Portable PA System

PA / Live Sound

Published April 2025

Mackie’s new all‑in‑one battery‑powered PA rig puts the controls right where you need them.

We’re now well used to seeing small PA speakers with built‑in mixers, and the option of battery power is also becoming increasingly popular. Mackie’s new ShowBox ticks both of those boxes, while cramming in a few unexpected features. The most notable of these is the ‘breakaway’ Mix Control panel, which connects to the main unit via the included Cat5 cable, and can be used to provide hands‑on control of the most important functions (levels , effects, tone control, snapshots, looper, tuner and so on), directly from your mic stand using the included standmount. Alternatively it can be left docked into its recess at the side of the cabinet. Unlike some of the competition, the battery is included in the price of the ShowBox, and is accessed through the base of the cabinet.

Everything is housed in a polypropylene enclosure with rounded edges and a recessed handle, while the drivers are protected by a perforated metal grille. No cover is included, but an optional cover is available. Measuring 500 x 300 x 249mm and weighing just 9.5kg, the ShowBox is easily moved with just one hand. It can handle up to six analogue inputs: four mono (two mic inputs and two instrument inputs), and a stereo line‑only pair, which is internally mixed to mono. Bluetooth streaming feeds into the stereo channel and, for the Ed Sheeran wannabes out there, a built‑in two‑minute looper is available, as is a guitar tuner. While it works in the usual way, the looper doesn’t have undo or redo capability, and loops are lost when the power is removed or the breakaway module disconnected.

USB‑C interfacing is available for live streaming, playback and recording, and direct recording to micro‑SD card is also supported. The USB‑C interface port doesn’t supply power, but a second USB port on the breakaway controller can supply power to your mobile devices (but does not carry data). A Class 10 or better SD card is needed for direct recording and it must be formatted before use as detailed in the manual. An optional dual footswitch can be used to control the looper and to bypass the effects for live performance, and there’s also a headphone output on quarter‑inch TRS jack, as well as an XLR mix output for connection to a further powered speaker.

The Tour

Each of the four main channels is able to host its own effects, with a maximum of six effects deployed at the same time: one insert effect per channel and two further send effects, drawn from a selection of reverbs and delays. The insert effects include delays, reverbs, modulation and guitar distortion‑type treatments. Three‑band EQ (80Hz, 2.5kHz and 12kHz) and single‑knob compression is available on each channel, including the stereo inputs 5+6. Should you want to add further effects there’s an external send/return loop, which you can send to from any of the mono inputs.

A feedback eliminator can activated by hitting a rear‑panel button when ringing out the system, and works by deploying up to eight narrow notch filters. My tests confirmed that it worked as intended, with no serious impact on the overall tonality. Ringing out does mean creating deliberate feedback, so that’s best done before your audience turn up, otherwise they might be inclined to leave again! This, of course, is true of any feedback‑reduction system working on the same principle.

The onboard DSP offers a choice of switchable indoor or outdoor voicing as well as Amp or PA voicing. Amp voicing emphasises the mids slightly while PA voicing imposes a gentle smile curve, dipping the mids. Personally, I would have liked a flat option too! A separate button adjusts the sound according to location — for example, Outdoor mode boosts those frequencies that tend to get lost outside. Most requirements are catered for here, including the option to use the speaker as a floor wedge at 45 degrees, or on a pole mount.

The Class‑D amplifiers and switch‑mode PSU ensure low weight and minimal heat dissipation while boasting an impressive peak power rating of 400 Watts, of which 350W goes to the eight‑inch woofer and 50W to the one‑inch titanium‑diaphragm compression driver. The frequency response is quoted as 55Hz to 20kHz at the ‑3dB points, with a maximum SPL of 122dB at one metre. The compression driver flare is designed to provide a 60‑degree vertical dispersion and a 90‑degree horizontal dispersion, which helps focus the power where it is most needed. At nominal performance volumes, the ShowBox system can run for up to 12 hours on the included lithium‑ion battery pack. The battery charges in around three hours when mains power is connected, or around four hours if the amp is in use at the time.

The first four (mono) channels comprise two mic and two instrument inputs, while channels 5+6 are for stereo line sources. There’s also an external effects send/return loop, a footswitch jack, a headphone out, a mix output, an aux mini‑jack input, a USB‑C port for computer interfacing, a micro SD card slot and an Ethernet port for connecting the control unit remotely.

