Best Portable All-in-one PA system ~$600

[KoNGo]

Wow... thanks for the advice, guys.

So many voices, only one choice.

I read up on the ones that you guys suggested, and right now, I'm leaning toward the Fender Passport PD-250 (the deluxe model). I've heard mostly good things about it.

I saw it for $650-$700... which seems reasonable to me.

Can I hijack my own thread for a bit and ask you guys what you think of the PD-250? Anyone use this sucker?

Thanks..

David...

[franchelB]

Originally Posted by KoNGo

Wow... thanks for the advice, guys.

So many voices, only one choice.

I read up on the ones that you guys suggested, and right now, I'm leaning toward the Fender Passport PD-250 (the deluxe model). I've heard mostly good things about it.

I saw it for $650-$700... which seems reasonable to me.

Can I hijack my own thread for a bit and ask you guys what you think of the PD-250? Anyone use this sucker?

Thanks..

David...

I think you were looking at the P250! The PD is like $100 more...
As far as I can tell, the difference is only in the speakers in the "PD" version, which Bose co-designed with Fender...

[JohnZ]

There's a guy on the island using one (the deluxe Passport) and my roomate over there (also an entertainer) and I sat down and listened to him play through it for over an hour on his patio gig. He uses a Gibson 335 and a Takamine nylon, and vocals with self sequenced backround tracks. Lots of jazz and classical training. We were suprised at how good the pa sounded. Decent bass too.

In addition to the Carvin I've got two other pa rigs and four sets of speakers and I'd that Passport has a little more juice than the Carvin, unless I added a second cabinet. Anyway, for speakers smaller than 12's, the Passport ain't bad.

As to Bose, lots of folks like 'em but there's a reason they aren't in studios.

[Celtic Johnny]

I'm not going to say anything bad about other systems because I haven't heard them at all, let alone in an A-B comparison. But I own and use a Fender PD-250 so I'll go on a little bit about it.

The sound is very good and clean. I've used it in rooms approx. 40x60 +/- and crowds of up to 200 people. It has worked very well. In a church I think it would be ideal. I run a guitar (Larrivee L-03 w. K&K Pickup) and mic through it. On occasion I've run a Korg electric piano and a bodhran (Irish drum) through it at the same time.

It has 6 channels through 250 watts (actually 125 per side), rudimentary tone controls, and an odd sounding reverb. If used sparingly though, the reverb is fine. A light hand on the tone controls will yield predictable and efficient results. I purchased speaker stands separately, but I've seen them included in packaged deals. You should have them to get the speakers up in the air and isolate them from the floor.

I guess as a reccomendation, I'd have to say if it were stolen from me, I'd use the insurance to buy exactly the same thing to replace it.

[Celtic Johnny]

Originally Posted by franchelB

I think you were looking at the P250! The PD is like $100 more...
As far as I can tell, the difference is only in the speakers in the "PD" version, which Bose co-designed with Fender...

There is actually some difference in the internal wiring of the "Tower" as well. For some reason (I can't figure it) they've eliminated the possability of the tower running a monitor. There was a switch that allowed the user to plug both main speakers into one channel and a monitor into the other channel. The dual speakers become a mono source, but you have tone controls, reverb etc. on them both.

As it is set up now, one of the mains actually becomes a monitor. What I'd reccomend however is that you use a powered monitor plugged into the Aux-out jack. Either that or you are forced to sacrifice one of the Mains as a monitor.

That being said, the difference in sound between the units (as a result of the speaker redisign I suppose) is worth the money difference. IMHO