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Post subject: Using a NON-Powered Sub
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 6:13 pm
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I have the Passport 500 and I already bought a NON-powered Sub not realizing that I couldnt get it to work by simply plugging it in. Is there a mixer or device that I could add between the Passport and the sub to give it power? I'd prefer not to have a bunch of added stuff to get this going if possible.

Thanks for the help!!


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Post subject: Re: Using a NON-Powered Sub
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:03 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
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What you'd need would be the guts of a powered subwoofer, separate from the subwoofer. I just did a Google search for "subwoofer amplifier home" and saw quite a few. It would be better to find something in "subwoofer amplifier pa", but everything I found there was all about active speakers, not amps for passive speakers. The trick is getting one that matches your passive subwoofer as well as the pairing would be in a powered subwoofer.

You want it to have a 1/4" TS input and whatever output your passive speaker requires. It doesn't need a crossover -- the circuit that separates the low frequencies from the high frequencies. The Passport already does that. Having one won't hurt anything, but it's unnecessary.

Stuff I found, but can't vouch for:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--QSCGX7

I looked for a while, but this is the only one I found that actually gave specs including pictures of inputs and outputs.

I wish you well in your search. An active subwoofer would have been a lot simpler.


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Post subject: Re: Using a NON-Powered Sub
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:04 pm
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Fender Staff

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 10:53 pm
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Location: Scottsdale
Hello,

If you're trying to keep your setup as simple as possible, I would recommend getting an active (powered) subwoofer. The Passport Sub-out only provides a line level signal to feed into the input of an powered subwoofer.

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Design Engineer - Pro Audio
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Fender Musical Instruments Corp.


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Post subject: Re: Using a NON-Powered Sub
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:27 pm
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For those following this thread much after the fact, an alternate solution would be to add an amplifier capable of driving the subwoofer.

This may be significantly cheaper than adding a powered sub, particularly the QSC models, and slightly more complex than merely adding an active (powered) sub. There are many offerings, with Alto and Behringer at the low cost end of the market in early 2013.


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Post subject: Re: Using a NON-Powered Sub
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:43 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
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While I tend to agree that if the appeal of the Passport is its portability and simplicity, the best choice is to get an active sub-woofer instead of carrying your passive subwoofer and another piece of gear to make it work, if you are determined to use the passive subwoofer, you need a power amplifier. While it would be better to get a PA quality amp specifically tuned to the task of running a subwoofer, I think it would be better to get a general PA amplifier that is powerful enough to drive a subwoofer (wasting the amps capacity to drive higher frequencies that the crossover will never give it) than it would be to use a "home" quality subwoofer amplifier.

Home systems are simply not built to handle feedback. PA systems are. A home system is designed to play recordings, not live mics, and their capacity to feed back. Home amps and speakers fry when feedback happens. PA amps and speakers don't.

And no, a recording of feedback is not the same thing as actual feedback. There's this thing called "compression" that happens during recordings that limit volume level. You can't record a component-frying volume level equivalent to real PA feedback.

Home systems compromise design toward fidelity of sound. PA systems compromise design toward ruggedness.

So, you need a PA amp substantial enough to drive a PA subwoofer. It needs a volume control because the sub out port on the Passport gets its signal before the master volume on the Passport. You can only control volume on the subwoofer as a summary of the volume levels of each channel on the Passport. So, you'll want a volume control on the subwoofer so you can bring it up and down with the master volume on the Passport.

Happy hunting.


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