mesa boogie bass 400 and 400+

[Mark Percy]

the mesa boogie bass 400+ puts out only 250watts on a scope from 12x 5881 tubes. the reason this amplifier sounds huge, is the preamp section relationship to the power stage. the old 6x 6550 version, called the mesa boogie bass 400, pushes nearly 300watts. americans view wattages differently to the english. the hiwatt 400 pushes under 300watts.

[Mr. Foxen]

I think it is just MEsa that view wattages differently. That is peak or a some ridiculous THD level or something. Americans like bigger numbers.

[chris_b]

They're all at it! Bass Gear Magazine tested a Markbass LM2 and found it was only putting out 400 watts at 4 ohm!

[umph]

all the new orange amps are terrible for it, i dont think one of them makes their wattage claim

[Anders]

Of what i have heard/read the 400 is pretty much the same as Buster200 soundwise and not much louder(I have tried one once).I had a buster to a tech who said it delivered 150w so i don't know.It's probarbly difficult to hear the difference between 200w with lots of lowend dialed in and 150w with lots of agressive mids at two different occations.
I have also heard/read that 400+ is about 300w.I'm not shure about this though.
My point is,if you hear a 400+ which probarbly is a bit louder than the 400 and you have lots of agressive midrange in the sound,you would probarbly think the 400+ is 500w or whatever partly because of the agressive sound.I don't know how Mesa has measured the 500w or if it's peak power,but it would be really interresting to try them both side by side.

By the way,what is the sounddifference between the 400 and 400+?
Is it possible to get alot of lowend punch (SVT-like) out of the 400+?

Edited July 22, 2010 by Anders