Sparky Mark

Way back in the good old days before I found Basschat and developed incurable GAS, I only had two cabs. These were the Hartke 115XL and 410XL. Most of the time I only gigged the 15 and it sounded beautifully deep but also punchy and even slap cut through as clear as you'd like. And it was a much easier schlep than the 90lb 410.

The Hartke LH1000 is only £360 brand new. Stick a more flexible EQ pedal or 1U rack preamp in front of it and it will blow your walls down!

Hartke LH1000 will give you a massive bang for your buck and can drive two 4 ohm cabs as long as you can get on with the fender style tone stack EQ.

The comparison I performed was using the same amp and bass guitar with identical settings into the different cabs. The only variable is the pair of cabs. Absolutely the AEs are different designs to the HT and EX. The AEs are rear ported whilst the HT and EX are front ported. The A to B test was to compare the sound of the different cabs whilst everything else remains constant. That is an A to B test in my book. Anyhow the HT and EX cab had a much stronger deep bass given the same setting of the amp. We're heading towards the definition of heft me thinks.☺

The only moving parts are the voice coil, spider and cone which are probably very similar. In fact the neo may well have a longer voice coil to accommodate the longer excursion. I am guessing now though.

That says to me that neos will move more air before breaking up but not that the character of the sound will be different. The thing you do notice especially with the yellow cones is the long excursion but the HT and EX will go just as loud perhaps with a bit more output from the amp.

I totally agree that there is no clear reason for heavy weight cabs sounding better. The neodymium magnets although smaller physically are still just magnets and speaker experts on here and Talkbass tell us there is no reason for them to sound different. However we are talking small margins here that some are convinced of and others not. The speakers that I have intimate knowledge of and did compare are Bergantino HT112ER and EX112ER which are the deepest sounding followed by Markbass Traveller 121H then Bergantino AE112 least deep. All were compared using two Markbass SA450 heads to enable a true A to B comparison. Believe me I really wanted the lighter cabs to be as good for the sake of my back but the HT and EX won out. I still gig my Markbass cabs and had no complaints about the AEs which are great cabs and it was only curiosity about the older Bergantinos before considering moving them on that led me to compare.

I too was a lightweight cab user until I recovered my heavier weight ceramic magnetic driver Bergantino cabs from the garage and was amazed at how much deeper they sounded than any of my neo cabs (including Bergantinos). They just seem to plant themselves more solidly due the extra weight and vibrate a whole lot less.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1456317205' post='2987708'] I had my Barefaced Super12T (2x12") with a SS amp on top (Thunderfunk TFB550) move a bit too much on an outdoor gig. It was on top of a flyghtcase wich is a very smooth surface and it didn't help that the bass player that was borrowing my rig was in a thrash metal band In the end of the gig it was too close to the edge of the flyghtcase for my likings... I've started to take with my a couple of anti-slipping matts, one to put between amp adn cab and another to go unederneath the cab's feet. Never had a movement since. [/quote] The non slip pad is absorbing the energy wasted that was previously shifting the cab. It won't be making the baffle any more stable. Energy is also wasted within non or poorly braced enclosures as the cab walls flex.

Here's a question based on the fact that 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction'. Speakers work like pistons with the voice coil and cone being forced back and forth within the speaker frame/cage. Is it possible that in very light weight speaker cabinets that the speaker box is moving very slightly in the opposite direction to the cone? If you were to put a heavy weight on top of a light weight cab would it reduce any reactive movement of the cab and increase the acoustic energy from the speaker. Maybe 'heft' comes from stability of the baffle? All I know is that my 40 pound 112 cabs have more h**t than my 25 pounders.