Phil Starr

I think Real Electronics is your only current authorised option Real Electronics | Manufacturers

not at all though it will change the sound balance. In this design there is no low pass filter on the bass units. Stevie took advantage of the natural roll off of the 10" Pulse and designed the crossover to bring the horn in to take over the frequencies that the bass units don't create. The shape of the frequency responses for two identical speakers are going to be the same within manufacturing limits but you are going to get far more of those frequencies. Somebody out in the audience will hear a bass heavy sound but for you this will be countered by the fact you have raised the horn to nearer ear level so it may still sound very good to you. The horn driver will still be seeing the same voltage being produced by your amp so will still be protected by the crossover.

Hi Roger, my experience with them continues to be very poor and a second consignment has gone astray. I wouldn't have used them but I wanted some matching LED bars and had ordered their own brand so was stuck with them. I don't think they are dishonest but just a complete shambles, I don't think their software in different department talks to each other as I keep getting contradictory emails. Persevere and your stuff will come through. good luck, I hope you aren't in a hurry.

Just looking at this I think you've had some good advice. One of your queries was about power. Most of the amps have power sections that use basically similar or identical electronics. There are a lot that do 300W into 8ohms and 500W into 4ohms. Frankly this is enough for anyone and conveniently matches the power handling of a single 8ohm cab, and two cabs give four ohms so you still have the power of the amp and speakers pretty much where you want. With so much choice at the 300/500W range you may as well start looking there. I notice there is a fairly pristine Ashdown Rootmaster in the for sale ads here. Buying used means you can get most or all of your money back if you change your mind. The outlier amongst what you've been recommended is the Bugera which uses a bridged version of the Behringer power amps for the output and puts out a genuine 800W. I've only heard positive rsponses from people who own this amp. Ashdown are a great company, they are British and they take after sales really seriously often repairing gear long after their legal guarantees run out and always willing to offer advice, often in these forums. Hats off to @Ashdown Engineering The thing is with such a wide range of choices you really need to start testing things out because they will all do the job and the difference is in the sound. No amount of internet advice will help you there. In the end after buying a MarkBass and trying a range of others I bought a Peavey Minimax and just love the sound straight out of the box. It looks however like you are a combo man so try those first. It's hard to go wrong really so choose on sound and enjoy your new band.

The Saga continues, the lighting bars that they eventually delivered were excellent and I'd only ordered one of each in case I had to return anything. The stuff had arrived in the end, the staff in Romford helpful so I ordered two more..... I waited several days and no confirmation email, then one saying the stuff had been dispatched and was due to arrive that day. Nothing arrived and the next day an email acknowledging my order but indicating the stuff had not been dispatched but was in stock. Then a couple of days later an email from the German courier (in German) saying they had been told of the delivery but no goods had arrived from DV247. I gave it 3 days then rung today, Romford helpful as usual and said they would chase and email me when they had news. It seems as if their internal communications have just not been fully integrated. I'm getting different communications from different parts of DV247 which just contradict each other. I want the lights to integrate with each other and I'm not in a hurry so i'll see this through but i just wouldn't order anything i wanted in a hurry. The lights are £25 a light cheaper than anywhere else so I'm saving £100 and that's worth a bit of chasing but wtf? Sometimes you are just unlucky but this is twice now, and I wonder if the orders would arrive at all without some chasing and the UK base to help.

The advantage of a DIY cab is that you don't 'have' to do anything so if wht you've done works in holding the grille secure and no rattles then it's fine. It looks from your pictures as if you opted for the folded grille. that will give it more rigidity which will help.

Yep 13.5mm should be fine. I'd probably make up a 'frame' of battens all the way round the circumference of the baffle, fixed in and then screw the grille to that but anything that will hold the grille firmly enough to prevent rattles is good enough.

I can't see anyone who lives in Evercreech going alcohol free, well not the people i know

I use ER20's and they are the only ones that give a decent seal for me whilst allowing enough through to let me hear the rest of the band. They are uncomfortable but my hearing is going and I have tinnitus which is more of a problem than a couple of hours minor discomfort. To be fair you did say you'd go custom if you have to. The other alternative is to go in-ears. it's not quite as simple as that sounds and you still have the problem of finding something to fit but it has huge advantages. The trouble with ear defenders is that if you do get a seal they cut out all the good stuff too, the bit's you need to hear of your band and that is as frustrating as having something uncomfortable in your ears or things that fall out and need constant fiddling with to be effective. The Leights look interesting and I'm going to try them but strictly for when I'm using power tools or mowing the lawn. I've just gone down the in-ears route and it's a revelation. I've spent hours trying to get a good seal on the earphones trying dozens of different earbuds and three different in ears. Once you get that fit the sound levels fall as all the background noise is blocked and the bass leaps forward. You even have a volume control on the drums. Everyone's ears are different and they change as you get older. It's going to take a lot of trial and error to get the plugs for you. too loose and they are useless, too tight and they will be uncomfortable and then you are asking them to cut out just enough noise for you to hear the band but enough to save your hearing. You are asking for a lot from a simple plug.

