Ashdown B-social 75w version. New b-stock in Italy. £200

[vinorange]

I know these get a mixed reception especially at the full retail price of £400 and the consensus is that they should be pitched at £200 so I was looking for one for that price when I found a seller in Italy with b-stock (which he acquired from a music shop that shut down) so I went for it and bought one.

He has another couple left and got mine to me really quickly, in brand new unopened condition, with warranty card etc shipped for £213. Very reasonable and having had a noodle with it I'm very pleased - esp for £200.

Here's the link should anyone be interested;

http://www.ebay.it/itm/222731319758

For info everything works well on it. Wireless receiver with it works well, bluetooth connectivity works well. Sound is fine. Not brilliant sound dor your bas but music does sound good so all in all great little desktop amp. For the right price of £200.

[Bigwan]

Awesome. Was very critical of the pricepoint of these when they were released, but it would be cheeky not to at this price...

Just snagged the oak fronted one from same seller. That's my Christmas present to myself sorted out!

[vinorange]

Ah excellent. Glad someone else from our community has grabbed one.

Seemed to good to be true so I fires the seller a number of questions but it showed up quicker than expected, brand new and with warranty card.

??

[2x18]

He is also selling the Oak Finish ones for 250 euro's

!

[Muppet]

I've got one of the white ones of these too (second hand, also for £200). I'm pretty impressed to be honest, especially since I was very critical of the thing at the beginning, although that was based on the original £600 price.  I get a better sound out of it when using active basses.

[vinorange]

I'm absolutely delighted with mine.  Defo an active bass gives better sound but bluetooth connectivity for audio streaming and a 75w desktop bass amp for £200 is not to be sniffed at!!!

[basskit_case]

I just got one of these for £230, delivered today.  I am finding it a bit farty.  What are your preferred settings, anybody hook it up to AmpKit?

thanks

[edstraker123]

I just got one too and its going back as it was really poor.  The case buzzes like crazy if you play an 'E' with an active bass.  Great concept , terrible execution. Even at £230 its not worth it for me if it can't handle the low end. Maybe if you pay £600 it'll come with a Phil Jones Double Four so you have something you can play your bass through while you accompany the tracks streaming from your phone !

It's the present that ruined Christmas for me

[CameronJ]

Yep. Just buy a Double Four and stick something like a Blackstar Tonelink into the Aux input if you want Bluetooth connectivity.

[Maude]

Just bought a wood fronted one from him, less than £200 all in. 

I messaged him and it has no faults at all, just displayed in a shop window which closed down. 

I know someone said get a double four but at nearly £500 plus the gear to make it Bluetooth and wireless instrument compatible I think we're getting way out of the the £200 market. 

At this price I could bang it out second hand and not lose. 

Building a garden room in the spring and this will be perfect for in there as a wireless stereo/amp. 

Thanks for the heads up.

[Muppet]

On 23/12/2017 at 13:41, edstraker123 said:

I just got one too and its going back as it was really poor.  The case buzzes like crazy if you play an 'E' with an active bass.  Great concept , terrible execution. Even at £230 its not worth it for me if it can't handle the low end. Maybe if you pay £600 it'll come with a Phil Jones Double Four so you have something you can play your bass through while you accompany the tracks streaming from your phone !

It's the present that ruined Christmas for me

Are you using the active input? I'm using five strings and have no problems with the low B. Finding the right balance between the gain and volume makes a lot of difference. 

[vinorange]

I don't have any trouble with mine either.  I've got a USA Sterling and a USA jazz deluxe - both active - and I've got no farting out at all.

Out od interest has anyone tried the apptek / ampkit function and how good is it if so?

[floFC]

I tried the Apptek/AmpKit when I got mine a while ago. It’s a cool feature and worked fine, but there is only a very limited amount of pedals and cabs that come for free, and I quickly found out that other apps such as Amplitube are not supported. I think that’s the one let down - for the price new, I think the AmpKit bass package should be included.

[edstraker123]

Yes I was definitely using the active input - I tried an Ibanez SR1400 first which was bad enough and then my Lodestone which caused a vibration which was  utterly horrific. I twiddled with the gain and volume for hours hoping to find the right balance ( I really wanted this to work) but to no avail. Maybe inconsistent build quality, but this one is definitely a lemon.

 

[Maude]

A couple of hours after ordering mine this morning, ebay send a message saying 20% off everything today between midday and six this evening. Bum! 

[edstraker123]

Sickener - I've just used the offer to buy a deluxe Fender bar stool  - it was 20 %off too

Edited December 28, 2017 by edstraker123

[edstraker123]

7 minutes ago, Maude said:

A couple of hours after ordering mine this morning, ebay send a message saying 20% off everything today between midday and six this evening. Bum! 

It won't matter when you send it back !!!!

[edstraker123]

To add insult to injury,  the courier which Ashdown were meant to have arranged for today to collect the amp didn't show leaving me stuck in waiting for nothing.

[Bigwan]

Got mine today. Sounds pretty good as a Bluetooth speaker - up and away on that score within 5 seconds of plugging it in. Not what you'd call amazing as a bass amp. Mine doesn't fart on open E per se... Just reminds you it's not actually a bass cab and could do with a high pass filter about 80Hz! Cutting bass back to 9 o'clock took the stress out of the cab, but sounded a bit pants. It was sitting on my rather cluttered kitchen table during this so I must try it on our solid floors to see how it fairs.

