Electro-Voice MA-1206
Twelve inputs, sixty watts, and a barrier strip that will drive just about any speaker load you can throw at it.
Overview
The MA-1206 is a rack-mount mixer amp from a company that spent decades building public-address systems. It is a 60-watt, twelve-input mixer amplifier, part of the Electro-Voice MA-1200 series, built for the unglamorous install work: background music and paging in warehouses, shopping malls, retail stores, churches, office lobbies, hotel conference rooms, and - the manual actually says this - dentist and doctor waiting rooms. The MA-1206 is the smaller of the two models in the line. The MA-1212 supplies twice the power at 120 watts. Same feature set, different muscle.
The output section is the interesting part. The speaker output lives on a barrier strip with terminals for 4-, 8- or 16-ohm voice-coil loads as well as 25-, 70.7- and 100-volt constant-voltage distributed systems. That means the same amplifier can drive a handful of low-impedance cabinets in a small room or a long string of transformer-tapped ceiling speakers across a warehouse floor. Sixty watts into a 70.7-volt line goes a surprisingly long way when you are not asking for concert levels.
Rated distortion is less than 1% at 1 kHz, and frequency response is specified within ±3 dB from 50 Hz to 15 kHz. Those are commercial-audio numbers, not audiophile ones. This box is meant to reproduce speech intelligibly and play background music without complaint. It weighs 9.0 kg (19.8 lb) and occupies 13.3 cm of rack height, 48.0 cm wide, 32.0 cm deep. It runs from standard 120 V ac 50/60 Hz, or from a 24 V dc source.
Key Features
Twelve Inputs, Ten of Them Flexible
Inputs 1 through 10 are the main channels. Each is configurable via rear-panel switches as either a low-Z balanced microphone input or a hi-Z line-level input, and each uses a combination female XLR / ¼" connector, so you can patch whatever cable is already in the building. Input impedance is 600 ohms on the balanced inputs or 47 kW on the unbalanced ones. The manual's "47 kW" is almost certainly a typo for 47 kΩ, but it is what the documentation says, so that is what gets repeated. Inputs 11 and 12 are the auxiliary channels, intended for tape or CD players, and they accept mono or stereo signals through dual RCA phono jacks. A stereo source gets summed to mono by a resistor network on the input plate, to drive the built-in monaural power amplifier. Every one of the twelve channels has its own level control. There is also a master level control and separate bass and treble equalization.
Automatic Muting That Actually Makes Sense
A signal appearing at channel 1 triggers the muting of channels 2 through 12. That suits a setup where channel 1 is the paging microphone and the rest of the rack is playing music. The mute is defeatable via a rear-panel switch for anyone who needs all twelve channels live at once. There is also a separate rear-panel paging input with its own gain control, designed to accept a 600-ohm line-level feed from a telephone system. A signal at that input mutes everything else automatically.
Preamplifier Output and Power Amp Input
A preamplifier output jack and a power amplifier input jack let the mixed signal leave the chassis, pass through an external processor - a graphic EQ or a compressor, the manual suggests - and come back to the built-in amplifier. The preamp output can also be used on its own to drive a second power amplifier and its own set of speakers without interrupting the internal amp. That is enough routing to build a two-zone system out of one box and an outboard amp.
24-Volt DC Emergency Power
The MA-1206 will run from either a standard 120 V ac 50/60 Hz supply or a 24 V dc source. The 24 V dc option exists for emergency power requirements, for the day the building loses mains power and the fire panel still needs to make announcements.
Collectibility & Value
This is not a collector's piece the way a tube amplifier or a vintage synthesizer is. The MA-1206 is discontinued - B&H lists it as no longer available - and it shows up on the used market as working commercial gear rather than as a sought-after vintage object. eBay listings for the MA-1206 do appear from time to time, but no reliable pricing data was found in the available documentation.
The documentation available for this model does not include any known common failures, maintenance schedules, or repair information. That does not mean the amplifier is trouble-free. It means no such information was found. Buyers should evaluate a used unit on its actual condition, check the barrier strip terminals and the combination connectors for wear, and confirm that the muting circuit behaves as expected. The 24 V dc option is worth verifying if that is the reason for the purchase. Original price is not documented, and no production years were found, so dating a specific unit will require other means.
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