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Post subject: Passport 250 Line Inputs Have Little Power
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:06 am
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:18 am
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I bought a used 250 and tried to plug my mic into the line input #1 (because the mic runs through a "double track" box). There was almost no power. To hear anything I had to turn all power knobs up fully.

So I decided to plug the mic directly into the "mic input". This works fine. Lots of power. But, if I want to use line input #2 (or #3 or #4 for that matter) for a guitar or piano, again no (or little) power as above. I called Fender and they said I might need a pre-amp for the guitar (which I then tried) and it works fine.

My question is: Why do I need any other (power) devices if this system is supposed to be so great by itself? I was looking for more simplicity.

Thanks for any help or ideas.

Rich


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Post subject: Re: Passport 250 Line Inputs Have Little Power
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:57 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
Industry standard equipment mics use XLR cables and have "mic level" signals. Industry standard electric guitars, keyboards and pretty much anything else that uses 1/4" plugs give "line level" signals. Line level is a lot louder than mic level.

So, your unit is designed to treat any 1/4" sound source appropriately for line level signals, and the XLR inputs handle mics just fine. Some line level equipment also use XLR, though that's more rare, which is why you have a "PAD" button next to each XLR input that cuts the volume down by 20db, basically converting a line level signal to mic level.

This is all normal stuff. Acoustic guitar pickups often use microphones or piezoelectric elements that give mic level signals, but they still use 1/4" cables. Good ones have pre-amps built in (and require 9v batteries). Mine does. These give you a line level signal.

If the pickup is cheap, part of making them cheap is leaving out the pre-amp. So, you have to buy a pre-amp to make those work.

And some microphones use cables with a 1/4" plug. They shouldn't. They just do. Likely, this is to connect to amps that don't have XLR inputs, like a guitar amp. Some cables have XLR at the mic end and 1/4" at the amp end. Don't use these. Replace them with actual XLR cables.

Many power amps have a wide-range volume control they call "trim" at the top of the channel stack that can be turned down a lot for line level signals or turned up a lot for mic level signals. Below that, you have monitor volume, two or three EQ controls, effects out, built-in effects, pan, and a volume slider, plus maybe some switches and a couple more knobs, all to be more "versatile", so you can bi-amp your signal, or run stereo, or half a dozen modes you'll probably never use. This gets complicated.

The Fender Passport is designed to not be so complicated. It's not so touchy to adjust, like trim controls are. It just assumes that you are using industry-standard equipment and keeps it simple.

If you don't use industry standard XLR connectors for mic signals (and some line level signals) and industry standard 1/4" connectors for line level signals, then you may have to buy a preamp. That's the cost of the simplicity of the controls.


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Post subject: Re: Passport 250 Line Inputs Have Little Power
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 5:50 am
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Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:18 am
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Thanks for the very informative and very useful reply. I've leaned much from it.


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