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Post subject: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:06 am
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Can I connect 2 Passport P-250's together ? So I have 500 wattts ,250 per channel ?
Thanks


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:42 pm
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The P-250 has a pair of RCA ports marked "Tape Out" which provide a signal on one unit that can be patched to the RCA ports on channels "Stereo-1" or "Stereo-2".

Technically, a single P-250 is already two 125 watt amps. One is the "Left" amp and the other is the "Right" amp, so to get 500 watts of sound, you'll have four 125 watt speakers (two connected to each of your two P-250s).

I use a similar link with a 1/8" TRS Stereo patch cable between a 300 Pro and a 500 Pro. If the hall acoustics are bad (lots of feedback or echo), it helps to spread the speakers around the room so that no one in the crowd is very far from a speaker, so you can use less volume and still be heard well. If the acoustics are better, then putting them in a straight line creates a nice wall of sound that spreads the treble nicely with all the overlap of those tweeters. It gives very consistent sound as you move around the room, instead of the usual kinda dead spot near the center of the stage between the speakers, and too much volume standing next to the speaker along the sides.

In other words, you don't just get more wattage. You get clear sound spread more evenly around the audience.


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:54 pm
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I have 4 speakers. I'm not sure I understand how to hook the 2 passports together.
Where do I plug into on each unit ?

Don't I want to run all 4 speakers from 1 passport ?

Don't I connect the 2 passports together then just use the 1 to connect my speakers and to manage my volume ,bass ,treble ?
The second just provides additional wattage, power ?

Sorry I don't exactly understand how to do this.


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:30 am
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It helps to understand the basics of what subcomponents do in systems like this.

Start with sound sources. Mostly, it's either microphones or "line level" instrument sources.

The XLR ports on your input channels are expected to be weak "mic level" signals. They go through a "mic pre-amp" to make the signal stronger. These boosted signals bring the microphone's signal up to "line level".

Instruments plugged into the 1/4" TS ports on your input channels are assumed to already be line level, so they skip the pre-amp. Also, some line-level sound sources use XLR, so you have a "Pad" button that bypasses the pre-amp for the XLR inputs.

So, now all your input signals are "line level", and they get mixed together in the mixer built into your Passport. If you link together two Passports, you want to put all your sound sources into the input channels on one of the two Passports.

That line-level signal is then split. Part of it goes to the two power amps (one for "left" and one for "right", also known as "Main" and "Monitor"). Output from those two amps go out to speakers.

The other half of that split goes to the Tape Out RCA jacks on the Passport P-250. You can take an RCA patch cord and connect this output from the Passport with your inputs plugged into it and plug it into either your Stereo 1 input or Stereo 2 input. Either one lets you connect with two RCA ports, exactly what you get at the other end of the cable you've plugged into the Tape Out ports.

So, for the second Passport P-250, the only input is that one RCA patch cable. That gives you the premixed, line-level signal that it passes on to it's two power amps to power speakers connected to it.

So, you want two speakers plugged into one Passport, and two speakers plugged into the other Passport, with all your sound sources plugged into one Passport, and it's Tape Out connected to one of the Stereo channels on your other Passport.

Is that clear enough? Let me know if I've lost you on a curve by not describing things well enough.


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 12:44 pm
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So now it seems too simple.
I use a RCA patch cord (red&white)from Passport #1 from the "tape out" to the stereo 1 or stereo 2 channels (whichever) on Passport #2.
I also run 1 set of speakers from passport #1.
Passport #2 will have the other 2 speakers connected to it.

Into Passport #1, I will run my laptop to play music via 1/8"TRS cable to RCA plugs for stereo channel 1. I will also connect my microphone into Passport #1.

I guess the only question is volume control.
Do I set controls on Passport #2 at mid-point and then adjust Passport #1 ? Or do I need to set volume individually on each passport,for each set of speakers ?
*********************************************************************
I thought I had read in another post that you connect your two Passports and then operate everything from the one main Passport (laptop ,microphone and speakers all into the main Passport),having volume controls on second one set at the mid-point ?? Do you recognize what I am referring to ??
Thank you


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:39 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Where you set volumes is somewhat arbitrary, with one guiding principle:

If the volume for a specific sound is really high in one place in a chain and really low somewhere else in the chain, then you increase the likelihood of magnifying noise more than signal.

So, while you shouldn't drive yourself nuts on this, generally get the volume level roughly where you want it out of all the speakers with the volume knobs roughly in the same range throughout the system. If you want low volume, have it somewhat low mostly everywhere. If you want high volume, crank it up pretty high mostly everywhere.

It won't be equal everywhere. That's not a problem. The sound is more important than the position of the knobs. Move the knobs in order to get the sound you want, but just avoid having one volume really low with the rest set really high, or it will be noisier than if things were more balanced.

To more directly answer your question, start out maybe 1/4 volume everywhere and adjust upward as needed, spreading the upward bump around until you have the balance between the channels that you want at the volume that you want. In particular, if you have a computer as a sound source, keep the computer itself turned up to at least near half volume. Higher is better, unless it starts clipping.

Computers generate noise. Sound cards pick up that noise. If your music on the computer is not turned up loud enough, the noise makes up a bigger piece of the sound coming out of the computer.


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:11 pm
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Ok, so neither Passport is the "main" system.
What about this , ( I'll have to search for the posting )

I thought I had read in another post that you connect your two Passports and then operate everything from the one main Passport (laptop ,microphone and speakers all into the main Passport),having volume controls on second one set at the mid-point ?? Do you recognize what I am referring to ??
Thank you

I found the post I was referring to. It was by you . So I guess I misunderstood something in it , posting.php?mode=edit&f=24&p=1011361


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 6:31 am
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One Passport is the primary MIXER. This is where all the sound sources get plugged in and the volume levels balanced to suit your purpose. That's the one the patch cable plugs into Tape Out.

The other Passport is basically being used as a repeater. You are not really mixing anything on this second Passport. You are just passing the already mixed signal along to the power amps adding another pair of 125 watt amplifiers, each driving one speaker.

The primary Passport also has a pair of 125 watt power amps, each driving one speaker, for a total of 500 watts coming out of four speakers. So, one passport is the primary mixer, but both passports are peers in terms of power amplification.


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 1:51 pm
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So to do this with a 300 Pro and a 500 Pro, would you come out of the Stereo Out mini-jack on one unit and then into the Stereo In mini-jack on the second unit?

Thanks.


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Post subject: Re: 2 passports together ?
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:08 pm
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Yep. That's exactly what you do. I do this often. Typically, I do the mixing on the 500, so I have a mixer with more channels, and I have the option of recording on the 500.


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