I'm a bit disappointed the app connected feature won't work with bias, etc. The engineer in me had assumed it was basically a glorified fx loop and therefore any amp sim would work. The original iRig worked using the 3 pole 1/8" jack on the iPhone so assumed this would work the same. May fiddle with this a bit... I'm too invested in bias to even consider another app. 

Overall I'm not disappointed as it's pretty ("oak" front - actually it's vinyl wrap but looks OK from more than a few feet away!), sounds reasonably good as a Bluetooth speaker, can take bass even if it's not quite a bass amp, and has a lot of connectivity options. Haven't tried the wireless dongle yet. 

I still think it was beyond stupid of Ashdown to market this at its original price (look like a 600 quid plus piece of kit it certainly doesn't), but at what I've paid for this I'll certainly keep it around! 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Bigwan

[edstraker123]

Mine's been returned today. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by edstraker123
changed mind on comments

[Maude]

Mine arrived today as well. First impressions, hmm, if I'd paid £600 I'd be seriously pee'd off. 

Little bit buzzy on low notes but that seems to be cabinet rather than speaker. The front panel was offset to one side by 2-3mm and the VU meter was rotated from upright. These sort of things really bug me as there is no need for it, especially on a £600 unit. I removed the front and realigned it and reseated the meter in the correct position, at least now it looks right. Time to sort the buzzing cabinet, and this where Ashdown's QC has really let them down, and I am an Ashdown fan having owned a lot of their gear. Problems so far which could all add to the cabinet noise. The front panel rests against the rim of the speakers which appear to be plastic, no anti vibration gasket, the plastic lens of the VU meter is just held in place by the front panel pushing against it, so lots of plastic vibrating against the MDF front panel. Let's take the back off then to see what's going on inside. Oh dear Ashdown, really not good at all. The speakers have earth wires screwed to the speaker chassis, one of which has been sheared of so is just hanging loose, the large transformer is held to the back panel with a 10mm nut, which is loose enough that the transformer clunks  around inside the cabinet, lots of wires are just laying across the back of one of the speakers, the damping material is not held in place by the double sided tape used and is just floating around inside and just generally a very untidy looking interior. With some proper damping around the speakers and VU meter behind the front panel and a lot of tidying up and proper tightening of internal components it should be a lot better, but this really shouldn't need doing on a unit of this price, Phil Jones Bass this certainly is not. 

Now I don't mind tinkering with this at the price I paid but how the release of this unit was pushed back and back and when finally released it was this shoddy mess I don't know. At first look I thought I had bought a counterfeit the build was so bad, but after checking all the usual things, this unit is genuine. 

Once sorted this will be a very handy little amp but I've no idea what Ashdown are thinking pricing this at £600, I can only see it damaging their reputation. 

If the chap on here from Ashdown reads this I'd love to know his thoughts on the terrible QC on the B Social. I realise mine was B stock but the seller assured me it was bankruptcy stock, but if it was a return, how can it have this many faults? 

One other thing that seems so obvious as soon as you use it I can't believe nobody at Ashdown thought to add it, is that the wireless dongle that plugs in your bass needs charging via a USB lead, why didn't you add a standard USB port so the dongle can charged from the B Social rather that having to plug in a separate charger? 

[edstraker123]

Thanks for the insight Maude. The buzzing cabinet was my issue too and its interesting to know why this was happening. I completely agree with you and wonder why Ashdown would release this with such shoddy build quality especially at the intended price point.

[CameronJ]

Wow - that’s a comprehensively damning report, Maude. Not good at all, regardless of the price point...

[Maude]

It's loads better now everything has been tightened up and properly damped/sealed. Still not capable of handling thundering bottom end but I never expected it to, it's not meant for that, although I'd like to hear it with a couple of PJB Piranhas in it. The music player side of things has what Ashdown have called 'cabinet compensation' applied to it which, I think, in laymens terms means a high pass filter to remove all the bottom end. You really need the bass control max'd to get a nice sound, although that's down to personal preference, masses of treble and mids on tap but very little bass. I'm guessing the poor little thing wouldn't handle it well if a modern track with all that sub bass going on was put through it at volume, hence a HPF or the like knocking out all the bottom end. Plenty of bass on the instrument side though so when playing along to a track a nice mix is easily achieved, but it would be nice to have the choice to add more bottom end when using as a music player.

I know all this sounds very negative but I really like Ashdown normally , maybe this should be rebranded as 'Letdown'. 

Now it's all sorted I do like it and for my use, music player and mini amp in my garden room, it will be perfect, I'm looking forward to sitting in the garden with my bass and phone, all wireless, playing along on the B Social, when this bloody rain stops :D. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by Maude

[vinorange]

Since asking if anybody got their amp sims to work with the apptek socket. I've trialled several amp sim apps and got to a very happy place with my amp. I got Bias Fx, Bias Amp, Jamup Pro, Amplitude and Ampkit to work perfectly with mine - Bias Fx being by far the best due to the ability to import other people's tone / cab setups from the tone cloud.

As a stand alone bass amp, of course it's not up to much (unless it was loaded with some far better speakers) but was that ever the point of this thing? At £600 I wouldn't even go near it. At £200 it's a brilliant bit of kit that works as a desktop rehearsal amp / modelling amp and a good bluetooth speaker. It's particularly handy if you play lead guitar too as you definitely get no farting out then and the sim apps are targeted for guitar far more than for bass. Mind you mine doesn't fart out anyway.