Ampeg pf500

The manual says the aux in plays through the headphone jack only nowhere else. So you will not get any audio out through the Speakers connected to the amp

 

Manuals are never exciting, if you think the pf500 manual is dry, wait until you see your car's manual.

 

Oof.
That's actually a bummer. Valid design choice for sure but it would be a deal breaker for me. Great sounding amp, but yeah, I prefer to be able to go loud and proud in the room when I practice. I have good active monitors I could play music through, so not a crushing lack of a feature but again, bummer.

 

I think their thinking was that you wouldn't need a cab to practice by yourself. I kinda think of it as an oversight, but not using the feature as intended or otherwise I've not given or much thought at all.

 

I would guess that for low level playing you could plug in Studio powered monitors to the headphone jack. Or Use a mixer into the Instrument in on the amp Plug your bass and External audio source into a small mixer and you would be good to go.

 

Aux only runs through the headphone out.

 

Yeah, just run through speakers plugged in to the headphone jack. Their thinking was most likely to protect your speakers.

 

I usually play with a 3.5mm connector hooked to my phone and unhook the speakers from the back. I love my PF500 and have had it for a few years now. I just wish I didn't have to physically disconnect the speakers from the head when I have the AUX cable or headphones plugged in. Why would I be using either of those inputs and want audio coming through the speakers? Maybe I'm missing something here.

 

The switching mechanism to mute when headphones are plugged in are not very reliable and quickly become a failure point, which can result in more warranty repair. Because of this most manufactures will not bother with them.

I have been told this by a few manufactures and also had an amp go permanently mute due to this.

 

Always RTFM.

 

This combination of features makes sense for me. The only time I'd ever use an aux. input, I'd also be using headphones. If I wasn't using headphones for silent practice, then I would just play the song through a home stereo system. And I wouldn't expect a musical instrument speaker to reproduce a finished recording very well..

 

Congrats! It's a great sounding affordable amp IMO.

I use either a Bluetooth speaker or the home theatre system or Genelecs hooked up to my PC for backing tracks when needed. Seems to provide a much better practice experience for me when I want the bass through the cabs anyway.

 

There is a way around this: plug your mp3 player (or phone, whatever) into the effects loop return and use the fx volume to control the blending with your bass, both sounds will go through the power amp to the speaker cab. You just need the right kind of cable, 3.mm stereo male to 1/4" mono male.

 

I have run a Pf500 with a 410 cab. I play for my church using a di connection to the amp. I find that you have to the master vol at noon or above and it will come out of the speaker. cabinet. Below noon the Soundboard controls the volume. This is for if you using the DI line out in the back, and using a speaker cab