Expedition Express in these pages and the XP106W is like a big brother at about twice the weight. Also pole-mountable, the XP106W has a rechargeable battery for up to 20-hours of continuous operation and its Class-D amplifier supplies up to 100-watts of audio power to the 6-inch woofer and 1-inch dome tweeter.
I especially like the rear-panel’s built-in 4-channel mixer for dialing in just the right combination of up to four input sources. There are inputs for XLR microphone, keyboard or direct guitar; 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch line input jacks; an included Stage XPD1 2.4GHz Digital Wireless microphone system; and the Bluetooth® input mates to any BT enable device.
The rear panel also has an on/off switch, battery level LED indicator, a connector for the included battery charger, and a Music/Speech switch for optimized speech (PA) or music playback.
An impromptu audio/video presentation in a small conference room is the perfect application for the XP106W. An assistant can play music from his Samsung phone over Bluetooth and fade the music level up/down remotely on cue from the presenter.
Next the XP106W provided the day’s music background for a garage sale and it is nice not to have to find power for it out on my driveway. Occasionally I used the handheld mic to announce bottom line “take it away specials!”
Samson Technologies Expedition XP106W Portable PA is a modern approach to setting up a music sound system/PA wirelessly with little effort. It sells for $299.99 MSRP.
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs, and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. http://barryrudolph.com
