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Eden vs SWR


jc_riffs
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Hi guys. just wondering if someone could shed some light on my dilema. got the option of gettin an eden wt800 with d410xst rig or an swr golliath sr 6x10 with 750x head. bit unsure about the connections to the cabs from the eden head. ive heard all sorts about 'banana plugs' etc

any of you guys used or own this gear and have any wise words it would be appreciated.

thanks

j

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had a wt800 a little while back, sounded bloody brilliant! connectors available were standard jack 'or' banana plug if you wanted to do wierd things with it...check the manufacturers website for each head, they usually have photos of the front and rear of the head, I always do this before I consider a purchase so I can check whether the features I'm after are on that amp...

wt800 - fat, loud, clear, lovely highs, valve pre, solid state power stage

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Different flavours..but not that far apart. Just turn off the enhance knobs on both...they really don't need them....or maybe 10-15% of whatever they do. Same goes for the tweeters in the cabs - if they are turned full up it can sound pretty unpleasant. I think from memory the SWR power amp design seems to run hotter than the Eden, but they all get pretty hot at louder volumes.

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thinkin that the eden looks pretty techy and i would have to go through the bridging side of the things to get the full power out of the amp where as with the swr 750x its all there in a 4ohm cab aswel. my heart says eden but head say swr.

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My 2p..

SWR are the older company but probably bear no relation now after a larger Corp by-out
Depending who you talk to, SWR and Eden spawned a few copyists and that is why they all have the same the enhance and timbre controls which feed down to amps like Thunderfunk.
The ngrs prorbaly had quite an incestuous realtionship work and design-wise and probably all worked closely to each of the main protagonists at some point.
Again, depending on who you believe, it prorbaly goes something like
Acoustic-SWR-Eden-Gibson-Thunderfunk...to name and simplify the links a tad. :)

IMO, SWR best period was when they produced the SM series of pro amps and the Goliath ll/lll cabs.
Pre Fender, the SWR amps are very well made... and I wouldn't say the X series is from the same company myself.

Eden and SWr used to be very good and top dogs, IMO in the 90's.... different voices was the thing that put you in either camp, not the quality.

I don't think you'll have any problem with the cabs, and I'd prefer the SWR snr610 myself but that is without having to carry/transport them.

Connection-wise..those big powerful lumps need a better conduit than jack plugs, so a banana jack predates todays speakon use. If you rack the amp...just fix the banana in a speakon socket bolted onto the back of the rack..and go speakon all the way. It is more secure for the power you are using.
Banana jacks were the old way to bridge amps as well...

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[quote name='jc_riffs' post='1357365' date='Aug 31 2011, 12:02 PM']thinkin that the eden looks pretty techy and i would have to go through the bridging side of the things to get the full power out of the amp where as with the swr 750x its all there in a 4ohm cab aswel. my heart says eden but head say swr.[/quote]


hmmm...find an SWR900 for as cheap as chips, which will blow the 750x away... and bridging is no issue anyway, IME.

if you can't get an SM series, then go Eden..assuming you like the mid voicing.

Edited by JTUK
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[quote name='BassBod' post='1357279' date='Aug 31 2011, 11:02 AM']Different flavours..but not that far apart. Just turn off the enhance knobs on both...they really don't need them....or maybe 10-15% of whatever they do. Same goes for the tweeters in the cabs - if they are turned full up it can sound pretty unpleasant. I think from memory the SWR power amp design seems to run hotter than the Eden, but they all get pretty hot at louder volumes.[/quote]

I disagree. I've gt the enhance knob on about 2/3 on one of the channels on mine. It depends what voice you're going for really.

Edited by EdwardHimself
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[quote name='jc_riffs' post='1357660' date='Aug 31 2011, 03:51 PM']the eden doesnt seem to have spekon or jack options to connect to the cab. this is what i am unsure about. think it must be an old wt800.[/quote]

mine was a WT800B and had both banana and jack sockets for speakers, the new WT800C has speakon and jack I believe, never seen a WT800A so couldn't help there I'm afraid...

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As an ex 750X owner, I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. Great loud solid gigging amp, reliable and lots of tonal options. FWIW I like the aural enhancer circuit and it can be used to 'give a little sparkle' in those difficult rooms/stages without messing about with the semi-parametric mid. Only got rid of mine in part ex on the rather wonderful top of the line SM1500.

