Chienmortbb

We measured several amps amps at the South West Bass Bash a few years ago. The Ashdown RM series are flat with all EQ at noon and non of the effects engaged as are the Bugera Veyron 1001M Mosfet. There were a number of lower powered amps that also measured substantially flat but these were the only two in the 500W plus club from memory. I will check later that we did not check any other higher powered ones. Most Class D heads are flat via the line in/power amp input/ EFX return but the above amps were measured form the instrument input.

Is that Johnny Vegas to the right of the singer?

I bought a few of the cheap modules and they were invariably unreliable. I have had power supplies +\- 50V and they were +/- 70V. There is almost no technical support or documentation. I have modules from Connex that work flawlessly and I have had good support from Connex but, as with 3e, the actual cost is virtually the same as a certified ICEPowet module. A little knowledge IS a dangerous thing and whatever route you take, you must know what you are doing. These amplifiers have dangerous voltages, not only on the mains side but also at the output of the power supply. In addition, The regulations around safety and emi/rfi are also important and most enthusiastic amateurs (since retiring I must include myself in this group) do not have the knowledge or experience required.

Has anyone used the Soundmagic E10/E11 for IEM use?

I wish I thought you were joking. I wish I had a £Grand for every singer that turned up with nothing more than a smile. I could by a new TE Rig 😀

There are a number of YouTube videos showing that many caps emit magic smoke at way lower than the quoted voltage. This picture probably explains why. Another reason for probably buying an integrated amp or power amp from an established manufacturer.

The CQ20 does have multitrack recording capability and 96KHz sampling. On top of that it is so quiet. Noise wise that is. It is also much smaller than it looks and seems really robust. I chose it over the CQ18 because I wanted all my main outputs on XLR rather than TRS. On the subject of the HPF frequency, if you have an adjustable one, move it slowly up and you will be surprised at how little of your tone and sound comes below 100Hz in most forms of music.

I wonder why this is. The audience never get a real stereo experience but maybe the volume makes it more immersive?

Not much if at all. It is a bit quieter on spec but it is plenty loud enough and will take whatever you through at it. I have played venues that needed less bass and others that needed more. I set my amp up fairly flat at the start and just tweak a little after sound check. I have never felt the need for another cabinet although I do sometimes think I would like a stack, I know one BCer has two but in pubs and clubs, it is more than enough. The difference in bass response is hardly noticeable and as I have said before, some venues I have to trim the bass. It is all I need maybe I will change my mind when the IMOLA is released. That is a joke, as far as I know there is nothing called the IMOLA on the Horizon. Sorry to cause you trouble @stevie.

As with @Phil Starr, I hope to be considered a friend of @stevie and although that might seem to suggest a bias, it also means that both Phil and I have a lot of insight into the cabinets that @steviedesigns. The controlled low end on his cabinets come from careful design and the use of expensive, high quality drivers. Many bass cabinets are designed to be “voiced”, that is have a dialed in response, often with a peak were a DB is itself resonant. You only have to pay some music through the cabs to hear that there are no nasty peaks or troughs and I would gladly use two Monza or Monaco cabs for HiFi. Of course, being a perfectionist, @steviewould say they are not designed for that… It is a shame that you are so far away as you could have borrowed mine. I am not gigging for a while as my guitarist had a heart attack last week. I should also add that I had a Monaco before but as I am having years and loosing muscle quit rapidly, I traded my Monaco with another basschatter for the Monza.

Phil is right that the published specifications for the TI chips are really theoretical and cannot be achieved in a real world situation. This tree for a pedalboard app where you do not want a large heat sink and a fan. The best of these amps are built by a company called 3E audio. They are based in China but they seem to build to a better standard and have a very good reputation. However, quality does not come cheap and the 3E boards are several times more expensive than the low-cost AliExpress, eBay or Banggood modules. The lower cost boards have components of questionable quality and are much more likely to burn out quite quickly. Even with the three boards, a good power supply is essential and again these do not come cheap. In fact in my opinion you need to spend as much on one of these TI modules and power supplies as you would buying an 300 W model from ICEPower. The 300AS/1 is an ideal paddleboard amp and the whole module which includes the mains power supply will set you back between 100 and £150. With the ICEPower modules, You have the added knowledge you are meeting all the required standards and that the unit has been tested in a proper manner as quality components and is almost ready to go. Be aware though that with the ICEPower modules you need to be aware of how to connect the mains so as not to affect the safety or integrity of the module with respect to conducted and radiated interference. If you do decide to go the TI module route, remember that the powers quoted are often at much higher voltages and currents than you can get easily from a laptop brick type power supply. Even if you did have the high voltages available that many of the modules sold will not stand the higher voltages. For example, many of the TPA3255 modules, are only guaranteed to work at 36V dc. If you do use a power supply of 48-50 volts, you may find you run out of current before getting anywhere near the quoted power. As @Phil Starrsays, heatsinking/thermal management is also an issue. The size of the heartsick needed to achieve really high powers is quite large, especially if you are trying to dissipate the heat without the help of a fan. It is also true that the maximum efficiency of a class D amp is close to its maximum power output power. So you cannot scale back the size of the heat sink as much as you might think at lower powers.

