Chienmortbb

Matrix make power amps that have a switch mode supply and a class A/B input especially for musicians. However Class D amps are being refined all the time and are now a mature technology. I remember the first solid state amps, they were poor but no one would deny the quality of Trace Elliot power stages. I believe we are now in that stage with Class D.

As that tyoe of PA goes it was superiror to those horrid Bose systems but seemed to lack a bit in the mid range. The bets PA system I have used for years is the UK made Blue Audio M2S http://blue-acoustic.com/m2s-high-power-compact-system/ really sounded like a full range hifi with no effort.

A big thank you from me too to The Scrumpy’s. Fabulous food great organisation and a lovely venue. Thanks for allowing us to use the so called quiet room for the shootout and cab build. Although the shootout did not go quite as planned I think anyone was there st any of the sessions came out with a lot to think about. Phil's 42 minute cab build was a relevation and a big thank you to all that brought cabs for us to try. Andy and Jabba’s basses were even more beautiful in real life and although I swore I would never by an acoustic bass guitar those Gillard put the G in GAS. Finally a big thank you to Ashdown who trusted a random bloke with three amps and a cab. I have no affiliation to Ashdown except that I have a MiBass 220. However a few days with the RM500s shows me that they have really got to grips with Class D heads. As for the RM112T cabinet, we all thought we could happily gig it. I understand the EVO 2 cabs will be an improvement on th EVO model we had. I can’t wait to try that. Other impressions, Barefaced cabs, stupidly light. I can see why people buy them for that alone. More in a fuller report later.

Do we have a date & venue?I am in subject to date/location.

Seriously considering one of these myself. Should have done at the South West Bass Bash next week so looks like my overdraft will be maxed out soon. 500 or 800 that is the question.

I hope to have an HPF on hand too to demonstrate for the doubters among you.

With regard to the 1x12 shootout, I am amazed at the response. What we have discussed is to have maybe three 1x 12 cabs in the room all day and have “guest” spot whereby anytime can bring their cab in to compare against the other three. One cab will be a mid priced commercial cab, one will be one of the Basschat 1x12 cabs one will be a boutique cab and there will be the guest spot. However if we get enough cabs we could change the format slightly. Although each cab will be fed the same signal during the shootouts, there will be a bass amp connected to each for noodling when no shootout is in progress. This will also allow Jabbs, Andy and others to dem their basses outside of the main hall. I have devised a way to take the human element out of the shootout but will disclose that on the day. It looks like we may have a few Barefaced variants, a Greenboy design and an SWR , a TKS , a TC and that should be plenty to go on with. I must reiterate though that the idea is not to prove any particular cab is best but to really find out whether lots of money or lots of time and effort are substantially better than a commercial cab. Looking forward to it immensely.

The 12" cab shootout is taking shape. The plan is to have 3/4 cabs with the ability to replace the 4th cab with anyone's cab upon request. The three staples will be a boutique cab, a BC 1x12 and a commercial 1x12. The boutique cab will be one of Scrumpemike's Barefaced Compact Gen 3. The BC 1x12 will be the latest version with a compression driver and proper crossover, the commercial cab is an Ashdown RM112. A big thank you to Ashdown who have promised us the RM112 as well as four amps. Hopefully we will also have one of Greenboy's classic designs. The bass signals will be recorded to take out the variences of different performances. In between Shootout sessions the amps/cabs will be available for people to try out with their basses or for Jabba or Andy to dem their builds in relative silence. As it is a blind test, all the cabs will be hidden during the tests and we will ask people to grade them. I genuinely want to know if the extra money for a boutique cab or the work for the diy cab is worth it. The test should take about 15 mins and I would be happy to do up to 4 during the day. Full details of the test setup and an explanation of the test methods will be available on the day. We hope to record the sessions and post them on here later. If have a 1x12 you would like to compare please let me know..

I think they use Cliff like Marshall. PM me as I have a couple you can try.

The thing that puts me off Darkglass is the price. I have no doubt they are good but are they as good as the price?

The Mustang has been universally panned as a platform for guitar. Not Sure modified flawed platform is a good start for a design.

It is all about the bottom end after all!

I am just thinking about that now.

Our one problem when we did the Mk2 Basschat 1x12 was that we had no commercial cabs to compare. Looks like we will be spoilt for choice!

