The Samson Expedition is a lightweight, all-in-one, portable, battery-powered PA. I do mean lightweight—this little guy is only 10 pounds. The grey cabinet with black grill is home to a one-inch high-frequency driver and six-inch woofer. The cabinet can be mounted on a speaker stand or you can employ the kick-back design and use it as a stage monitor.
Built into the cabinet is a three-channel mixer that has one combo XLR-1/4-inch input for line-level or microphone-level gear, one ¼-inch line level input, and one 1/8-inch MP3 input. With a switch of a button this physical 1/8-inch input can also control any Bluetooth paired device (your smart phone, laptop or tablet). There is a line out so that you can cascade to other Expedition Express units. The internal battery (rechargeable) is good for about eight hours of continual use.
Focus on functionality
The Expedition Express is an interesting piece of gear. It is by far the most compact and portable PA I have ever used. Other manufactures have a small battery-powered PA, but none have focused (and succeeded) so much on portability. The Expedition Express is small enough to travel on the dashboard of your car. I had quite a few shows this past month and I found myself throwing the Expedition Express in the truck at the last minute, simply because it was so easy to travel with. I didn't have to think about not having enough space for it.
As a music playback device it worked amazingly well.
As a music playback device it worked amazingly well. I could place the PA in the lobby or hallway during a church event and instantly have great sounding background music. The cabinet is small enough that it was never in the way or distracting to the layout of a room. Remember, you don't have to plug in any wires for it to work in this manner. The internal batteries last for hours—and I was easily able to pair it to my iPhone and wirelessly transmit audio. Once I realized how easy this application was, I started using the Expedition Express around the house with my iPhone or Android tablet to play music—it sounded great. Alright, back to “official” uses....
Let's get something straight here. Since this PA was designed with portability in mind, it's not going to fill a 1,000-seat auditorium. Samson is really pushing this toward boardrooms, classrooms and recreational uses (playing music around the house or on the beach). I learned the limits of the Expedition Express by testing it in various ways. The first was with music playback. Initially I had only used it as a playback device in a background music scenario and it worked great. My question was “how loud can it get?” What if I had a larger outdoor event? Could I provide music for a youth group activity or a church picnic and fill a large space? I took the Expedition Express into a larger 500-seat capacity room, put some music through it and cranked it up. I was surprised when I saw that I was reaching the mid 90s on my SPL meter. I don't believe that it was designed to really crank the SPL (I cranked it loud enough that the cabinet began to rattle a bit), but at least I learned that this little guy could put out some SPL.
Personal testing
Now taking the task of vocals and a line-level instrument was a bit of a different story. My first testing involved just me and my acoustic guitar. I set up a vocal mic on a stand, sat down on a stool, plugged my guitar in, and put the Expedition Express in a kick mode, “monitor”-type position. I was able to set the levels accordingly so that it sounded pretty good. The built-in mixer has individual volume controls, but the bass and treble controls are global, so I could not EQ the guitar and vocal separately. This was a bit of a struggle but I eventually found a happy medium where they both sounded good. In this manner, the PA worked fine as a practice PA.
I tried using this same type of setup for in a small performance situation. I had a friend who was leading worship for a small group of people (30-50) at a gathering the following night. Using the Expedition Express in this situation, I put the speaker up on a stand (really easy because of its lightweight design) plugged in a vocal mic and guitar, and then I began dialing in the sound for the room. I quickly found the end of what the PA can do in this room. For both the mic and instrument input, I discovered that when you turn them up about 3/4 of the way, the internal compressor/feedback filters kick in. The last quarter turn doesn't actually increase volume; it just compresses the signal more. That part of the circuit must exist in the master output section. I backed off the inputs of both to where it was loud, but not compressing, and walked around the room. At this level it was just at the threshold of what I needed for the room. I wish it were just a bit louder because later on that evening the voices of the people singing overpowered the PA. The voice and guitar of the leader could be heard, but it was hard to compete with the people singing loudly. Less than ideal, but the leader's talking and praying could be heard.
While it was a bit unfortunate that the Expedition Express did not stand up to this task, I still recommend the PA. It really just comes down to application. Can I recommend this for MP3 payback uses? Absolutely. Worship leading with a small group? Probably not. Would it be great at an outdoor gathering for simple public address, praying and teaching? Yes. I also think that this PA would work great in any Sunday school situation where the teacher might lead a song on a piano and vocal, but where a host of adult voices won't be competition. At nearly every outdoor festival where I have worked recently, there is a dedicated small speaker at FOH and monitor world so that the FOH and monitor guys can talk to each other on dedicated vocal mics. This allows them to bypass any radios or Clear-Com chatter. The Expedition Express would be killer for this. In fact, I plan on picking up a few for this application.
So the applications and uses for this great little PA are plentiful. I'm sure most would find more than a few applications for the product in various situations. At a street price of about $200, the Samson Expedition Express Portable PA with Bluetooth is a great compact, easily transportable solution.