A clapping noise? That's new. It could be the end of the coil hitting the rear of the magnet or the cone meeting the grille if that has been distorted but that is usually described as a farting noise. Turning the bass control down ought to reduce/remove the problem by limiting excursion but less bass could reduce other possible causes too. It could be something loose in the cab. Check the speaker is fully tightened down and the grille is firmly attached and have a look at the internal leads to the speaker, if they are loose they can end up slapping against the cone which makes an alarming noise. It could also be a loose panel in the cab so check everything is as it should be. The other possibility I can think of is something on the cone that has become un-glued like the dome shaped dust cone, though that tends to be a buzz rather than a clap.

How loud are your gigs! I think you've outlined all the main issues bar one, how would it sound and will it be a sound you like. You really need to try the cabs if you can, with and without your own cab. If you just want more of the same sound another 2x10 would make more sense and the safe choice would be to wait until one comes up. The 4x10 should be more than loud enough on it's own and you might well end up using that as your go to speaker. The 15 will probably change the sound more than the 4x10 and be louder. only you can decide if the extra portability is worth the extra money. Try them out if you possibly can.

We do, sorry for the thread derail guys. We played a wedding last weekend, large upper floor venue with all the windows and fire doors open so lot's of fresh air. The wedding party were ticked off by the manager when they did get up to dance. Lot's of arm waving from their seats and some singing along but it all felt very safe and it was really good to be back. It's slightly strange when your set is designed to get people dancing and they can't. I did suggest revising some of the slower stuff we've ditched to get to our dance set but the rest of the band just wanted to stick to the set we were developing before all this happened.

No, but it is the currently fastest growing disease because once again we have failed to sufficiently control it. Given a few more weeks of inaction it will be back at the top, clogging up hospitals again. This constant stop start is destroying more jobs than actual proper hygiene measures would. There's a new study reported in this weeks New Scientist that shows that countries like Australia that have pursued an elimination strategy have lost far fewer jobs. Their entertainment and arts industries are in far better shape than ours and over the last 15 months our liberties have been far more restricted than those who take much stronger measures earlier. I'm happy to re-run well worn arguments but I'm afraid by confusing Australia's 25 a day outbreak for our 20,000 a day steadily growing infection rate you are spreading disinformation put out to be fair in the national media and fuelled by politicians who have failed at any stage to fully understand the situation they have failed to manage. Not a party political point by the way but a comment upon competence. I'm sure you are as frustrated as I am about what is happening but If we had taken the action New Zealand and others have taken whilst developing the vaccines we would have suffered less and had a lot more normal including live music in the meantime.

Yesterday Australia had 25 new cases which they see as a major outbreak worth controlling. the UK has 20,479 confirmed new cases. Over the past year we have been in full lockdown (but poorly done) for a lot longer than they have and for most of the time for example have had a country completely untouched by Covid, crucially for basschatters we would all have still been able to gig. In fact countries who have seriously followed an elimination policy have lost far fewer days have had their liberties less curtailed and their economies more or less unaffected. If they get this lock down right then next week they will have fewer than 25 infections and be able shortly to go back to normal (not new normal) living. We are seeing the infections double every few days so in just over a week expect 40,000 new infections, then 80,000 until we are forced once again to go into what may be more months of lockdown. The trick is to react quickly with the aim of elimination, you won't keep the whole world out but you limit the damage and it's far easier to contain an outbreak of 25 people ant their contacts than 20,000+. You can track and trace a few thousand people a day but we've never managed to get the numbers low enough for track and trace to work. If only we too lived on an island

Hurrah, it all arrived this morning, UPS delivered it all bang on time. I haven't had time to try the mixer but the led lights all work and they are nicely made and do what it says on the tin. Their own brand and really good value. So what have I learned. Brexit is causing problems with imports without a doubt and somebody messed up, possibly the first courier, possibly DV247 probably the paperwork. If you order from DV247 you are ordering from Germany and that is less straightforward than before. Lot's of people are having similar experiences and others find it problem free. If you want something quickly and reliably then order from the UK or if you have the option direct from a local shop. It's going to be a while before Brexit induced import problems are sorted (and I do have sympathy for all the co's UK and German who had no time to deal with this and didn't ask for it, less for Weatherspoons who did). I struck lucky when my second call was picked up by Jo (female) who was smart and effective (thanks Jo if anyone from DV247 sees this) DV247 need to sort their communication out both human and on-line even their own UK staff find it all confusing though they were always pleasant and tried to be helpful. I'm going to order two more lights, they are excellent, I want matching ones and nobody else does them at anything close to the price so I'm not traumatised by the process but I'll chase more quickly if things go astray and accept that the delivery time is likely to be weeks not days. Most of our gigs are open air so I'm not expecting to use them in anger for a while.

