Chienmortbb

There is a blog called the slow diyer where a chap up north (Scandinavia not Hotton) tells the story of his slow audio builds. Compared to me he is a formula one car, however: I tested the Kilowatt today with speakers and music. It is quite impressive with the 8" Ramsa cabinets I keep at home. I have to be careful as they are only rated at 80 watts RMS although I suspect Ramsa were a little more conservative with their ratings that most modern speaker companies. I only had it wired as a stereo amp but it gives me confidence to go forward with it. It seems to run quite cool, it was warm but no more than that. What most people forget is that the heat from a class D amp does not change too much as the power goes up and with the ambient temp so high it was a fair test. That being said, I will fit temperature controlled fans as the amps have a linear voltage output that corresponds to the heatsink temperature. That makes it easy to add fan cooling. I now need to work out the best place for the fans. The noise is not an issue as the amp is for PA use not as a bass amp (if you see a bass pre-amp wanted ad tell the mods and get me banned) but the fans will only come on if the amp is hot and they will be run at lower voltages than specified so the noise should be minimal. Next is to finish the front panel (escutcheon) design and get it made. I am getting it made without anodizing as it is cheaper and I may well change the design later. I also need to build the auxiliary power regulators for the level meters and DSP.

The Laney's seem pretty good for the money. They are a bit old school, class A/B amp with a transformer power supply but still under 17Kg. The handles are excellent, with the top handle for carrying in and the side handle for lifting onto a pole. Despite being a weedy 70year old I can lift them with ease. The angles are good for floor monitors too. No DSP so what you put in is what comes out. I have yet to put them to use in the band situation. Hoping to do that on Friday.

Could be a nice haul but unlikely to be suitable for modern bass cabinets. That being said, I would take a punt if I were near enough.

It's OK now, Boris has gone (nearly) so we might rejoin next week 😁

That ain't a Ric its a Danelectro Longhorn.

Very few in the UK.

The dreaded white gloop. it is a type of caulk or sealant that is used to stop large components moving. If they move during transport, they will eventually cause a dry joint, causing a fault.

True bypass was/is one of those guitarist fads, someone came up wit the idea that lots of pedals with buffers was a bad idea so pushed the idea of true bypass where the input is directer connected to the output of a pedal when the effect is OFF. It is one of those ideas that has a grain of truth in that multiple pedals concatenated = multiple noise generators. However all you favorite BOSS pedals were/are buffered and a well designed buffer (its not hard to design a good one) will not affect your sound and you need buffer at some stage especially the end of the chain.

I have one of those too but it does have a baked in mid scoop.

Probably lose a lot of girlfriends too.

There is a joke that the Secret Service often use a bass solo as an interrogation technique as everyone talks though a bass solo. Its funny because its true. The player I most admire is probably Glenn Hughes not only a great bass player but one of the best bass playing singers. However for the way he weaves a bass line into a song it would have to be Jack Casady. Seem here at 69 and still struttin his stuff (1min 10secs)

The first several batches and revisions. Admittedly they were long since sorted.

Absolute Music in Bournemouth usually have a good selection although a long trek from home for you. . https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/search.php?search_query=precision+bass&section=content Just ring ahead to make sure they are on demo. They will get them out of the warehouse if you ask.

That is Active. The clue is the 48V phantom power.

Andy every bass and guitar I have owned would have been better with inserts and machine screws.

It is best not to assume anything about amps or cabs in my experience.

As some of you know I have used and evaluated many class D modules over the years and some of them included mains Switch Mode Power Supplies. One in particular, from a long established Chinese company would work intermittently but most of the time it would go into the protect mode. I had contacted some buyers of this amp in Europe to check that they were happy and to get their opinions on the amp. In all cases they gave a glowing report. I contacted the company and re-read the specs and noticed that the upper limit for main voltage was 240V. As @agedhorsementioned a few posts earlier, we used to have a nominal mains voltage of 240V before joining the EU but sensibly WE persuaded the EU that mains voltages should be harmonised. It was of course a compromise but it did remove those two pesky 220/240V taps on amplifiers, reducing costs. As an aged dog myself, I grew up with 240V and sort of assumed that the particular amp would work in the UK. I contacted the company and they were very helpful. As a retired Electronic Engineer, I still have much of my equipment (boasting again) and I was able to talk to them on a technical level and we soon sorted the problem out. The point here is that there are some good Chinese companies, but many either do not understand out local conditions or simply don't care as they are just resellers. So the lesson is, understand and study the specs and buy from reputable sellers. There are Companies here in the UK, Europe and the USA that sell low cost amps and if they sell them, they are responsible for them. However the safe bet is to buy from reputable brand from a reputable seller.

http://matrixproaudio.com/xt-1useries.html So this should suit with a decent pre-amp?http://matrixproaudio.com/xt-1useries.html

Although I fall into the trap myself, I should point out that the output devices in amplifiers can all be used in any class of amplifier, so for example linear mosfets can be used in class A, Class B, Class A/B, Class D, Class G and Class H. So can Thermionic Valves and Bipolar Junction Transistors. However switchng mosfets are are the best option for Class D and Valves/Tubes are not recommended. I am 70, use class D heads and am quite happy with them. Yes I was gutted when my beloved Sound City 100W was stolen but the trouble I have had with valve amps over the years, added to the cost of valves, make a valve amp totally uneconomic for me.

Seems like everyone is eg Mackie Thumps quoted at 1000w using a class D chip that the maker rates at 450W (probably about 300W)

My only comment that the EQ/Tone Stack is totally different on the GK and takes some getting used to, in my experience.

I would add that our band has two guitarists their amps have line outs rather than DI out. One amp is a Fender combo the other a Roland Blues Cube. On one gig where we needed to put the amps through FOH, I forgot my DIs but always carry a home made isolating box containing two isolation transformers. We tried putting the guitar amps though the mixer directly but the Fender output was so noisy. I put my little isolator box in and it was as quite as a noisy mouse. Had I had my Orchid DIs they would have gone in front of the amp and there would have been no problem.

And it runs off battery or phantom power.

Maybe but when tape came in the BBC called the operators sound recordists to distinguish them form the recorder itself. Perhaps mixist would fit but engineer would not.