Bill Fitzmaurice

While valves have their place in instrument amps it's not due to how they sound when driven clean but how they sound when driven dirty. For those who think valves are superior for stereo/HT watch this starting at the 3:20 marker. It wouldn't hurt to watch all of it, for that matter.

34C maybe.

What would happen if you got a pair of large speakers?

What's to argue about? The price? That's not unusual for a large set of Tannoys. For instance: https://soundapproach.com/tannoy-arden-15-dual-concentric-floor-standing-speakers-pair.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwh7zWBRCiARIsAId9b4oFs1k_AI6L_Hbt-CZmH0GEnrbix6TJY_CikzCaA5nR3NJzP3kn-swaAuCEEALw_wcB https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tannoy-15-Gold-Monitor-Speakers-in-Brand-New-GRF-Folded-Horn-Cherry-Cabinets-/152963494167

http://www.bcae1.com/xoorder.htm I already explained that there are piezos that have added circuitry to present a resistive load that allows them to be used with a standard high pass filter, although I've never seen one myself, they are that rare. I use high pass filters with standard piezos, but they're specifically configured for piezos and would not work with a dynamic driver. There's also the possibility that those cabs used standard piezos with high pass filters when they should not have. I've seen worse foul ups.

A piezo would not use the same crossover as a dynamic driver unless the piezo was one specifically configured to present a resistive load. Piezos of that sort exist, but they're rare. While on the subject, there are two issues common with most tweeter equipped cabs, those being the tweeters are crossed over at way too high a frequency, often an octave or more, and the high pass filters have inadequate slope to provide adequate protection. IMO tweeters that don't work down to at least 2.5kHz and high pass filters that aren't at least 3rd order as about as useful as screen doors on a submarine.

Depending on the crossover circuit, if it has one, removing the load presented by the tweeter can cause damage to your amp. If you want to ditch the tweeter you need to eliminate all the associated crossover components as well to be safe.

Tweeters don't create hiss, they only reproduce hiss created by the electronics. Replacing the tweeter won't get rid of hiss.

Well , yeah, them too. I did say that it's an industry wide issue.

The tweeters used tend to be less of a problem than the high pass filters used with them. I'd say that's an industry wide issue, not just an Ashdown issue.

Possibly. The one factor which is affected by cone size is the off-axis midrange dispersion. The smaller the cone the wider the dispersion angle. Standing in front of the cab you probably wouldn't notice, standing off to the side your audience might. But if you have the cab placed with the drivers horizontal you gum up the works, because that will more than halve the dispersion angle compared to when the drivers are vertically aligned.

The amount of air shifted can't be determined by the area of the cones. It's determined by the driver displacement, cone area x maximum linear excursion. Refer back to post #18 in this thread. Then ask your favorite speaker manufacturer why they don't post this critical bit of information, but don't hold your breath waiting for an answer.

Don't play through it for a few seconds after powering it up.

Show me one that posts driver displacement and I'll tell you.

+1. If you're going smaller and don't want to lose output you need not only a lot more power but also a driver with sufficient displacement to make use of that power. The drivers that Barefaced uses have the highest displacement available with electric bass drivers. Other manufacturers might, but there's no way of knowing, as they don't reveal their driver displacement.

How much of your closet space is taken up by her shoes? Technology does allow you to go with a smaller driver for the same result, possibly 1x10 but more likely 1x12. However, that doesn't mean going from 250w to 300w. It's more like to 500w or more.

Your 1x15 is more or less the equivalent of a 4x8. What do you think? As for the wife, so long as she's not the one hauling it what should it matter to her what you have for an amp?

That depends on the xmax of the drivers, which usually limits useful power handling to no more than half the thermal rating before speaker flatulence occurs.

The classic term is 'farting out'.

There's no advantage to using marine plywood other than to the marketing department. But if you're going to argue about whether marine plywood is a better material than Baltic Birch you might want to consider one of the other main industries that uses it: Aircraft construction. The Ashdown marketing department should be bragging about useful features, such as building their cabs from 12mm plywood braced so that it works as well as unbraced 24mm plywood, and fully lining their cabs with damping to deliver better tone. But that would mean they'd also have to have those features. I'm reminded of when G-K came out with a new line of neo cabs a few years back, unbraced and unlined. Someone on Talkbass exposed them. G-Ks response, from Bob Gallien himself, was that they had tested the cabs with and without proper bracing and damping and that their testers preferred them unbraced and unlined. Said testers must have been students at Gallaudet University. Numerous owners of the G-Ks added bracing and damping, with about a 95% to 5% consensus that they worked much better after the alteration. Bob Gallien didn't comment again on the subject, but in very short order the cabs got a 'II' designation, this time braced and lined.

No. Egg crate foam gets its name, and look, from real egg crates, which once were used to line the walls of studios, not to absorb sound waves but to diffuse them. When acoustical foam was invented the look was copied, but ill-advisedly. Foam can't diffuse sound waves, as that requires that they reflect off the foam, which they do not. In terms of absorption flat foam works better, as that is determined by the actual amount of foam. The air contained in the spaces between the egg crate foam dimples doesn't do anything. That may be of significance if you're building a boat, but it matters not a whit with a speaker. Baltic (also known as Finnish or Russian) Birch is the preferred material for speakers .

It needs damping because if it's not damped waves from the back of the cone reflect off the panels back to the cone, meeting it at various angles of phase, causing peaks and valleys in the speaker response. That's the case with all speakers. This isn't a debatable topic, it's Acoustical Engineering 101, first semester. Un-braced 15mm plywood is insufficient to make the cabinet panels inert. The only difference between Marine plywood and standard grade is the use of waterproof glue. What does matter is the number of plies, which is responsible for stiffness. A single brace connecting the middle of two opposing panels gives the same result as doubling the panel thickness. That's Civil Engineering 101, first semester. Giving the cab designer the benefit of the doubt I'll venture he may have studied acoustical and civil engineering and specified how to correctly build the cab, but the bean counter who over-ruled him in favor of saving a few quid certainly did not.

In WinISD 0.7 the effect of both lining and stuffing is seen when you alter Qa from the default value 100, a bare cab, to 50 for a lined cab, 10 for a stuffed cab and 5 for stuffed and compressed. However, as is the case with all WinISD modeling, the results are only fully accurate within the range of pure pistonic function, to roughly 2 octaves above the cab F3. Stuffing, especially when compressed, lowers the cab Q, so the effect on the low frequency response will be seen in the charts. Lining mainly affects the midrange, so it's primary effect is not reflected in the charts. It is seen in measured charts as a significant smoothing of midrange response.

It does. Nearly all speakers do. There's the right way to build a cab, and there's the cheap way. BF does it the right way.

It doesn't need loads of foam, but it should be fully lined, and since it wasn't then yes, they cocked up the design. The bracing is sparse as well.