We should have been at our favourite venue last night but… our rhythm guitarist had a heart attack two days before. He had a stent fitted and was sent home yesterday and is convinced he will be able to play next Friday.

Ashdown use custom Sica drivers so they are perfectly fine. although perhaps not state of the art as far as drivers are concerned.

Do not get me started on these amps. Oops you already have. Many of them are based as is said earlier on chips amps like the TPA3255 and the TPA3116. These are single supply rail amps often driven by a laptop style "brick". The amps can go loud under the right conditions. For example the TPA3255 can reach high powers however you need to run them with a 48V+ power supply AND at low impedances. Under those conditions, the heatsink fitted is almost totally inadequate. In addition te headline powers quoted are at 10% distortion. This is unusable IMHO for bass.

A bit of overhang but even a pedant like me is not offended. Nice rig.

Valve amps have little magic but many components that tend to distort/compress in a musically pleasing way when pushed hard. A valve amp rated at say 100 watts RMS, at 0.1% distortion can only give 141.4 watts RMS when fully driven into distortion (i.e.close to a square wave). Also a bass cabinet should not be driver close to its thermal rating. If you push a speaker so hard that it "colours" the sound, you are probably close to blowing it.

Some driver manufacturers also use it for the coils, it is much lighter than a pure copper coil.

According to the spec it has more than one tuner and no machine heads?I have heard of basses with built in tuners but even a headless has machine heads of some sort.

I have to admit this thread is breath of fresh air. I mistrust evangelists, except myself that is. The from loud onstage sound to silent stage/full IEM is too big to achieve in one step. My band of dinosaurs are unlikely to go full silent stage anytime soon so I am trying to change them very gradually. Reading other people's experiences,

I think you are correct, it seems that the combo is built to the same spec as the 4 ways, despite only having two speakON poles.

Some sound advice here but let’s look at the real world. 1. You should never use 6.35 plugs (1/4”) for speakers,,,,, but some amps and speakers have them so… use the best you can and NEVER and instrument cable. 2. SpeakON 4 way connectors are close to a standard but on cables a 2 way works fine. It mates with a 4 way socket on +1 & -1. You cannot use a 4 way plug into a 2 way socket. 3 Cables.. You can use mains flex as long as the current rating is OK for your rig. The problem is it is not very flexible. 4.Speaker cable is more flexible and more suited to stage use. You do not need 4mm cable unless you are doing high powered PA speakers over long distances. They are a pain to use in the old Neutrik speakons and way over specified for bass rigs. 5. Although Neutrik are the industry standard, both Cliff and Amphenol make fine Speakon compatible connectors. Switchcraft may also but they are not common in the UK. 6. As a general rule I use 20 amperes as the maximum current (amperage is NOT a word) that 2.5mm cable can carry and 16 amperes as the max a 1.5mm flex can carry. Although commercial flex may be rated higher, that does not account for the losses in the cables. For bass rigs this may be negligible when using a 50cm to 1m cable but PA cables are much longer and the losses add up. 7. So a 2.5mm copper cable, In my opinion, is good for in excess of 3000 watts continuous at 8 ohms. For 4 ohm use you must halve that rating to 15-1600 watts. For 1.5 mm cable, the figures are 1800 watts at 8 ohms and about 900 into 4 ohms. For longer runs I would derate those figures. Conclusion, 4mm cable is overkill for a bass rig. 2.5 and 1.5 are more than enough but buy a reputable make. Some cheap cables are CCAW or copper covered aluminium wire. It is rubbish.

It is a cab issue not an amp issue. The Mesa is a fine amp, look for a neutral cab.

I am not convinced about this. Of course these drivers could be different but having “ conditioned” several drivers in the past, IMO It makes little difference.