Small "Hifi" amp head recommendations sought!

[tauzero]

On 02/09/2025 at 17:18, andyhaines said:

Yes, listened to some Magellan 350 demos earlier, could possibly make a an exception on the fan if it’s as quiet as people say as it sounds promising and has the right features.. so far I’m also zeroing in on the Eich T300 and the GR Bass One 350

 

The earlier Tecamp Puma 900 is more powerful than the T300 (current equivalent is the Eich T900 but that may have a fan, later Tecamps did, but they were very quiet).

[andyhaines]

Final questions for @Hellzero and the other GR Bass one users: can you confirm that there is an input clip light? The manual says that it is the power LED on the right hand side but I’ve not seen it demonstrated in any demos.

Similarly the manual states that the various LED settings have a VU meter mode (which could be useful) but in reality this seems to be more of an aesthetic light show. 

[Hellzero]

Yes, there's an input clipping LED, it's next to the master on its left.

 

It turns red when the input signal is clipping and depending on the output level of your instrument, sometimes, the input gain must be set high, after noon position (very low output passive instruments in Pure Mode, for instance).

 

It's number 17 in the manual.

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Hellzero
More info added

[Dood]

On 03/09/2025 at 13:19, andyhaines said:

@Stub Mandrel thanks, yes actually I’m already using a DI/audio interface for teaching using my headway acoustic 2 channel preamp/DI which feeds into my RME Babyface audio interface (which, like all the RME stuff is high quality kit). You could argue then, why the worry about a fanless amp if my teaching needs are already covered - but ideally I’d prefer to use a dedicated bass preamp rather than the Headway (which nevertheless is my reference DI box, it’s so quiet).

 

@Hellzero good advice - what’s making me pause for thought here is that the GR One 800 is at the upper end of my budget and is hugely over watted for what I’m likely to use (as would the PJB BP800) But definitely going on the considered list.

 

There’s a few online demos I’ve found that has at least given me some sense of the sonic character of the Eich, Genzler and GR One. They all sound very much in the same ball park, with their respective EQ sections and contour options adding some differences - although this is less of an consideration for me as I have the EQ2 programmable pedal which gives me full control over 10 bands, Q widths etc. From my limited point of view I would say that the Eich sounds a shade warmer with the other two just a little more sterile. 

 

I've only really zoomed through the thread, so you'll have to forgive me if I have missed some pertinent details. I thought I'd just chime in regarding the teaching aspect: As yet, I've never needed an additional 'bass preamp' before my interface. However, if I felt the urge I do have a few on my "shelves of pleasure". I just made that up, on reflection it sounds way more dodgy that it's supposed to. I digress. A decent interface with a higher enough inout inpedeance isnt really that different from the input of a "transparent" bass preamplifer. So, rather than worry about getting my tone with extra boxes, I have always shaped the sound with a really good plugin. My teaching favourite for absolute clean (and totally dry) to mildly driven sounds is the Neural DSP Cory Wong X - in the DI/Channel strip setting. No amp sim, no cabinet. It is bonkers good when you get it dialled in and I'd highly recommend that over messing about with additional hardware. *unless the interface being used can not accomodate the output needs of the instrument. (Which I am yet to find on anything with more than two inputs). Just a thought!  

Oh, if you're on a Mac and you are using OBS or similar for online lessons you'll have no doubt come up against the issue of getting "computer audio (plugins/DAW/usic palyer) and microphone out to the other party" and this is also fixable. 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Dood

[andyhaines]

Thanks for confirming @Hellzero that was also my understanding from the manual, however a thread on Talkbass from a few years ago seemed to throw up some confusion involving old versions of the manual. But good to have it confirmed.

 

Thanks @Dood re teaching and using plugins. My audio interface (and older RME babyface) does not support running plugins directly on interface so I’d have to use my DAW for plugins which (for me) adds latency etc. I also use OBS for teaching but have no issues with routing mics, bass, DAW, videos etc to remote students using RME’s excellent TotalMix software which lets you route pretty much anything to anything.