The idea of the 750x into the Goliath Senior sounds great to me, the full 750w into one cab that is tall enough to hear on the loudest of stages. I'd say go for it, but then again I've never tried Eden so can't give a like for like comparison!

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Older Edens had jack or banana plugs, newer ones from around 2000ish (i think) have speakons and jacks. Personally I'm an Eden man- slight hint of Enhance (not even 1/5 of the movement) but otherwise flat save for tiny room tweaks. Loud, clear and a lot of balls :)

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Early WT800's, the A version, can bridge to 4 ohm, the WT800C amps bridge to 2 ohm. I'm not sure there is much difference other than that. I think the WT800B's had some reliability issues.

I briefly played an Eden WT600 and loved it. Don't be worried about "complicated" controls. The Eden sounds great with every thing flat. I've not played an SWR, but many good players do/did.

410XLT cabs were the gold standard for years. I don't know much about XST cabs though.

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Hey guys!

Haven't posted here in a good year or so, been mad busy, and not had the time to post.....

I saw this thread though, and thought I'd share my experiences....

Over the years, I've owned a lot of gear, including both SWR and Eden gear. My main rig for a good while was a Goliath Snr, run with an Ampeg B2R head. I loved it. The sound was punchy, solid, defined. It basically enhanced the basses sound, and didn't detract any particular frequencies. I did find that the head tended to run out of steam though, and wanted to upgrade that. In the end I sold the whole rig and replaced it with a WT-800 head and 410XLT cab. I never got on with this setup, and found the cab very dull, yet brittle at the same time. Basically I had no mid range definition or punch. I also found that the Eden Heads had an annoying hiss when using the EQ to get the sound I liked. Something I've never had an issue with other heads.

I then sold this rig and bought an Eden Metro 2x10 combo. This thing was solid. It sounded very good indeed, but again had that irritating hiss, albeit not as strongly as the WT800. At some point along the way, I picked up an SWR goliath Jnr 2x10, and hooked that up to the metro. This really helped the whole setup come alive, and the sound was possibly even better than my goliath Snr/Ampeg setup. This is of course apart from the hiss!

A little while later I sold all these, and had another WT series head. I think it was the 600? Again a great head, but still the now ever familiar hiss! I tried to miniturise and go for an Eden CTC combo, and again the hiss was enough to put me off.

If I was given the choice again nowadays, I'd get the SWR gear without a doubt. The horns are hot, but attenuable. So you can dial in the amount of high end snap, unlike the Edens. The 750x head I have played through but never owned, but its a solid head, and one that should do you well. Maybe another option would be the SWR cab, and an Ashdown ABM Evo 500 head? These are very versatile heads.

Just my tuppence!

Regards
G!

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Thats interesting? I don't remember there being a rotary attenuator on my Eden's, but it could just be my memory failing? Either way, I much prefered the horn/tweeter on the SWR and found it interfaced better with the low/mid of the 10's.

Another aspect to consider though is that the horn on the 6x10 Goliath SNR is positioned much higher than the Horn on the Eden, so i'm sure that also affected things? I still found the Eden horns to be brittle and thin though.

As I say, this is just my experience. This does not mean that Edens are rubbish cabs, and what works for one, doesn't necessarily work for another. If there were 'one' deffinative tone, then we'd all have the same cab and amp, and bass tone would be identical. I guess thats the joy of individualism? we get to shape our own sound to our liking. Our only prohibitors... Money and imagination.

Cheers
G!

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[quote name='gadget' post='1359514' date='Sep 2 2011, 09:13 AM']....I saw this thread though, and thought I'd share my experiences....[/quote]
If you got the same problem with different amps and different models, maybe it's caused by what you do to the EQ? I didn't have any issues from the Eden amps I've tried.

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This is a possibility, but if an amp cannot give me the sound I want without the hiss, then they will not work for me. This was my experience with Eden, but not the case with any other higher end manufacturer, at least not to the level of the Edens I owned/tried?

I'm a Sound Engineer by trade, so I know all too well the effects of EQ. If what I am doing with the EQ is creating hiss, then its because its amplifying whats already there in the circuit. Again, never had this issue, certainly not to this extent, with any other gear. The next most noisy amp I had was an EA iAmp350, but I think this was due to a dodgy repair after being dropped?

Cheers
G!

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