The connectors are located on a recessed, metal rear panel, where you’ll find the IEC mains inlet and power switch, inputs for all the channels, send and return jacks, footswitch jacks, a headphone jack and the XLR mix out. At the top of the panel are the voicing selection buttons, USB‑C interface port, the Cat5 connector for the breakaway module and the micro‑SD card slot for recording. There are also buttons to engage the feedback eliminator and to switch the front‑panel LED on or off. A 3.5 mm aux input next to the Bluetooth pairing button is available for connecting phones, iPads and the like.

Ejected using a large ‘push to release’ button, the lightweight breakaway module is made from tough plastic, and a mic stand adaptor is included so that it can be mounted securely part way down a mic stand. There’s a CAT5 connector on the rear edge along with the USB charging point. SD card recording is activated using a large button on the breakaway module.

Breakaway Remote Control

The breakaway module has a friendly and intuitive layout, making good use of status LEDs for the buttons and around the relevant rotaries. The one stereo and four mono channels each have Select buttons to bring your chosen one under the control of the rotary/push controls, which offer adjustment of gain, compression and low, mid and high EQ, plus controls for FX 1 and FX 2. The integral push switches on these controls activate the tuner and snapshot functions respectively. As a general rule, a quick double‑press bypasses or mutes the function as appropriate. LEDs around the knob show sharp or flat in tuner mode, while the mini display shows the note name. Up to five snapshots can be saved and recalled. Other control presses allow the compressor threshold and so on to be adjusted. Two small amber displays show details of the effects or snapshots, and there’s also a level control for sending to the effects loop. In a separate section to the right are master controls for SD record, main volume with mute, headphone level, loop (return) level and the looper, which follows the usual routine of hold to clear, press to record, press to play, press to overdub and double‑press to stop.

The breakaway control unit can be attached to a mic stand using the supplied mount.

An automatic gain setting feature on the inputs reads the incoming signal level and then adjusts the gain to be as high as possible without the risk of clipping. This is activated by holding down the volume control; a brief press gets you back into manual gain mode, where a red peak LED shows if things are running too hot.

Impressions

I tested the Showbox at a pub gig and, with some EQ tweaking, it gave us a well‑balanced vocal sound and a solid acoustic guitar sound, with good resistance to feedback. When you dial in a dirty guitar effect such as Overdrive or Crunch, there’s no nasty fuzziness, so it seems that some form of speaker emulation must be built into those effects. However, I did find that to get the electric guitar to sound tonally balanced, I needed to add mid boost and a touch of treble while cutting back the bass. With the EQ set flat, I felt that the sound was somewhat bass‑heavy and rather dull, though the room acoustics and the way the speaker is mounted will also affect the tonality. Likewise, although my usual vocal mic is well balanced, through the ShowBox, with the EQ set flat, the sound seemed lacking in presence and again a little over‑generous at the low end. A couple of EQ tweaks to bring up the mids and highs while pulling back the bass end gave me a nicely ‘present’ vocal sound, with plenty of EQ range left if needed.

It should be noted that there’s no phantom power available, and it can be tricky to operate the looper without the optional footswitch, because it is usually necessary to press the button at exactly the same time as you start playing. That being the case, I’d recommend adding a dual footswitch, as in a live situation it is also useful to be able to kill the effects when chatting between songs, and the second footswitch will let you do just that. Undo and redo would have been nice too, but then the looper is an extra so you can’t really expect all the functionality of a dedicated unit.

That removable mixer panel is a great idea and makes self‑mixing from the stage (or corner of the pub) much easier...

In all, then, the Mackie Showbox is a very flexible, self‑contained and eminently portable sound system for small pub/coffee shop gigs, garden parties and quality busking where mains power is not available. It accommodates acoustic guitars (with suitable pickup systems of course), electric guitars, keyboards and microphones. That removable mixer panel is a great idea and makes self‑mixing from the stage (or corner of the pub) much easier without having to rely on phone or tablet apps. The ability to record to SD card and to hook the ShowBox up to a computer for live streaming is also welcome, as is the useful range of effects that can be independently deployed for each of the four main channels. I also found the Bluetooth playback to sound pretty good with the tone controls set close to flat, and I had no trouble getting the ShowBox paired with my Mac laptop. The rechargeable battery is also included in the price, and it is easy to remove should it ever need replacing. All in all, an impressive package.

Pros

Mixer allows four mono sources and a stereo source to be mixed, with independent EQ for each input.
Bluetooth streaming and aux mini‑jack input for connecting mobile devices.
Removable mixer module makes live control easy.
Wide range of effects.
Long operating time when on battery power.
Battery included in the price.