smuggit

Citymariner - I feel your pain! I find no joy in endless gear swapping and am quite happy with the MAG rig in rehearsal or small, medium volume gigs. But a couple of rehearsals with an ABM head made me realise something was wrong. I now reckon that the MAG copes fine with edgy, toppy sounds and is probably perfect for slap but to keep that warmth and body as the volume increases - not so good.

Interesting fact - I actually asked Ashdown if the drivers in the MAG cabs were the same as the ABMs and got a friendly but fudged response. So it seems likely that, with the 2x10 for example, you're paying around £180 just to have a wood cabinet instead of fibreboard. Can this really be true? Thanks for all the stuff re the ABM heads versus MAG. I'm pretty clear now that there is more general "meat" in the ABMs, and the tone stays more consistent as the volume increases at gigs.

Thanks Blu-Ray, that was going to be my next question - which bit to upgrade! I rather suspect the MAG series is fine if you want edgy/toppy sound at the higher volumes, but can't deliver the bass end nearly so well. I use the "traditional" sound quite a bit and find the thump and the warmth goes at higher levels. Or something does!

Has anyone migrated upwards (or downwards) from Ashdown MAG amps/speakers to ABM? And if so, is it worth over double the cost!? I use a MAG EVO 300 head with two MAG 2x10 cabinets. Sound (to my ears) is very fair UNTIL you need a bit more volume (maybe half to three-quarters), at which point it sounds a bit cheap and clicky. No real warmth, though a fair bit of overall volume. I use passive Fender P. There was an ABM 500 head going through pretty ancient Laney speakers at my rehearsal studios, and this seemed much better to me - even at low volumes. I didn't think the valve dial-in did much, nor was anything else especially remarkable. But I preferred the set up to mine. So the question is what EXACTLY is different on the ABM series. Ashdown's website is a bit woolly on the subject. Are the MAG speaker drivers exactly the same as the ABMs? In which case I can't believe just having wood cabinets will make THAT much difference to the sound. Just a lot more weight. Does the ABM amp series have different circuitry to the MAG series, or just a few more watts and a valve pre-amp? I'm not clear at all what makes the price difference. It's pretty much impossible to try 3-500 Watt amps in a shop at mid-to-high volume so I'm stuck. Any views/experience welcomed!