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Second hand Martin MAC 550


tomy364

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How is your experience with second hand moving heads? I have a great offer for mac 550 old about 3 years and about 2500-3000 working hours in good working condition!

 

What do you think about this? How many hours could mac 550 hold on without failure!??

 

THNX

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How is your experience with second hand moving heads? I have a great offer for mac 550 old about 3 years and about 2500-3000 working hours in good working condition!

 

What do you think about this? How many hours could mac 550 hold on without failure!??

 

THNX

 

Depends on its history really. Has it come from a reputable hire company, who will have looked after it (at the very least, flightcases and a regular clean), or an ebay style, where you have no idea of it's past? Has it been on tour or installed?

 

I'd be surprised if you have many major issues - we've got 500's and 600's which were ex-hire in the past, and they're still going strong. In the past 2 years year, 1 out of 12 has been off for serious repair, with a replacement shutter motor. Oh, and replacing one magenta colour plate from a 600, but thats just people being careless :) . So don't consider that too bad going really.

 

We've also got some Mini Macs, which, considering how old they are and their history, its astonishing that 6 out of the 8 are still going strong! Certainly the hire company we bought them off can't believe they're still running! Again, whilst they went out, they were always flightcased, regularly cleaned up etc.

 

So I think, in general, depends on their history!

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A simple equation...

 

365(days) X 3 (Years) x 24 (hours in a day) / 2500 (hours)

 

The units have been used an average of 10-11 hours per day 7 days a week over their lifetime.

 

That's a lot of useage, and without knowing what type of maintenance policy the owner has, and what you actually class as a bargain, then it's almost impossible to say.

 

Knowing the asking price would help a lot.

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Hey Lightsource,

 

I think you got the math a bit off-- it would be

 

(2500)/(3*365) = 2.28 hours per day

 

divide 2500 hours over 3 years, then divide the 833 hours by 365 days, and you get the 2.28.

 

Sorry to give a math lesson... No offense intended-- I've done that enough times.

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Don't forget that a single mover isn't really a lot of use. A pair can be handy, but one?

 

As a value for a single 550, then it depends what it's worth to you. I don't want them, but if I saw a pair, working on eBay for a grand, I might be tempted. They were around five grand, weren't they, so perhaps a grand each might be ok if buyers are out there, but if it's a one-off, then the buyers are going to be people who already have one, and fancy an extra unit.

 

If it came from a studio, then is it one of the ones that have been auctioned off in the past year - plenty of those around, and they went for rather too much, I seem to remember.

 

If you have a few of them, and one is sick or dead, then maybe you'd pay more. For me, a one off has no value at all so I'm not interested in silly money - just novelty money. Somebody else might consider a grand as cheap. Second hand prices are often just what somebody is willing to pay, and have no link with 'real' pricing.

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I thought the Mac550 was the 'not spoken about light'... a kinda mistake. I beleive it wasnt in the market for long and was replaced with the 575 Kyrpton.

 

I have used the 550s years ago and I seem to remember them being good units, the hours arent that much dependant on what enviorment they are in and the maintinance they've had. Its hard to say how long a unit will last without knowing its history, but some 250 Kryptons I service with over double the amount of hours and 5years+ in a hot nightclub are still going strong, although some heavy maintinance has been carried out.

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I thought the Mac550 was the 'not spoken about light'... a kinda mistake. I beleive it wasnt in the market for long and was replaced with the 575 Kyrpton.

I very much doubt that the 550 was a mistake, without them there wouldn't be a Mac 700 Profile (or even Wash) and we wouldn't want that would we?

 

If you ever have a look inside the 550 then at the back of the unit (Where the lamp and shutter module is) there is a pretty big gap there with nothing to fill it, open up a Mac 700 Profile and that gap has handily been filled with a CMY Colour mixing module... No mistake at all, simply a stepping stone to a better fixture and a move away from the ageing 500!

 

Cheers

 

Dan

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The MAC 550 was never a Mistake, and as you say the MAC 700's were born from it. However the MAC 550 had some well documented problems from day 1 and the MAC 700 is only as good and as reliable as it is because of the lessons learnt from the MAC 550 issues. By the time the 550 was discontinued it was a cracking unit, very bright and reliable it never really recovered from its poor reputation.
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