Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

OK… I’ll admit it, I’ve been doing shows long enough to remember a time when street performers didn’t use any amplification and sometimes I do miss those simpler times, but my voice certainly appreciates having a bit of support and the ability to add music playback to my performance has been something I’ve used for years as well… I remember very specifically being introduced to amplification at the 1988 Halifax Busker’s Festival by my friend Brian Hulse. He had a Peavey Solo guitar amp that he plugged a handheld microphone and a walkman into and the ability he had to reach a significantly larger audience really left an impression on me.

Over the years I’ve used a number of different sound system solutions, but the one that’s given me the least hassles has been my Anchor Audio, Liberty System. I’ve had a couple over the years. The first on I bought had a built in tape deck which at the time was great. Now I have one which is simply the amp. There’s a space at the top where I can place my Sennheiser half rack wireless microphone receiver and because of the way the Liberty is set up, I can even power the receiver off of the internal battery inside the Amp with a small cable running from the 12 volt out on the back of the amp to the power in on the receiver. There are three inputs, two microphone inputs and one auxiliary. 

Over the years that I’ve owned the system I’ve had some small modifications made to accommodate a back-up set of batteries, but recently removed these to cut down on the over all weight of the system. Speaking of weight… This is my biggest complaint about the unit – it’s really heavy. I put up with hefting it around though because this all in one sound solution provides better than average sound quality in a pretty bullet-proof package.

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