$500-$800 Budget, pretty clueless and need some input/help

[celticrogues]

I played in a band for a few years that used the Fender Passport system as our primary PA. Its great because its extremely portable - but plenty powerful for smaller venues and houses. We used it at houses, coffee shops and restaurants mostly, and it always sounded great, was easy to set up, take down, and haul around, and was plenty powerful for us.

There's a more powerful version that sells for $1000 but the 300 watt version is in your price range:

Fender Passport 300 Pro Portable PA System | Musician's Friend

I think ours was a 250 watt (older) version.

Cheers!
-Mike

[TBA]

thanks for the input! I'll check that out

[Aeolian]

The Fender Passport is a vocal reinforcement system. It ain't gonna bump. Actually, for that budget there's nothing that will last or be reliable. Some judicious shopping for used gear will let you start building something up. If you need something right now, you may as well go for the carpet covered Gemini stuff. If you can go slowly you may be able to collect some used Eons or something. Yorkville is also a good budget brand. Some used EVs or whatever. If you're going for keepers, stay away from things like the JBL JRX line. You may as well get the carpet covered things at the flea market. Same with EV eliminators. The JBL MRX and older M-pro are a good baseline to start from.
I know this isn't what you want to hear. And I'm not being elitist. But after reconing 4 EVM sub drivers, I learned the hard way that modern music is tough on the low end. I just did a dance recital with a couple of home built Cubo18 subs. But the pair of 18Sound LW1400 drivers in them are beyond your budget, not to mention the Crest Pro9200 amp driving them that relegated the QSC PLX3404 I used to use to monitor duty because the Crest would keep up when the 808s kicked in. If you want it to bump instead of fart, it's going to take a bit more.