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Post subject: Passport 500 Pro at outdoor gig
Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:50 am
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Just used my Passport 500 Pro at an outdoor gig for about 100 people at a "Garden Party" at tables under a tent/canopy. Vocals and acoustic guitar sounded great with plenty of volume. I love this system. :D


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Post subject: Re: Passport 500 Pro at outdoor gig
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:57 am
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Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:08 pm
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That's great to hear. I just got my system a month or so ago, and love it too! I'm using it to host an open mic night at a local bar. I have three mics, two acoustic guitars and a bass guitar all plugged into at times. I've had compliments on the sound of the system; Comparitively, I was borrowing a Bose Tonematch system before and got sick of carrying all the components around. I also love the USB recording function; it sounds great, too...


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Post subject: Re: Passport 500 Pro at outdoor gig
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:23 am
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I run sound at a local dance using the sponsor's sound system, and elsewhere using a Passport 500 and a Passport 300 that I own. The contrasts are all about portability.

The other system uses two Mackey speakers that each weigh as much as one of the entire Passport systems (amp and two speakers). I bust a gut getting each of these speakers up onto the most expensive speaker stands I've ever seen, with special ratchet settings to help me lift the speaker up to its functional height.

By contrast, I got the cheapest speaker stands I could find, which are aluminum, light, and extremely functional. I put the stand up to full height and then easily lift the 15 pound Passport speaker up to its functional height.

The host's amp is an ancient monster with 16 channels (channel 7 is dead with masking tape on it so nobody forgets). There's a stereo/mono button, pan knobs for each channel (which either pan between "left and right" in stereo mode, or "amp 1 and amp 2" in mono mode. We use mono mode exclusively, crank the dance caller all the way to Amp 1 and put everyone in the band cranked to Amp 2. Each channel has a trim knob at the top, a monitor knob (which confusingly gets its signal AFTER the trim knob, so adjusting trim changes the monitor mix), three EQ knobs, the pan knob, and a volume slider. Everything then goes to an Amp 1 master volume slider, or an Amp 2 master volume slider, a Main master volume slider, and a Monitor master volume slider.

This system is so massively overpowered for the venue that the master volume can never be slid up past a setting of about 2 to 3 out of 10. The system is confusing as hell. There are three 1/4" output ports for each speaker, only one of which provides a speaker-level signal (the others are line level signals for powered speakers). It's easy to plug into the wrong port, unless you "know the system". Everything requires "knowing the system". The manual was lost years ago, and the only way to "learn the system" is to have someone who "knows the system" teach you. Meanwhile, different teachers have completely different understandings of how this works and how to set it up.

By comparison, the Passport, as you well know, is easy to just look at and figure out, and in the venues I do dances for, the master volume is around 50%-80% of its range. There's still headroom, but the amp is working about as hard as it was designed to work, instead of at the bottom of its power range, where the EQ can be a real trick to get right on most PA systems.

There is no "Trim". All of the extras in this system make sense. And if I do need the manual, I can either go to Fender's Web site and look at it in a Web browser, or, I've downloaded the .pdf onto my iPad. I may lose the paper manual. I won't lose the iPad.

The one thing that is NOT a huge contrast between these two systems is the quality of the sound. If anything, the Passport sounds clearer. And when I need to rock (techno-contra with a DJ), I add a powered subwoofer. I don't bother carrying that around when I don't need it, since it weighs about 1.5 times as much as the Passport 500. I use a hand truck for the woofer. I just carry the Passport.

Yes, I love this system. I've been using this for a couple years now. I still love it. Every time I have to use something else, I come home and love the Passport even more.


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