Without exception, the biggest area of focus that all beginning artists and DJs have to consider is how much money they are willing to spend on their equipment, and how high quality they can find for it.
This is an incredibly difficult balance for most to follow, more often than not because DJing equipment can be so expensive to purchase.
Speakers aren’t the most expensive part of a DJ’s shopping list, but they can certainly get in the top three.
Finding some good speakers that function well, while not paying two months’ rent, can be a serious struggle.
The good news is that more and more companies are producing speakers to sit in that gap between near trash and prohibitively expensive. One of those is the Mackie Thumps loudspeaker which is designed for heavy use.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the Mackie Thump12A and see how it fares, and compares it as an affordable alternative to the more capable speakers on the market today.
How Good are Mackie Thump Speakers?
They are called Thumps for a reason! The Thump range speakers are pretty loud and the Bass is chest “thumping” power as well. Compared to other more expensive powered speaker units this range certainly holds its own. All round good. value for money.
Mackie Thump 12: First Impressions
When it comes to the Mackie speaker brand, it’s understood that you’re going to have to accept some cut corners if you want something that functions at a reasonable price tag.
This is true for most of their Thump speakers and it’s true here with the Thump 12A.
First thing first, taking it fresh out of the box, the design just isn’t great.
It just looks like a standard, run-of-the-mill powered speaker with its sides angled inward. For most people, this may not matter so much. I personally find speaker designs to be important since you do have to look at them almost as much as you spend time hearing them.
We’ll get into their design later, but suffice to say that it leaves much to be desired.
Specifically going over its build, the Thump 12A is made from a very weak and flimsy plastic.
Plastic, as a base material, is not uncommon for many powered speaker setups, so that isn’t an issue in and of itself. In this case, it’s that the speakers feel like if you dropped them, something would probably break.
On the other hand, because the plastic is as light as it is, that also results in a speaker that doesn’t weigh as much as it normally would, so there’s that.
The Specs
Going over the Mackie Thump 12A’s specs, it has a 1300 Watt Class D amplifier that can crank out 1000 watts on the low end and 300 at its higher points.
The speaker has a 12-inch woofer with a 1.4-inch driver. The driver, in particular, is a titanium dome compression driver, which, besides sounding cool, does result in the sound having more depth.
In terms of its frequency response, the Mackie Thump 12A ranges between 50Hz and 23kHz, granting a good amount of range coverage.
It also, due to its physical design, can put out great sound at a 90-degree angle, widening the amount of space offered by an individual speaker.
Volume-wise, the Mackie Thump 12A can get pretty loud, with sounds reaching upwards of 126 dB max SPL. This pretty much drowns out any room you’re in no matter the size, so it’s great for people that love to play at high volume.
The only thing to keep in mind is that, while it can reach these levels, prolonged playing will result in the sound quality deteriorating.
The Design
From a design perspective, while I can give it some points for its sleeker look and angled grille, the fact is that it’s just another speaker system.
As I said, its body’s design is cool, and the fact that you can set it up vertically as well as horizontally is certainly a plus.
But even these novel inclusions are done by other speakers and are done objectively better.
The front face of the speaker hosts the Mackie logo at its center while there are handgrips on either side of the speaker’s frame.
It also has an additional hand grip at the top of the speaker which makes transport and mobility much easier.
One area it does get going for it is its weight.
At just under 30 lbs. (13.2kg), the Thump 12A is pretty light, especially when squared with most other 12-inch speakers on the market.
Taking A Deeper Look – Features & Sound Quality
Since we’ve had a chance to take a look at the Thump 12A’s physical build and design, we can now take a more thorough look into what it has to offer in terms of its purported advanced features and what it has to offer.
Sound Quality
First and foremost, the part of a most important speaker is its sound quality. Without sounding good, you could have the best-looking powered speaker with the most bells and whistles imaginable and it would still be considered terrible.
It’d be like buying a super nice-looking car that has a terrible or faulty engine. Yeah, it looks nice, but what’s the point if it can’t take you where you need to go?
While the Mackie Thump 12A doesn’t quite have a “faulty engine” in this analogy, it’s hardly what you’d call good.
Yes, it does have its good points, but strictly in terms of sound quality all around, it barely, if at all, sticks the landing.
What It Does Right
But let’s not be too negative. Certainly, there are some things about this speaker that are worth praising, right? Definitely.
Credit where credit’s due, the Mackie Thump 12A’s 12-inch speakers make it a force to be reckoned with from a sound volume perspective.
