress whilst transporting the cabs
from the van to the stage and
built-in receptacles make it easy to
mount the tops on top of the subs
using a speaker pole. The 12-inch
Messenger Pro enclosures can also
function as full range stand-alone
speakers in circumstances where the
low end subs aren’t required and
consequently the pole-sockets also
accommodate typical tripod speaker
stands, too.
The 12-inch enclosures feel quite
light at a claimed 16.5kg (around
36.3lbs) and they are indeed very
easy for one person to lift on and off
the speaker stands or poles but the
powered sub’s built-in power amp
plus its generally robust construction
guarantees that transporting the
powered sub is definitely a twoperson
job (it should always be, to
be fair). One more word about the
carpet covering: How well it copes
with life on the road is really down to
the user. We’ve seen carpet covered
enclosures that look disgraceful
within six months whilst others can
and do last for many years so long
as the enclosures are transported
carefully. How you treat your gear
is your business but the PA is also
probably the biggest investment
that a band will make outside of
their individual instruments and
equipment; look after your PA and
it will look after you when all is said
and done.
Getting the Message…
The Messenger Pro 12 MKII
enclosures are rated at 250 watts
RMS each, which might not look
particularly impressive on paper but
they are a very capable setup, both
used as a stand-alone system and
teamed up with the powered subs.
The 12-inch enclosure features a
single 12-inch driver and a high
frequency horn; the horn is also
protected from being accidentally
damaged by sudden frequency
peaks thanks to a built-in electronic
detection circuit that momentarily
limits the signal when it detects
sudden peaks above or below the
horn’s programmed frequency
response (we’re talking fractions of a
second here, so the detection circuitry
is not audible when it kicks-in).
Peavey uses a similar principal called
Distortion Detection Technology
(DDT) on several products including
many of its bass guitar amplifiers and
the general lack of complaints about
blown speakers seems to indicate
that DDT does its job fairly efficiently.
Opinion is divided amongst
some users regarding whether or
not 12-inch enclosures are suitable
as a stand-along system, some
musicians claim to find them a bit
on the shrill side and tend to prefer
15-inch enclosures for their fuller
tone. Personally speaking, I’ve never
had a problem using a set of 12’s on
its own so long as the environment
is suitable. If you are setting up a
small vocal PA in a pub-sized venue
a decent pair of 12’s should generally
be good enough. However, if you
are playing somewhere larger and
especially if you are using backing
tracks or pre-recorded music
during breaks between sets, then
a set of subs is definitely
recommended.
The powered Messenger
pro MK II subs feature a 400
watt Class D power amp
with balanced XLR full range
outputs and left and right
combi jack inputs. The combijacks
are great because they
enable a very versatile choice
of cabling options by virtue
of being able to accept either
standard ¼-inch or XLR jacks
in the same input.
The control panel also
includes two rotary controls: a
low pass filter control helps to
balance the low end against
the high frequencies and
comes in handy in several
ways, not the least of which
that it can help to enhance
The 400 watt Messenger powered sub
the bass frequencies in environments
when you otherwise might need to
back off the volume (providing
backing music during a meal, for
example). The low pass filter also
helps to ‘tune’ the cabinets low
frequency response depending on
the size and type of room you are
working in and also which high
frequency enclosures you choose to
match with the subs.
The second rotary control is a
volume control for the low
frequency driver that adjusts the
sub’s overall volume level.
Teamed together, the complete
Messenger Pro system sounds
very powerful and is virtually fool
proof to set up and use. There is
something reassuringly old fashioned
looking about the Messenger’s
carpet covered enclosures and whilst
the subs squat design feels a bit
unwieldy the entire system will still
squeeze comfortably into a relatively
tiny venue…which we proved on
this test! The beauty of any sub is
that it doesn’t necessarily matter
where you place them because bass
being non-directional, they will still
work even when squeezed behind
the awkward sub-dividing walls that
you sometimes find in pub venues,
A detection circuit
protects the Pro 12’s
horn from sudden
frequency peaks…
just so long as the top enclosures
get room to throw the sound out
front you’ll have no problems being
heard.
We also took this rig to a decent
sized local venue with a capacity of
around 150 and the Messenger Pro
system performed very well indeed,
at the top end vocal reproduction
sounded crisp and articulate whilst
the subs had no difficulty coping
with some pretty powerful low end
courtesy of an energetic drummer
with arms as big around as most
people’s thighs! The overall sound
quality is very natural, with bags of
clarity and while these enclosures are
never going to fill a stadium you’ve
still got plenty of bottom end to help
fill out the sound without driving the
amp to it limit. PM
SHOULD I BUY ONE
Plenty of working musicians regard Peavey PA as always representing
very good value for money and the Messenger Pro MK II enclosures
seem to confirm this point of view. Whilst by no means can they
be described as ‘cheap’ a complete set of Messenger Pro cabs and
subs will only set you back a fraction over a Grand, even without the
discount that you should be able to wangle from your local dealer,
and for a working band these enclosures represent a very good
investment that should pay for itself within a couple of months.
The Messenger Mk II Pro 12 enclosure
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