Yamaha Stagepas 300 Powered Mixer

StagePAS 300

My band was booked to play a 50th birthday party gig weeks in advance but a week before the gig the singer pulled out and the sax player cancelled leaving me on my own. Great. Me and a guitar keeping 75 people entertained for three hours? - Not a chance. I did have the trusty MP3 player though - a night's work on my PC and I had a disco set worthy of John Travolta himself. The client was willing to take a disco instead of a band - cheaper too.

The PA proved a problem - the band's gear is far too big to get into one boot and my own 12" PA cabs mixer and rack amp are too large for one man to carry around.

A Google on small PA's revealed the phrase - "a PA should only be as big as you're willing to carry". Based on portability I whittled the list down to a choice between the Fender Passport and the Yamaha StagePAS 300. I looked at specs and aesthetics and read reviews and user group discussions but in the end it was the cost that money determined the final choice. That and the fact that the Yamaha looks serious whereas the Passport looks like it should come with a doll's tea service. Sorry, Fender, but it does look like the Super Spy Suitcase Set I had when I was a kid.

So then I found myself at the local Yamaha dealer.

A tryout in the shop showed it to have impressive sound, it looked neat and tidy and it was SMALL!! A flash of the plastic and I was heaving it into the boot of my car. Straight out of the box into the gig. I'd brought some speaker stands but I wish the salesman had told me I needed adapters. Too late to go back so up on chairs the speakers went.

The StagePAS is very easy to set up, very easy to use and sounds really rather nice. Within seconds I had Perry Como sliding out of the speakers (this was a 50th birthday remember) and the crowd relaxed and got on with the serious business of loading in booze and peanuts. The sound was clear all around the garden and I was surprised the 8 inch speakers could project sound so well. The bass carried across and the high ends were as sweet as my old ears could tell. The client had a stint on a mike (Speech! Speech!) and I used the speech/music button to brighten up the voice. A nice touch that saves you having to fiddle with the EQ.

EQ - ah yes, the EQ is simple but quite effective with a good boost and cut if you want to boost or cut something, anything.

There is a simple reverb built in which is a little twee, nothing much happens until you wind up the reverb control a long way. I'd like to see some more digital FX built - and aux sends and returns and sub woofer outputs and - but hey- the attraction of this system is its simplicity and it's low price. Adding more to it will be over kill and then I'd be back to lugging 15" mains and 18" sub woofers. Keep it simple. KISS - you've heard that before.

Later on as the fluids flowed and the feet loosened I got to the more lively music and the crowd started to hop along in time. As the night wore on the volume got louder (as it does) , the crowd got wilder (as they do) and the StagePAS took it all in it's stride, ending up at near full belt filling the garden area with music clear enough and loud enough for the twenty or so stalwarts with energy left to dance. The neighbours weren't bothered because they were all invited, most of them blotto on garden chairs.

Kicking out time came and I packed the system away in seconds. Someone had spilled something sticky on one of the speaker cables so it took me a little longer than I expected but in short order I'd loaded up the Skoda and was on my way home.

All in all the StagePAS performed extremely well.

My final verdict is that the StagePAS is worth buying. It is a handy bit of kit for any small to medium gig I would have no hesitation in using this for my band - our singer might not like to stand with such tiny cabs though. The StagePAS may be small, but it certainly doesn't sound that way - a bit like my Mam's Yorkshire terrier. And we wouldn’t have to lug the big cabs up the fire escape into the back room of the Dog And Bracket again.

By the way - I'd recommend buying a case for it as the mixer knobs are a bit exposed when mounted. The Yamaha case is a tad pricey so I'd be tempted to head off to the market one morning and look at the suitcase stalls.

Oh – if you buy one of these then make sure you buy the speaker stand adapters as well - this will save you a journey - (salesmen wake up!!)