Fender Passport P-250

This is a review of the original Fender Passport P-250, produced in the late 1990s. I have owned two of these models. Since then the model has been superseded by the PD-250 Passport Deluxe and the Fender PD-250 Plus, which have different/improved specifications.
The unit comprises a 125 watt per channel, stereo power amplifier/mixer and two speakers which cleverly clip on to the front and back of the unit to form a suitcase. The speakers use 4 x 6.5in drivers and are in sealed boxes, increasing their bass response. They do a reasonable job, but the Bose units, used in later Passport models, are apparently better.
The two speakers and power tower are made of rigid plastic. While it's relatively light and robust, it is prone to dings and scratches, especially if you don't use a protective cover. The speaker clips should never be forced. I've never had one break on me, but I'm aware that they can go. The speaker rubber gaskets are good, and keep out moisture, should you encounter light rain.

The Passport's mixer section has four channels, with unbalanced 1/4-inch line and balanced mic inputs, and two additional stereo line-in channels. So, in effect you have a six-channel mixer. On occasions, I have used an additional four-channel mixer, linked into the stereo line ins, to boost the number of channels.
According to the original Fender manual for this unit, the P-250 is rated at 125 watts per channel continuous average power into 4 or 8 ohms. After recently querying this figure with Fender UK, it confirmed that the P-250 is 125 watts per channel RMS. However in my experience (of owning two units), 125 watts RMS per channel is rather optimistic. I'd say it was nearer to 100 watts RMS per channel at the very most. If you are looking for brute power, look elsewhere. It simply hasn't got it. What it has got, if you set it up correctly, is very good clean power, ideal for clean vocals and miking some instruments, provided you don't want heavy bass. If you overpush the speakers, they start sounding very harsh indeed.
Other technical details: Frequency: 20Hz to 40kHz +/-1dB (at send output); 30Hz to 30kHz (at speaker output, with processor threshold exceeded).
It has a thermal cut-out if the unit gets overhot or there is a short somewhere along the signal path.
Overall dimensions of Passport suitcase: 840mm (33.7in) wide x 615mm (24.2in) high x 300mm (11.8in) deep. Weight: 24kg (53lb). It is just about manageable by one person. I normally use a trolley to transport it from car to venue.
The speaker wiring and mic leads supplied with the unit are poor and should be replaced by better quality items for improved sound and durability.

Extremely clean sound, not very bassy. It can sound a bit shrill if you're not careful. It suited the low-powered soul-jazz quartet that I was in very well, but is rather pushed with the louder, more bluesy unit that I'm in now. The EQ, aimed at first-time PA users, takes a bit of getting used to. I'd far prefer conventional treble, middle and bass controls.
I've found that the Fender P51 microphones are surprisingly good, by the way. I've also used two Shure SM58s, and find that the P51s are very compatible and have a little bit more top on them, which is useful if you've got a mellow or mumbling vocalist who you need to lift in the mix.

