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Class D amps - do the manufacturers know what they are trying to do?


LukeFRC
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[quote name='Torben Hedstrøm' timestamp='1392544655' post='2369788']
Risking repeating myself... I am very very doubtful about the actual power (or load handling to be precise) of the present Class D amplifiers. My only experience with this concept has been in my HiFi stereo system, where I had a 2x200 Watt poweramp at one point. That one damn near burned down at a New Year's party, driving a pair of power hungry speakers.
[/quote]

Absolutely. All credit to EBS - they seem to be a bit more realistic about ratings.

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[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1392544790' post='2369790']
Absolutely. All credit to EBS - they seem to be a bit more realistic about ratings.
[/quote]

It seems so... Only thing that bothers me is, that their (excellent) cabs are pretty much all 4 Ohm. That rules out driving more than one of the damn things with a typical class D amp :sad:.

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[quote name='Torben Hedstrøm' timestamp='1392545630' post='2369804']
It seems so... Only thing that bothers me is, that their (excellent) cabs are pretty much all 4 Ohm. That rules out driving more than one of the damn things with a typical class D amp :sad:.
[/quote]

Check out the TC Electronic cabs, BC series. They have a 2X12, and a 2X10 that are 8 ohms.

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[quote name='gsgbass' timestamp='1392551879' post='2369892']
Check out the TC Electronic cabs, BC series. They have a 2X12, and a 2X10 that are 8 ohms.
[/quote]


Overheard som TC-stuff in a local shop yesterday. Didn't sound too bad IMHO. However, a band situation is ofcourse a completely different thing.

TBH, I am just about at my wits end with my gear situation... Kind of frustrating !!.

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[quote name='Telebass' timestamp='1392542690' post='2369760']
Tell me, why do folks think a mute button is useful? My floor tuner does all that is needed, keeping my LMIII nice and simple.
[/quote]

Most times I use a floor tuner too. But sometimes I do not. Not many... but enough times that it makes me wish it had a mute, like my old RH450, or the Shuttle...

If it had a tuner and a mute, like the RH450, that would really be nice.

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I chose to go back to the RH450 over other heads, because of the Real wattage @ 450, not just a rated wattage. The mute, the phones, the three memory onboard, and the Tube Tone that really gives it an Ampeg SVT-CL sound that costs less, smaller in size, and weighs 8.8 pounds, instead of the SVT-CL's 80 plus pounds @ 300 watts.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/zsonsZs.png[/IMG]

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[quote name='Torben Hedstrøm' timestamp='1392544655' post='2369788']
Looks nice, the TC + the Ampeg ! :)

Risking repeating myself... I am very very doubtful about the actual power (or load handling to be precise) of the present Class D amplifiers. My only experience with this concept has been in my HiFi stereo system, where I had a 2x200 Watt poweramp at one point. That one damn near burned down at a New Year's party, driving a pair of power hungry speakers.

The episode mentioned above goes years back, and I am sure that alot has happened on the Class D front since then... I am currently looking at the amp market, and very tempted to go for the Glockenklang Blue soul head. But the Class D thing does scare me off a bit... Particularly that most of the heads seemingly won't drive anything below 4 ohm (officially). This indicates to me, that even though they look powerful on paper, there could be some real world 'Ooomph' lacking somewhere. The weight of the things does appeal to me though :).
[/quote] Check out Bass Gear Magazine, they do reasonably thorough tests on things including power and burst power of amps. They looked at the Blue soul. Look at a few amp reviews also to put one into context.
It's quite funny where you've got the review that sometimes is quite careful about not insulting the maker (and normally advertiser's) product and then a test where they pull it to bits and show you the inside.
If I recall it might have been them that found that the TC RH450 wasn't putting out anywhere near 450w

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[quote name='gsgbass' timestamp='1392600961' post='2370585']
I chose to go back to the RH450 over other heads, because of the Real wattage @ 450, not just a rated wattage. The mute, the phones, the three memory onboard, and the Tube Tone that really gives it an Ampeg SVT-CL sound that costs less, smaller in size, and weighs 8.8 pounds, instead of the SVT-CL's 80 plus pounds @ 300 watts.

[/quote]


Funny you mentioned the "real wattage".
There was a bit of an "issue" about that following the tests by a guitar magazine whose name I forget, and leading to TC to admit it was true, it would normally be rated at 236 watts, but the way they processed the signal it sounded like a typical 450 watt amplifier.
Do a search here, or especially on Talkbass, and you'll find a lot of information (and lots of posts from fans/haters -especially on TB- that you may want to skip too :P).

Whatever the wattage, nobody can deny it is a loud amp. I like them. I owned one from early 2009 until last week in fact! Right now I prefer something else. There was something about the RH450 that wasn't bringing anymore a smile on my lips like the Markbass, or subsequently the GB Shuttle, did. But they're cool amps.

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