Active PA speaker for a bass amp

[Boodang]

I just bought a LD Sysyems Icoa 15a speaker and it's very impressive, especially given the price at just under £400.

So, initially I bought it for my gigs with an electronic drum kit. We're 6 gigs in and wow, what a great sound. The kick is punchy and the whole kit is clear. And that has been at a small open air (about 200 people), a small club, and some larger venues.

So then I had some gigs come up with bass, and rather than use my swr setup, as I now get my finished tone from my pedal board, I used the Icoa. Again, great sound. Despite 300 watts and a 15 plus horn, it's not the loudest but any louder and I'll be going through a PA, plus there's plenty of headroom and it's nowhere near clipping or struggling to keep up with a guitar going through a Marshall stack. And, like the E kit, it's a great tone, clear and basically reproducing what I'm getting out of the pedals. Also has a built in 3 band limiter for when you do push it.

Given the cost, unless you have a need for a specific tone from a specific bass amp, I can highly recommend. And quite frankly, makes some bass amps look expensive by comparison. Also, at 25kg, not the heaviest amp/speaker I've every lugged around (especially compared to the golden age of Trace Elliot!).

[Burns-bass]

Yeah lots of people do it now.  Check out FRFR. 
 

I was recommended doing it with double bass and it’s been a revelation.

[Elfrasho]

I've been tempted to go down this route. Having a wee active speaker like this could have multiple uses!

[Nicko]

I'm not quite sure why, if the amp/speaker isn't providing any additional sound texture, you wouldn't just dispense with it completely and go through the PA via an even cheaper DI box.

[WinterMute]

I have a QSC K12.2, plenty of power, plenty of bass for 5 string, one hand lift in a bag...

 

Everything's modelled in the Quad Cortex, all I need is something to make it loud, the monitor format is brilliant for rehearsal and stage and it's got a balanced DI output for the main PA.

[Boodang]

6 hours ago, Nicko said:

I'm not quite sure why, if the amp/speaker isn't providing any additional sound texture, you wouldn't just dispense with it completely and go through the PA via an even cheaper DI box.

Well, a lot of gigs we do, most actually, are relatively small, so vocals thu small pa speakers, everyone else thru their own amp. When it's thru a pa I can still hear myself as at least I'm not at the mercy of the sound engineer. 

And then there's just the concept that to be heard you need an amp and you're not always going to have someone else to do that for you.

[Boodang]

7 hours ago, Nicko said:

I'm not quite sure why, if the amp/speaker isn't providing any additional sound texture, you wouldn't just dispense with it completely and go through the PA via an even cheaper DI box.

our guitarist does this, he turns up with his guitar and a di and goes 'where am I plugging in?'. And I'm like, I don't know, we discussed this before, the pa is just for vocals, where's your amp? For me, not having the ability to amplify yourself, when you need to, is just plain lazy / can't be arsed to bring an amp to a gig / someone else's problem cause I've decided it's not mine because I'm so talented. Not that I've got a chip on my shoulder or anything!

Edited April 5, 2023 by Boodang

[Nicko]

10 minutes ago, Boodang said:

our guitarist does this, he turns up with his guitar and a di and goes 'where am I plugging in?'. And I'm like, I don't know, we discussed this before, the pa is just for vocals, where's your amp? For me, not having the ability to amplify yourself, when you need to, is just plain lazy / can't be arsed to bring an amp to a gig / someone else's problem cause I've decided it's not mine because I'm so talented. Not that I've got a chip on my shoulder or anything!

I used to DI through the PA sometimes, but since I was the one lumbered with the PA and the laptop with the PA settings I didn't feel as if I was taking the easy route.The PA had 8 channels so why not use them?

[Boodang]

3 minutes ago, Nicko said:

I used to DI through the PA sometimes, but since I was the one lumbered with the PA and the laptop with the PA settings I didn't feel as if I was taking the easy route.The PA had 8 channels so why not use them?

Well, if you're bringing the pa then fair enough! But not at the expense of the vocals, obviously they're the 'talent' and nothing can interfere with the talent, especially when they don't even bring their own microphone! Again, not that I've got a chip on my shoulder or anything!

[Nicko]

14 minutes ago, Boodang said:

Well, if you're bringing the pa then fair enough! But not at the expense of the vocals, obviously they're the 'talent' and nothing can interfere with the talent,

Correct.  That is presumably why the vocalist never exerted herself setting up the PA in case the vocal chords suffered,