The Passport P-250 is a portable, 125 watt per channel stereo PA, aimed at a very wide range of users, not necessarily musicians, and particularly people who not au fait with PA (hence the simplified EQ controls). Designed to fold into a suitcase for transport, it comprises an amplifier/mixer tower, and two speakers which clip onto the front and back of the tower to form the suitcase. It includes two Fender P51 mikes, and all leads, which fit neatly inside a deep flap on the back of the mixer section. The only thing it requires, and I can definitely recommend them, are sensible, solid speaker stands to lift the speakers above the audience and to increase coverage. The sound quality is vastly improved by using the stands. Otherwise the Passport is a complete PA package, but one with a number of limitations.
Any prospective buyer needs to be aware that the Passport is strictly a lightweight PA, ideal for vocal work, miking of acoustic/electric guitars, wind instruments and DI'd keyboards, in small venues, with a low-powered backline. If that's your bag, your music is low-powered, and you need some quality vocals on top, you should consider the Passport. But if you're looking for brute power, heavy bass and miking all your instruments (particularly bass), you need to look elsewhere; the Passport simply won't do it, and it would be a poor purchase.
I was in a London-based Hammond-led soul-jazz quartet for nine years. We had a Passport for five years, and it proved extremely useful for vocals, vocal announcements between numbers, miking an electric guitar to give a little bit of extra spread, miking the odd wind instrument, and providing sound FX from a CD player during numbers. In addition, we used it for providing background music from a CD player between sets. On all these counts, it was a terrific performer, because we respected the PA's limitations. For example, we initially tried to mike the band's double bass through the Passport, but the sound was awful, and was pushing the speakers way beyond what they were capable of. So, the band retained ts backline, and we had a nice lightweight and reasonably transportable vocal PA outfront. I've seen other acoustic groups using the Passport; it seems to work well in this environment.
In addition, away from the band I've used the Passport to mike up a six-piece acoustic group (without drums), and had quite a loud disco going through the Passport after their set. While I was extremely pushed to mike six instruments (having to use an additional mixer), I was complemented on the sound quality that I achieved. The disco later on was OK, but was too harsh in my view, and was definitely beginning to push the Passport's speakers too much for my liking.
Other features include a vocal priority "ducking" feature on channel 1. I've never used it myself, but I would imagine it's useful for conference work.
The on-board reverb is metallic and verging on useless, but adds a little extra for vocals. If you need reverb, it's better to use an add-on reverb unit.
I've rarely used the monitoring option, you can use one speaker as your outfront, and the other one, with a different mix, as your monitor, but it's useful to have for very low-powered gigs.
What would be far more useful would be purpose-built monitor out sockets; it's probably one of the P-250's biggest failings, but the gear is designed for use in small venues where you shouldn't need foldback in the first place.
After some months of experimenting, I discovered that you can take a 1/4-inch jack mono line from the reverb out section, and run it into powered floor monitors. This method works, but there are compromises.

Highly dependable. At one stage the PA mixer section had a full pint of lager thrown over the back of it, and yet, once we'd sponged it down, it suffered no problems. I hear from a technical engineer that the Passport is a bit of a bugger to work on as there's very little room to manoeuvre inside the mixer cabinet and that the wiring looms are very tight, so I hope that the reliability continues. The plastic casing, as I mentioned before, is prone to dings and scratches.
Decent monitoring is probably the P-250's biggest bug-bear. After some advice from other Passport users and some experimentation, I finally managed to achieve reasonable and controllable foldback monitoring out of the P-250. The key is using the reverb send.
Set up the PA as standard, but come down completely on the reverb master, and individual channel reverb/aux sends.
Connect a powered monitor to the reverb send via a standard guitar jack lead. Set volumes and EQ up for front of house. Then drop master volumes completely and set up a separate mix for the monitor using the individual channel reverb/aux sends, adjusting volume and tone on the monitor.
Once happy with the monitor mix (which is mono, but perfectly acceptable), drop the master volume on the monitor, bring up the front of house mix on the Passport, and then carefully bring up the monitor volume, making any adjustments as you go.
This method gives you some of the advantages of the main/monitor option, that the P250 already offers (different mixes for FOH and monitor, no reverb on the monitors - useful) and EQing for FOH and monitor (sadly the same, but workable), However, the advantage is that it allows you to run at a full 125 watts per channel FOH and whatever power your powered monitor is running at, compared with 125 watts FOH and 125 watts monitor.
The downside is less controllable reverb, and you can't add in an auxilary reverb unit, as you're using that loop to feed the monitors. Therefore you're stuck with the Passport's rather feeble and metallic internal reverb. Reverb is definitely tricky, as any channels requiring reverb on FOH can have them, but there may be a compromise on the monitor mix as the each channel's reverb/aux control is now doubling as a reverb and monitor mix control. That's the area that needs the most care and attention.
Nevertheless, it's workable, and in a gigging situation. My soul-jazz quartet had a Laney 65 watt powered monitor and slave speaker added to our regular P250 set-up, and it worked well, providing me with monitoring for vocals, a bit of miked guitar (from the guitarist over the other side of the stage), some CD sound fx that we used in a number, and some vocals from a guest vocalist on a couple of numbers. Being able to use the P-250 with reasonable foldback certainly makes it more adaptable.