It can’t take serious pressure at higher volumes for long periods, no.
However, in short bursts, you can comfortably blast these in a pretty large room.
What It Doesn’t
Unfortunately, that’s kind of where the pros start and stop. The cons, however, are quite numerous.
First off, while the speakers can pack a serious punch in terms of volume, it needs to be made clear that “volume” and “quality” are not synonymous.
The lows, while thickest and carrying the most weight of the three areas, are pretty much only going to be enjoyable for those that love a heavy bass or aren’t particularly interested in clarity. If you are looking to hear what a track is saying when the bass drops, these can be a bit frustrating, especially if you’re coming off of a higher-quality set of speakers.
Meanwhile, the mids and highs don’t fare much better.
While the lows have their issues, they can at least fall back on the fact that they are pretty loud and outspoken.
The mids and highs don’t have that benefit. Instead, both have the same issues with clarity, with the mids having a slight sense of “cloudiness” while the highs seem to shrink at times.
If you’re someone that is trying to put together tracks and needs a good set of speakers for knowing when to set up loops and transitions, these are not going to be good.
Nor are they particularly enjoyable if you’re an audiophile (or make it a career to listen to and review speakers).
If you are a starting DJ, however, and just need to make sure people can hear what you’re playing, these do well enough as an option.
Features Offered
Connection Options
In terms of connectivity, the Mackie Thump 12A has two jack ports that support multiple connection options.
Here, you’ll be able to connect either the XLR or the TRS cable and the instrumental Hi-Z cable connection. This is pretty impressive, as most speakers will often have dedicated jack ports for their respective cables as opposed to a universal option.
There is also a mix-out option that lets you connect several speakers.
In addition, the Mackie Thump 12A also comes with an additional Power Factor Correction that is built into the speaker.
This helps prevent an unstable AC source from causing an issue.
The PFC also works to handle any type of wall power due to its universal power supply.
One thing to note. Because most DJs interested in these speakers are likely to have a cheaper controller as well, it’s important to keep in mind that the cheaper DJ controllers will not support TRS or XLR connections.
Since the Mackie Thump 12A doesn’t support RCA connections, you’ll need to use a DAC or a converter cable if you want to connect the two.
Tuning Options
One good thing about the Mackie Thump 12A is that it does have a few basic tuning options to play with. They aren’t going to be super in-depth, but they don’t need to be at this price range.
It offers each channel a gain knob while also having a master gain knob that affects all of them. In addition, the speaker also has up to four presets available: Music, Live, Monitor, and Sub.
The “Music” preset is great for DJs on the scene working. The “Live” preset helps musicians with flatter responses, creating the same effect as those from studio monitors.
The “Monitor” preset is great for vocalists and the “Sub” preset is used when the speakers are attached to a subwoofer and want to crank up their bass.
Final Thoughts – Is it Worth Your Time?
When it comes to asking the question, “Is the Mackie Thump 12A worth your time?” there are a lot of things to consider. The simple fact of the matter is that it isn’t black-and-white, nor is the answer going to be true for everyone, even if they’re in the same situation.
What makes the Thump 12A so appealing is both, that it’s priced very competitively and that most of its issues aren’t “that” bad.
Yes, they can be distractingly bad if you’re an audiophile, but most people aren’t audiophiles. For the target demographic, while they aren’t going to be ideal, they will get the job done well enough.
To answer the question, the Mackie Thump 12A is the upper tier of the budget speakers. If you’re just starting and don’t have any money for anything good, the Mackie Thump 12A is going to be best for you.
Similarly, if you are someone that doesn’t want to spend a ton of money for a functional pair of backup speakers, there may be value in picking these guys up.
For everyone else, the simple fact of the matter is that there are other speakers out there that are only marginally more expensive while performing much better in terms of sound amazing quality.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Speaker Can Definitely Get Loud
- Affordably Priced
- Both Surprisingly Lightweight and Portable Design
- Includes a Power Factor Correction
Cons
- Build Quality Is Pretty Poor
- Sound Quality Is Muddled All-Around
Mackie Thump 12A: The Verdict
The Mackie Thump 12A does indeed have a lot of things going for it that make it a semi-strong value proposition for most people starting.
That said, the reality is that it’s very much a budget speaker meant for people that are on a budget. It’s not going to sound good or have a workable build setup, but it is going to function well enough for its price.
If you’re able to overlook its flaws and appreciate it for what it is, there’s definitely some good to be found here.
