ME 50 To Yamaha Stagepas Line Level

[Rick6]

Any help with the following would be appreciated.

 

I'm playing in stereo using an ME-50 stereo chorus 2 to generate the stereo signal.

 

I just bought a Yamaha Stagepas 300 Portable PA, thinking that I could use it instead of two separate guitar amps.

 

The Stagepas has a powered mixer. It has 6 channel strips. Four of them take either mic or line level (there's a switch) - but these do not have pan controls -- so there's no way to maintain stereo spearation.

 

The remaining two channel strips (labeled 5/6 and 7/8) have separate L and R inputs, but they are line level. No mic preamp on these.

 

My idea was to run the L output of the ME-50 stereo "line/phones" jack to the left channel of 5/6 and the R output of the ME-50 to the right channel of 7/8.

 

That way, I could control the stereo balance with the individual volume controls on the two strips.

 

Everything worked fine, except the max volume was waaaay below what I expected. It is also way below what I can get if I go into one of the mono inputs.

 

Apparently, the output of the ME50 is much weaker than what is expected by the Stagepas, even though both are labeled "line".

 

I have since learned that "line level" has more than one definition in terms of actual volts.

 

Will a direct box make any difference? In fact, can a direct box even drive an RCA jack input?

 

Is my only alternative to buy a stereo preamp?

 

I think I know the answer -- which is that the Stagepas simply won't do this, but I wondered if I'm missing something.

 

Thanks

 

Rick