Carvin BX700 Bass Amp

[Count Bassy]

CARVIN BX700 BASS AMP

Class D with Tube Pre-amp
500W into 4 Ohm
700W into 2 Ohm

List Price £425.


[u][size=4]BACKGROUND[/size][/u]

I have been looking for something small and light to supplement or even replace my Marshall DBS7400 for some time. The Marshall is a wonderful beast but weighs a ton (well, around 30Kg uncased).
I had been considering an LMIII, but saw some good comments on this Carvin, and then one came up for sale here at a reasonable price, so I thought I'd give it a go.


[size=4]Used with:[/size]

[size=4]Ibanez SR605 with Status half rounds.[/size]
[size=4]Ibanez GWB 35 with unknown D'addario rounds.[/size]
[size=4]Vanderkley 112MNT[/size]




[u]OUTSIDE[/u]

[size=4]This looks to be a well put together bit of kit, and my only real complaint from the outside is why give you one Speakon and one jack output when they could have given you two Speakon/Jack combos.[/size]

The illumination of the front panel is not very subtle, and not very even, with what seems to be 6 red LEDs indirectly reflecting onto the front. Not a subtle glow from behind like some amps have. It would be nice if you could adjust the brightness, or at least turn them off.

The in/out switch for the valve is on the back rather than the front (more on this later).

The red/maroon colour of the front looks good and is almost the exact same as the baffle plate of the Vanderkley cab, and they certainly look good together (picture may follow)!



[u]SOUND:[/u]

I was running this into 8 Ohms, so was probably only getting 300 watts out of it. Nevertheless the first impression was that it was loud. However I then found that after 12 o'clock on the main volume it didn't really get any louder. This obviously could be due to combination of the signal and the settings I was using causing it to limit. It is pretty loud, but not as loud as it first seemed it might be.

The other first impression was that, whatever I did with the settings it always sounded a bit stilted/compressed. [size=4]This may be due to the fact that I am used to the DBS7400, which although only 400Watts continuous can do peaks of 4000W.[/size]

This amp has bass, sweepable low mid, sweepable high mid, and treble controls, a "flat to scooped" contour control, and a switchable 9 band EQ.
For me personally all tone controls all "Flat" and compression off did not give me the sound I wanted, so I started to play with the controls. Now I'm a simple soul and not used to sweepable tone controls, and must admit that getting a sound I liked was quite difficult. All the tone controls (and the compression) seem to be quite aggressive in their effect. If you like extreme tones than that might be a good thing, but personally I found it quite difficult to get any subtlety.

I ended up with the treble backed right off, a bit low and high mid boost, and bass around flat.
The bass control seems to be centred quite low and while cutting it could be quite effective boosting the bass seems to make the whole thing lose 'definition'.

Now with my DBS7400 I can put everything "flat", plug in, and there's the sound I want almost straight away. Obviously this could just be a case of this is what I'm used to, and personal taste, but I recently had the chance to try out a Markbass LMIII with the same bass and cab, and found the same. Also, in both cases (DBS and the LMIII), if I did want to make adjustments then I found it very easy and smooth. Of course it could be that the BX700 is truly flat when the controls are flat and the other two aren't!

On a positive side it does give a nice bit of grit when you crank the "Drive" to up near 10.


VALVE:

Now all the above is obviously personal preference. What is not though, and is a big disappointment to me, is that there is (to me) NO audible difference in sound between "Valve in" and "Valve bypassed".
I did e-mail Carvin about this and got a quick reply which said that the effect is "very subtle". Perhaps I am cloth-eared, but I could detect no difference at all. If this is normal then I can see no reason for including the valve at all, other than marketing. (If the valve did make a difference then I would have said that blend control, on the front, would have been nice).

Of course it could be that this amp is faulty in this respect (Bypass switch not actually working?), or that this particular valve specimen is not very 'Valvey'.



[u]CONCLUSION[/u]

PROS:
· Generally seems well built
· Small and light
· Pretty Loud
· Lots of tone controls
· Remote mute and Graphic In/out control
[size=4]· Will go to700W at 2 Ohm (I didn't try it)[/size]
[size=4]· A lot of amp for £425 (List)[/size]

CONS:
· To me it always sounds a bit compressed
· Tone controls (including compression) are not very subtle (personal taste)
· Valve in/out makes no difference (that I can hear).
· Two Speakon outs would be good
· Any bass boost makes it lose definition.


Apart from the fact that the switching the valve in and out makes no detectable difference to the tone most of the comments I make are very much personal preference, so it might be a great amp for someone else. However it's not the amp for me, so I will be looking out for (probably) an LMIII, and then be moving this one on. (Though I'm tempted to try another valve in it first).


Comments welcome!

Edited December 17, 2014 by Count Bassy