agedhorse

Here's an article I received that puts the shipping challenges in perspective: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Port-in-a-storm-No-end-in-sight-to-global-shipping-chaos

The amp is rated at 900 watts RMS into 4 ohms.

I have a friend in the automotive industry and they are in the middle of a massive struggle for everything. Finished parts of all kinds, sub-assemblies, wiring harnesses, and many things electronics (micro-processor, micro-controller, memory, certain types of capacitors, semiconductors, PCBs). Some of these semiconductors are also used in the audio market (including some amps, home audio, flat screen TV's, phones, cameras and throughout the auto infotainment worlds), and one plant that was responsible for a variety of ASIC parts suffered a devastating fire a few months back as well. Really, this is SO much bigger than the guitar/bass amp industry... in fact most larger companies in the above industries consume more semiconductors in one week than our entire industry consumes in 1 year. https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a36211012/chip-shortage-continues/ https://www.mau.com/workforce-insights/the-2021-semiconductor-chip-shortage-what-why-and-whats-next https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/2020/10/29/akm-factory-fire-could-affect-supply-of-a-to-d-and-d-to-a-convertors-for-12-months

To follow up, shipping amps and cabinets by plane can be done but the cost (including handling and processing fees) can be outrageous. My experience shipping a TT by air these days (I just had shipped a box almost the same size, weight and distance) is around $400 USD and VAT would apply to that amount, making it $500. Also, there are some restrictions on shipping speakers due to the magnetic fields generated by the motor assembly. Shipping a Subway 115 would run about $500 plus VAT. The same costs are affecting parts that sometimes must be shipped by air because the cost of delay is even higher than the cost of shipping (which was the case for the shipment I experienced).

Yes, this is absolutely part of it. I did explain this to Dave over on TalkBass but I think it might be good to include the same information here. 1. It has nothing to do with Gibson period. The decision was made everybody involved because we are having great difficulty getting parts in sufficient quantities to fill the large number of orders we already have. Not just orders outside North America but also within North America. It makes no sense to try to ship a couple of amps at a time overseas, that's how products get lost and damaged. Especially tube amps. 2. Why are we having challenges with parts? It's not just us, it's the entire manufacturing world that is experiencing these shortages. Raw materials are delayed getting to our suppliers, our suppliers are delayed in their own manufacturing and some of our component manufacturers are experiencing delays from their suppliers. It's not our fault, it's not our supplier's fault, it's a global problem and no matter how much we wish it wasn't so, throwing money at it makes no difference when the parts simply do not exist. 3. In our case, we don't use a lot of generic parts. Many of our parts (like transformers, PCBs, pots, switches, sheet metal, speaker components, enclosures) are custom parts and have longer lead times than generic parts. These have been delayed by our suppliers, and not just suppliers from any one region but suppliers from France, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the UK, Germany, China, the US and Canada (I'm sure I'm missing some, but you get the point). This is mostly related to COVID, but because there are many steps in the manufacturing process, each step's delay adds to the total delay. 4. Then there's shipping delays... never have I seen the delays throughout the shipping world. Of course there's the shortage of containers, this was expected, BUT what was not expected was the ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal. It's not the week or two of direct delays, but the resulting suspension of operations at the ports because the ships they were waiting to unload and reload were all sitting out at sea waiting for passage. All those ships loaded with hundreds of thousands of containers that should have been unloaded and ready for their new loads. Combine this with the number of cancelled sailings (where a ship scheduled to depart is cancelled and waits for the next scheduled cycle. If you had containers scheduled for that ship, you were struggling to find alternative passage but often the logistics and global paperwork make it impractical. Containers with perishable goods, as well as livestock have priority, that's how the maritime laws are (and it makes sense). Then, the port delays, the inland shipping, the transfer companies, the rail companies, EVERYBODY is delayed. Oh, and the costs are out of sight too. This has not improved in the last 3 months, and may actually be worse. 5. We had our own factory delays, almost all of last year we had to operate in specialized "safe work cells" with all the necessary isolation and PPE gear. Because of the county we are located in, there were many weeks where we couldn't run ANY production due to stay at home orders. This applied to many of our suppliers too, and not just here, but much of Italy has been locked down pretty hard. Italy and the US are where many of our speakers come from, and THEIR suppliers were also locked down. Some of our suppliers simply didn't survive, we had to use back-up vendors and test sample parts in order to re-qualify the parts (especially where they are part of a safety agency approved assembly)... oh, and the safety certification agencies were also impacted, so there were delays in certifying the new parts so that the entire assembly could be re-certified. This impacts the EU specifically because of the change in EU market standards for legacy products (that do not apply to North America). It's a lot more complicated than "we just didn't want to ship outside of the US". The decision was more of what is practical, and promising something that we have almost no control over doesn't help the situation either. Nobody is happy about this, everybody shares your frustration and disappointment (including me) and we are all very, very sorry. When I know more, I will communicate it with you. Fortunately, there are a lot of good choices in bass gear these days, and if a manufacturer more local to you has stock, it may make better sense to move on for now and maybe revisit this at a later time. Hope this helps.

