Sean Fairchild

Hi all, I know this is an old thread at this point. I just wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow, I'm no longer an agent of MUSIC Group/Behringer/Bugera, and as this account is tied to my work email address, won't be getting notified of additional responses. You can reach someone at MG at [email protected] if you have any future questions or concerns. I'm not too hard to find if you look me up by name - this account name is my real one - in case you want to get in touch for any reason. I'm now able to speak much more freely on any topic, which is a great thing. Cheers!

Dear stevie, Most speaker manufacturers will supply an RMS and a peak wattage handling capacity for speakers. See the example in the specs for this Aguilar cab, here: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/aguilar-sl-112-1x12-bass-speaker-cabinet I'm not well enough equipped to explain the nuances of thermal power ratings, but I'm sure you'll be able to find what you need in terms of further description, if you're inclined to research it. Peak power is the maximum thermal rating; it's the highest amount of energy a specific speaker is designed to accept and withstand. Notice how that Aguilar speaker lists an RMS and a peak wattage. In this case, the peak rating is twice the RMS rating, but that's not always the case. Also note that in speaker cabs with multiple drivers, the power handling capacity is added up to create the total handling capacity of the cab (i.e., a 4x10 might be rated at 1,000 Watts, but each speaker only at 250 W). This should allow you to compare peak power ratings across speaker brands. If a cabinet manufacturer doesn't list the peak power but you know what types of speakers they use (few companies make their own, as MUSIC Group does), you can generally find that info online by just searching for the type of speaker itself; Celestion, Faital, Eminence, etc.

Dear Beer of the Bass, Great name, BTW. I am a big fan of Bass Gear Mag and their tests. I have found some of the previous ones to be very surprising. I actually talked to one of their people at NAMM either this last winter show or the one before about the possibility of getting them a head to try out and test. I will suggest it once again!

Dear tauzero, Thank you for educating us all a bit (well, me, anyway). I appreciate that we all want the ability to compare items to each other in the best way possible, and I hope that some convention that's more of a true test of an amp's power, especially for us bassists (How often do we play an extended 1kHz sine wave?), becomes widely adopted. I like the suggestions you made of doing bursts at 50Hz, specifically. Dear Jenny Innie, That's not very polite. I am not the company itself, but a person and a player, and what I can offer is the information the my company provides on the matter, which may not be as cut and dry as you think. I can't say it's a 400 W head; I can't say it's a 500 W head - all I can do is offer the information I do have, and provide a means of at least discussing more with our CARE team (please see contact info in post above). I'm certainly not trying to confuse the issue, my point in chiming in was that it's not accurate or fair to say that the VEYRON amps are simply XXX-Watt RMS heads. Thanks for your understanding. Dear stevie, The speakers we make and use on our bass cabs are also rated using max power ratings, but here's another industry issue - maximum thermal ratings are generally used in the industry for drivers, which is already a problematic metric, because speakers will perform poorly well before they reach this maximal point. But in an effort to use the same metric that most other manufacturers use or at least specify, the company has decided to use the peak wattage thermal rating of our speakers as well, so you can compare peak wattage across brands/products. Thanks all for the questions, I'll keep endeavoring to assist as I can

Dear MacDaddy and RandomBass, To bypass the preamp on either of the two VEYRON heads, you could plug (a sufficiently hot/pre-amplified signal) directly into the FX Loop Return, which is a direct input to the power section. In regards to RMS and a "level playing field", well that's actually what that whole post I linked to was attempting to explain; that RMS doesn't, in and of itself, create a level playing field - it has just gotten to be a commonplace rating, albeit imperfect. However, being commonplace does not make a metric impervious to being manipulated or massaged. If you haven't checked out our CEO's thoughts on the matter in the post of his I linked to, I would encourage you to do so, to further understand the company's point of view on the matter of power ratings. I'm unable to give you an RMS rating, because my understanding is that we don't use that metric to measure output whatsoever, so that information just isn't available from our technical group for me to give to you. All this being said, we have a great customer service/technical department called the CARE team, and if you do have any technical questions that can't be answered by the documentation available or you're curious about anything really, I invite you to reach out to them at [email protected] or by phone at +1-702-800-8290 (US) or +44 1562 732290 (UK). As a player, I understand the desire to have everything neatly comparable to everything else, and I'll continue to try to help out any way I can with your questions and concerns. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Dear All, Hello fellow bassists! I'm on the Experience Engagement team with MUSIC Group, which includes BUGERA, and I just wanted to drop in to clarify the power ratings we use on the VEYRON heads, as well as our other amplified products. As has been indicated here, we rate our amps based on peak power output rather than RMS. To paraphrase our CEO, Uli Behringer, on the matter, this is because we, like many manufacturers, have found the traditional way of measuring RMS with a sine-wave is not necessarily the best predictor of actual amplifier performance. Since maximum power measurements are not standardized across the industry, to assume the “RMS" of the Veyron amp to be 500W based on the 2000W rating would be incorrect. You can read a full explanation of our CEO's thoughts on the topic in this thread on SoundForums.net: https://soundforums.net/threads/4299-Uli-Behringer-of-The-Music-Group-Q-amp-A?p=32194&viewfull=1#post32194 Thanks all, and let me know if you have any other questions about these amps or our other products.