andy67 Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 (edited) Ashdown MAG 810 deep review Best price: Soundslive £329 – www.soundslive.co.uk This is possibly the first review I have ever done, so here we go! [b]I’ll start with the build quality.[/b] As I don’t know the precise build quality I will assume, bearing in mind that it is quite cheap, manufactured in China and I can’t get the specification from the Ashdown site, the cabinet is made from 18mm MDF covered with a thin layer of fairly tough carpet. The cab has four strong moulded plastic and metal recessed handles, two on the side, slightly above middle, and two on the back around where Ampeg has its pull bar. These handles are comfortable, sturdy and present no issues when moving the cab. Connections are: standard jack and speakon. The grill is metal and lacks a bit of finesse, black in colour with a riveted on Ashdown badge, badly screwed on leaving peaks and troughs in the metal. Wheels on the cab are ok – work well but we shall see how long this lasts! I hate the plastic corner pieces - cheap and very nasty! This is a smallish cab for an 810, not overly heavy, but heavy nonetheless, I was able to get it out of the house manoeuvring it easily into the back of my Vauxhall Vectra – back seats down – both in and out! It took two of us minutes lifting it up four flights of stairs to our practice room without feeling overly knackered!! According to technical staff at Ashdown; all bass cabs and combos are fitted with BlueLine speakers. [b]Sound Quality[/b] Very surprising...Now that I have identified the issue with my Trace V4 and have compensated for it, the cab worked incredibly well! It is very punchy having enough low end to keep those in the depths of bass happy. Highs are crisp and clear, middle frequencies are definable and give plenty of scope in order to fine tune your sound. The cab is not lacking in presence! It is here, there and everywhere giving a solid in your face wall of bass tone. This is not a muddy sounding cab in the slightest and will surprise many. It is not forgiving of poor technique as I have found out today at practice! I must admit to liking the blueline speakers and the job they do in producing bass sound. The odd thing is they don’t seem bothered by being pushed hard – they just get on with it! [b]Band Members[/b] The drummer said that it was so much better than my two Ampeg B410hlf‘s and that it was filling the sound and the room out more. Also, he was able to hear what I was playing as the tone was much more definable allowing for more clarity in my bass lines. The guitarist wasn’t too happy as it drowned him out! Too bad!! I will recommend this cab and am glad I bought one...again! I would like to try out a few different makes of 810 together as to gain an overall opinion of price, quality, reliability and usability. Worth it? Hell yeah!! Pm me if you want any other info re this. Edited November 5, 2009 by andy67 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nimrod Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Thanks for the Review - sounds like incredible value to me. Hopefully people will look beyond the fact that it's a 'MAG' - and hear the sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 i personally prefer this mag to the abm equivalent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joegarcia Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Can't find any detailed specs on it anywhere. How low does it go? Looking for something with lots and lots of low end. Any good you reckon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy67 Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 (edited) yep! as a rock bass player in the mould of Cliff Williams, but secretly wanting to be Billy Sheehan...the cab is very bassy for 8 10's - It rocks man! Try it out first though, Sound Control seem to have a large stock of them and they will price match SoundsLive! Edited February 4, 2008 by andy67 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joegarcia Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Hmm. Don't think they have any at my local SC. Would love to try one out. Wonder how they compare to the ABM and Marshall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 So is it the same speakers in the MAG stuff as in the ABMs? I have the MAG410 cab and it's nice, but I agree about the corner protectors, horrible! I'm tempted to get my brother (an apprentice joiner, and pretty good at it too) to help me construct a new cab that's not made out of MDF (maybe birch?) but using the same innards from the MAG cab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy67 Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 Ashdown claim the blueline speakers are generic throughout all their ranges! birch is a good call! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzz Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 I'm curious how much weight could be shaved by replacing the presumably heavy metal grill with a cloth one, just something to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy67 Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 this is something I am currently thinking about, I also believe it would look a lot nicer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 [quote name='andy67' post='153394' date='Mar 7 2008, 09:03 PM']this is something I am currently thinking about, I also believe it would look a lot nicer![/quote] It really would, I'm not great fan of the grill on the MAG, the ABM isn't much better either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raslee Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 [quote name='jono b' post='154902' date='Mar 10 2008, 10:15 PM']It really would, I'm not great fan of the grill on the MAG, the ABM isn't much better either.[/quote] Am thinking about getting one for reggae, what do you think? I saw Luciano (big reggae artist) in Newquay a few weeks ago and his bassist had one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamapirate Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 I took off the grill on the front of my 4x10" combo and it wieghs next to nothing. It's the wood casing that weighs the most, and also the speakers itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertbass Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Having just re-speakered a pair of mag 4x10s I can say that the cabs are not made of MDF but chipboard and not that well built either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Spencer Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 I'm looking into getting one of these now. How do you think it fairs up 4 years after the original post? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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