Of course there is not a full spec on the website and those power ratings at 0.1% distortion are impressive. I would question whether it could maintain those power levels being passively cooled. A class D amp with switching power supply Is usuall about, 80% efficient meaning it will dissipate 200 watts or so. Imagine putting a 200w lightbulb in that small box. Efficiency is quoted at full power but the dissipation is not linear. Much of the wasted energy is still wasted at low power. It is possible to make a. powerful amplifier very small but I would like to see a full specification before I believe the power outputs claimed.

As I remember it that-fall off is a WinISD software issue where it over calculates the effect of Le at the upperend of its range Either leave Le out of a g driver data or ignore the plot much above 250Hz. Use the published. response above that as a guide. Of course I could be wrong and wil happily be corrected..

I agree it is poor marketing. It is a hybrid and they should be upfront about it. The one thing i will say about Ashdown is they are first rate when it comes to support.

That has turned me right off. I will wait for the heads,

There are a very few things that Valves do better than transistors, the term horses for courses comes to mind. Who is it heresy to put silicon in a valve amp?

Richard, the efficiency of a driver is usually quoted at 1Khz. It is of little use in bass cabs. The art of bass cab design is squeezing every last ounce out of a driver in the bass area (down low) and a big Xmas is a great help. It is not the only thing though. I once described designing a bass cab as like squeezing a balloon. Push it in one area and it bulges in another. The Beyma used in my cab is exceptional in its price performance ratio and still has a higher Xmax than the Faital Pro drivers you mention. It is also lighter than a number of 12” neos on the market. The Faital Pro 320 is close in spec to the Beyma SM212 and is lighter but it will be a compromise. My cab also uses a Celestion Compression driver that, like the Beyma SM212 uses a Ceramic magnet, Stevie is investigation how much difference there is using the 320, a Neo 12” and a Neo compression driver. The aim is to maintain the performance but reduce the weight by a couple of Kg. He is currently still squeezing the balloon.

In my experience, Duke is one of the good guys. He responds to messages and answers stupid questions without condescension. A bit like Stevie and passinwind.

I have not read the whole thread but there is both a lot of good and bad info on this thread so I will put in my 2p. For the record I am an Electronics Engineer and advised on the design of the HPF on passinwind's HPF design. However that was all his work and I take no credit for it. So what is an HPF? High Pass Filter or less commonly called a Low Cut Filter. So why do we need one? Bass guitars and DBs and the whole system between them, and the Loudspeaker, produce very low frequencies that do not add to our sound. These VLFs work the speaker hard and rob us of headroom. How do I know if this is happening to my system? If you can see the speaker moving, that is caused by VLFs. Take you grille off and watch the cones while playing. Your eyes will not see a cone vibrating at 25Hz* so if you can see it move, it is below 25 Hz and well below Low B at 31Hz. Watch the video of the Micro Thumpinator in action on the SFX site to see the effect.Microthumpinator web page My amp has an HPF do I need an external one? It depends, some built in ones are too shallow. 12 dB per octave is too shallow, 24dB is the minimum in my opinion. That rules out the Broughton. It would be better than nothing but imho not much. What if I just turn down the bass? Most bass controls will affect frequencies in the low mids and higher and have a big impact on your tone. Do I need a variable or adjustable HPF? If it works it does not matter. The Thumpinator works well and also the various FDeck versions from the USA, are good. Variable Filters have a bump at the f3 point. No a good design will be flat to all intents and purposes. If a fixed HPF works well, what benefit would a variable HPF bring. Mainly to help tame room resonances/boominess in conjunction with the normal EQ. It can also allow you to experiment for yourself, a variable HPF can start the cut-off higher for a 4 string than a 5 string. Alternatively it allows you to tune the response so as to just remove the unwanted VLF stuff leaving more of you tone intact.

Stevie and I got ours cut at Timbmet. They offer an on-site cutting service (although not while you wait) but they are accurate unlike BnQ. They will also do a full CNC service for quantity. I looking at redrawing to make assembly easier if (as Stevie says) their is enough interest.

My local store, Sbsolute Music has a fantastic range of products but only two Bass ranges, Rumble and Markbass. For various reasons I would but neither. They are big Blackstar dealers so I asked if they would stock the Blackstar Bass amps. No they would continue with the two ranges. Of course they could offer choice without growing their supplier bass by stocking Eden, Blackstar and Orange giving us bassist some choice but... If the start morning that local people don’t support the shop then the reply is easy.

The Mustang 3 amps have been universally panned as useless for gigging by respected guitarists. They are said to be great for the bedroom but no use at stage volumes. If they cannot get it right for guitar, there is not much hope for bass....