I'm growing used to this a bit now, I've still got to spray the grille frame black but an extra coat of Tuff Coat has improved the finish since I took this pic. I wish the cloth had been black ad gold as advertised not black and brown but i can live with it. Anyway I'm still testing it and I had a gig yesterday, a wedding with about 60 people in a well ventilated and quite large hall. Decent PA support and Covid restrictions on volume so i decided a good chance to run out the 110T as on-stage monitor. Our drummer didn't get the memo about volume but the 110T could still be heard and the PA did the rest (just a pair of QSC12's no subs) We have a proper sound engineer now. He said something interesting when I asked about whether it had been enough from his point of view front of house. "I can't believe that little cab, it's the best bass sound I've ever worked with". What really? In normal non-Covid times the guy works with touring bands at festivals and in musical theatre, but I guess from his point of view it's just what he wants. The basic sound is clean and really rather sweet, it sounds like a bass with no sonic nasties to clean up, nothing to trouble the vocal mics and just enough to hold the on-stage sound together. It sits well in the mix and the basic sound is excellent. (and it is nice, I love playing it at home with my Peavey Minimax) OK it's a simple little thing, it's only a 200W speaker and the components come it at only around £100 but I am so warming to it. I can carry in my complete rig in one go. Amp in a shoulder bag, speaker in one hand bass in the other. The bass is heavier and more awkward than the cab. Plug it in everything set flat and it just sounds right from the get go. You wouldn't expect a single 10 to hold up the bass end unsupported but it's only a little way off and it's enough to be your on-stage monitor and cope with anything short of a rock band. Did i say it sounds nice?

Meanwhile my in-ears/headphones arrived from China no problems.

Yep it's just getting odder. The money not has been credited to my account and I've had a subsequent message that the goods are on the way. This time via UPS. UPS say they have picked up the parcel which is a good sign. I'm hoping the new German displays of inefficiency spread to their football team

I'm with you on this, I'm into lyrics in the songs I listen to and the ones I play and get very uncomfortable about those lyrics sometimes. For each of us it is something different; I have no problem with Delilah which for me is just telling a story but i have huge problems with a lot of rap which is frequently misogynistic as others have said. Don't Stand So Close? Well I used to be a teacher when it was released and I find that deeply disturbing, things went on then that we rightly see as a disgrace now. Every Step you Take is pretty out there too, though you could make an argument that Sting is not holding this up as something to be proud of. A lot of old blues songs are pretty suspect in the attitudes to women, somehow because it's not my generation I respond to that as just being historic and a reflection of how things have changed. Brown Sugar is an interesting one. Whether it was written about Claudia Linnear or Marsha Hunt it's pretty clear that with a couple of successive girlfriends Jagger had a thing about Brown Sugar. Remember that as late as 1967 mixed race marriage was illegal in most US states. There would probably have been a big element of forbidden fruit about all this for a South London middle class boy like Jagger. Black people were seen as being defined in large part by their sexuality and we know from interviews that Jagger knew a lot about the history of slavery. I remember when it came out I just thought 'you lucky B*****d'. So is this a positive song about his black partner(s) from somebody quite liberated by the standards of 1970 or is the lazy association of black women with sex and slavery deeply racist? The trouble is that you know it's wrong. Once you've seen that and asked yourself the question you know the answer. I don't judge the people who just sing it without asking the question, it is a great pop song but I couldn't play it. Is it racist? i think probably unintentionally but it is.

yes, though last night was interesting, Messages that they are there from 10.00 to 18.00 Mon-Fri I got through at 17.00 and opted for ring back. It hadn't happened by 5.30 so I rang back myself and was then cut off every time at the end of the 10.00-18.00 message, presumably they'd gone home.

Well at my end it is just getting weirder. I've just had an email telling me about an automatic refund referring to a form I didn't fill in because it was with the package I didn't receive which was returned for reasons unknown to me. Meanwhile I spoke to a very nice lady in romford who told me she would check my goods were dispatched immediately which she had re-ordered and get back to me, which she hasn't. I'm checking my account to see if the money has gone back in.

DV247 are having problems, steer clear of them until they are sorted I ordered an RCF mixer and a couple of LED bars from them at the beginning of the month. None of the UK suppliers had the mixer in stock and we had a gig coming up and I thought it a chance to try it out in anger. The site says DV247 UK and they have the Romford branch plus I've dealt with them before, pre-Brexit. You know where this is going, the goods didn't arrive. I got the usual email with a tracking no. telling me the goods were on their way. Saw they were being dispatched from Germany, not the UK which made me slightly concerned and saw that there was a note saying there might be a short delay. Our gig passed and I was in no rush so I waited. Then I got an email from the delivery co. that the goods were returned, no reason given. On Sat I rang DV247 on their UK no and was promised "no problem, the goods would be sent out first thing this week, upgraded to 24hr delivery as they had let me down". Then no contact and no dispatch note so I've chased again. Again very pleasant but no record of Saturdays conversation. "I'll look into it and ring you back". No call so far so I go online and it seems everyone is having problems. Germany not contacting Romford. People not being reimbursed for non-delivered orders. staff fobbing people off with clear untruths and broken promises. The most worrying thing is reports of people struggling to get their money back. There was a thread on this back in Feb and I assumed then it was just Brexit teething problems. It's possible my order was returned through some minor irregularity with the paper work but with my experience and the reviews online I'd have to recommend you don't order through DV247. I'll let you all know if it gets sorted Is anyone else having problems? Has anyone successfully placed an order in the last month or two?