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I'm looking for a PA and don't want to spend a lot of money. When I was playing with my band, we had a Traynor 6400 with columns and it did the trick - but we stopped playing and I ended up selling it. Yeah... I probably should've known better

BUT anyway.
I'm looking for one again; and I'm cheap. And kind of looking for the same by default, because I know it...
but I know people have improvised using a powered mixer... bass amp head, etc. Maybe I'm missing something?
Our room is going to be pretty tiny again, and we can get loud; but it doesn't have to be a beast of a system.

What are youze guys using?

Our most hassle-free setup was Peavy HiSys tops with some Peavy bass bins. They're pretty heavy, despite being passive BUT they always sounded fine, even if there were a few more bits to lug about. They also seem to come up for sale a lot, usually really cheap. Not the fanciest option out there but, as is the way with old Peavy stuff, it did the job and could take a beating.

Define 'cheap'?

These days I'd just go powered speakers and a mixer.

Sounds like your definition of cheap isn't too far off from mine

Was looking the other way 'round, at powered mixers and passive speakers - but the other way 'round is something I hadn't considered. Thanks, Andy!
There seem to be some reasonably priced (used) all-in-1, wedged floor monitors that I'm thinking might also work. Our room is small and this thing we're doing isn't as loud/noisy as what we were doing before...

Thanks for the responses, so far.

I use a 5 channel Laney Theatre PA amp (around £50) into a Hartke 2x10XL cab. Two mikes and 3 inputs for guitars or what ever. Cheap, light and surprisingly nice sounding.

Well...decent powered speakers won't be as cheap as passives and an old powered mixer found on Craigslist, but my experiences with powered mixers running into cheap/ancient PA bins is finding that the system invariably ends up being an underpowered, poor sounding POS and me wishing I had something better to use.

Sorry I mightn't have been that helpful after all!

It appears it's not that much cheaper, afterall, but you're right. Underpowered was the issue with our first. Even though it was a small room, we had terrible issues with feedback because it was too underpowered. We swapped up to a Traynor 6400 and it was perfect. I suspect it'd do the trick again - and they're usually plentiful and cheap... but I'm having difficulty rounding one up atm.

We get the space in a couple of weeks, so I think for now, we're going to try and get away using our drummer's unused bass amp. Pretty sure it'll do until we get something else happening.

I've run a Mackie 1202 into my Vibro Champ a few times in a pinch for solo acoustic shows.

I think a 1202 is a great basis for a cheap PA if you're just using it for vocals. The cheapest I'm seeing is $75-$80 for a used one. Really versatile piece of gear.

It should not be too tough to scare up a serviceable power amp and some speakers.

Rackmount verbs and compressors are dirt cheap these days too.

We use a passive Mackie mixer for voice and bass, thru a powered Pyle Pro something. It works