Inconvenient and messy as well. I see players complaining that few if any manufacturers are building their old, lead sled products anymore. Why would they when you can buy them used all day long for pennies on the dollar (or for scrap price). This was a very eye opening exercise that resulted in hauling off a truck load of amps as scrap because it wasn't worth the cost of packaging and shipping. Watching entire amps run through the scrap shredder (similar to what's used to shred cars and industrial scrap) is sad, but at least the resources are being recycled. Of course there are still collectible models, and amps that are still quite desirable, but the used market has adequate inventory to support the demand for years.

They already had more than they could use.

It would be interesting to learn about how the peak power was measured and how long the peak was defined as... or if it was purely a theoretical number based on unloaded power rail voltages into a theoretical 2 ohm load. Interestingly, this amp does not have ANY protective limiting present in the power amp, so a short circuit would prove devastating to the output stage and possibly the class H commutator switches.

I can't even give away older heavy iron amps anymore, the cost of shipping exceeds the value of many (especially older pro audio amps). I reluctantly sent several hundred pounds of old iron amps to the shredder/scrapper because nobody wanted to pay for the cost of shipping.

Yes Davs, they are not your "grandpa's" cabinets. Now you know exactly why the Subway line was developed, and why light weight and small was not an obstacle to performance.

If they use the Honda inverter style generators and take them out of Eco mode, they have even more effective voltage regulation built into the generator's control system. They are also VERY quiet.

Again, just a design choice/preference.

Ashdown DIDN’T get the volume so wrong. It was simply a design choice. By any chance was that tweeter ADDED to the cabinet in the existing port???

Ok, I just ran the numbers and I think you may have gone down a rabbit hole. If the internal dimensions of the box are really 41 liters, a 3" diameter port 2" deep is going to be fine at 100 watts RMS. If you go to a 4" diameter port, the depth will increase to 4" and you will increase the power handling to a little over 150 watts RMS (a better choice).

Bill's right here. What's necessary is to make the best choices so that the compromise can be lived with. Looking back at your first post, are you SURE that your port velocity is being calculated correctly. for a 75mm diameter port, I would not expect that much velocity from a single 10" driver. I'm starting to think that there is an error somewhere... since you are using WinISD, that's the first place I would look. Buggy software is a charitable way of saying it.

The port area is too small, increase the diameter by ~2cm and see if the length remains reasonable. With that driver in that size box, you may not be able to achieve an acceptable tuning.

It's ok for power cords IF a heavier gauge is necessary and the strain reliefs are appropriate. Speaker cords are generally a heavier gauge because the voltage is lower and the current is higher for the same amount of power transmitted.

Correct, it’s unrelated to the power amp (power tubes/valves, transformers, etc.) Proper troubleshooting will narrow down the area responsible for the noise, then it can be appropriately repaired.

Neutrik specifically warns OEM manufacturers of cables against using tinned wires with their SpeakOn plugs for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Assembly with tinned wires also invalidates the safety approvals of the plug since the plug’s safety certification is for untinned wire termination only.

As far as the sound differences in "premium priced cables" and solid commercial/pro/tour grade cables is generally indistinguishable to those participating in double-blind testing. I have seen these tests many times, and seen folks claim things that proved unconfirmable. The exception to the rule is high impedance sources into high impedance loads (instrument cable), when the cable gets long there can be a significant difference between cables due to the capacitive reactance of the cable and how that reactance interacts with the reactance of a passive pickup. You can experience reduced high end, you can experience resonance effects, and you can experience additional noise. The longer the cable, the more noticeable. This has been my experience (over and over again).

Tinning wires with binding screw pressure terminations are a problem because the solder will cold flow under pressure. It's not allowed in avionics here in the states. The regulatory approvals for most pressure screw connectors will specify un-tinned wire only. There may be some exceptions for tin overbond wire in some applications, but only because pure tin does not cold flow as easily.

This is why soldered connections on plugs should always have a mechanical strain relief. Even mechanically attached plugs like SpeakOn have robust strain reliefs built into the connector.

Not for Neutruik SpeakOn plugs. Under high current, the pressure of the termination (without tinned wired) is better than solder and will not loosen with use either.

This is generally fine. Spraying into the amp usually gets incompatible substances where they don't belong, creating new and messier problems to deal with.

Good God I hope not, for the sake of the tech that needs to clean up the resulting mess at least.