In Seattle at Barboza, Glen Phillips has just finished a set for the gathering of press and dealers at Mackie’s debut event for the Mackie DLM series powered loudspeaker series. He was a great choice to make the point about these very compact 2000W top boxes and subs. The combination of bright guitar and his vocal range and warmth, really showcased the clarity and nuance of the speakers. Or rather, we heard the clarity and nuance of the singer–the speakers seemed most of all to be staying emphatically out of the way.

In the long narrow room, the effect was very clean and intimate, two of the DLM 12s top boxes barely breaking a sweat, underpinned by four DLM subs cruising along underneath. It was, admittedly, about $6000 worth of speakers. The system was no doubt optimized for the launch event with the speakers’ unique internal processing, as well as probably some help from the resident Mackie DL1608 board (itself a slick little iPad driven mixer that we will review in the upcoming print issue).

But that was part of the point after all–to show a complete system with the new DL board and the even-newer DLM series speakers, to show off the TruSource vertically aligned, common-magnet driver, and the powerful combination of DSP processing and class D amplification. Mackie is proud of this, as a follow-on to the SRM450s, and as a modern blending of more recent technical achievements in drivers, DSP, and amps. The demo-day ended with Seattle’s Presidents of the United States filling Barboza with virtuosic chaos, giving the subs a workout with their guitbass intensity and unrelenting lyrics. More to come. -Cynthia Wisehart