alexclaber

The power supply and the power amp are often two different modules. Be interested to see what's inside though!

Nothing to do with valves, just the specific SMPS (switched mode power supply) they've used.

I doubt a more powerful amp will help. A fancy boutique 2x10" with relatively expensive and relatively high excursion woofers will struggle to handle more than 150W in the lows and the Ashdown woofers are likely to handle much less power before farting.

My two basic rules of thumb are that you'll always hear a cab distorting well before you blow it, so you can safely use a high power amp with a lower power cab, and that if you're stacking two cabs of dissimilar type (assuming they work well together), power rating or quality, then put the smaller/lower power/cheaper cab on top so you can hear it complaining if you do push it too hard. More here: [url="http://barefacedbass.com/technical-information/mythbusters1.htm"]http://barefacedbass.com/technical-information/mythbusters1.htm[/url] And poke around the rest of the tech info and BGM columns sections for further enlightenment. The articles on power matching are quite useful.

Clarification added!

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1321116943' post='1435573']Thanks - I'd have put that on the Home page![/quote] It is now!

It depends on what you mean by "high-end definition". If you're talking a 6x10" with tweeter and talking about the treble sharpness/air coming from the tweeter, then it won't have that but if you're talking about the bite and attack found in the lower treble then it'll have plenty. The SVT7 is a really nice and properly powerful head - with that much power a Super Twelve will put out more bottom than any Ampeg 6x10" (and with the S12 you can have a tweeter if you want). The Super Fifteen won't be necessary - but if you're not into tweeteryness and you like really huge lows then it'll certainly be fun!

Put your stack in the corner of the room for maximum boundary reinforcement and if it starts complaining turn down the lows a bit (and/or turn down the lows on the guitarists' amps to free up some sonic space for you). Your limiting factor is likely to be that one of your 10"s is in a small ported cab and the others are in a sealed cab so they're not going to couple very well in the lows and the power handling below 100Hz will be pretty low. But if you have friendly acoustics, wise guitarists and a drummer with dynamic control you'll be fine!

Great news!

Yes, I saw you already have the Bass Terror. If you can get other 1x12" cabs for a similar price to the SP212 then they will have similar performance, despite having only one 12", not two. A brief google suggests that you can!

Looking at the BGM measurements, the impedance plot shows that it's tuned to ~55Hz and the frequency response curve (which has some pretty big room anomalies below 500Hz) shows that it rolls off at about that point. The extra space taken up by the isobaric chamber is so large that you could get rid of the chamber and second woofer and get near identical bass response with less cost, less weight and greater sensitivity, and without all the midrange and treble weirdness of one driver firing through another. The Bass Terror in the same tests shows itself in a much more favourable light, an amp I frequently recommend! [url="http://btpub.boyd-printing.com/publication/?i=76122"]http://btpub.boyd-printing.com/publication/?i=76122[/url]

Bass Gear Magazine tested at least one of the 'Smart Power' cabs in a recent issue. As they're isobaric note that their maximum output is the same as that of that of a normal ported cab with half the number of woofers - so their SP212 is equivalent to any of the typical neo 1x12" cabs in performance.

Yes, they'd be good. I think you'll prefer them ported. I'd go for something halfway between their two ported designs.

You don't need power, you need decibels! Is your current rig effectively a 3x10" stack?

I wouldn't use the BN12-300W with a valve amp - the high Fs and fairly low Qts means that bass response is choked, so you need more power to get lows out and you don't have the power. The BN15-300X would work admirably for a more old school (no deep lows but lots of mid-bass) tone.

I'd keep an eye out for a used Wizzy 10 and then you can double up for louder gigs, thus replacing your 1x15". Just make a series cable so you can use the 8 ohm tap on your valve amp (unless there's a 2 ohm tap on it like on SVTs). Or build a simple large-ish ported box with that 2512-II. With only 100W excursion will be low so that driver will indeed be fine and the port can be pretty small too. The high Vas will give you a mid-bass hump which will get you some extra loudness (at the expense of transient response but that won't matter with your valve head). Use 1/2" ply, add braces wherever it booms when you knock on it, then line it with insulation and it'll be better built in an engineering sense than most stuff out there!

The woofer blew because it was overpowered (or was faulty) - nothing to do with clipping. Clipping on its own doesn't blow drivers, otherwise as soon as you use distortion pedals you'd blow things. If it sounds bad, tweak some knobs until the bad sound goes away, if it doesn't sound bad then don't worry about it.

According to Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale there was already a line source (i.e. vertical stacked) PA system in Leeds railway station in 1962 and EV published a paper regarding their line radiators, designed with the aid of computers, in 1961.

If two amps are both rated at the same power output then one will usually sound louder than the other if: (These are EQ curve, filtering, compression and 'tone' issues - these points are all regarding increased perceived loudness without any difference in actual power.) 1. It has less bottom 2. It has more midrange 3. It has more treble 4. It has a less clean sound but the dirt is pleasing to your ears 5. It has steep highpass filtering to avoid wasting power on subsonics 6. When it clips it clips in a more sonically pleasing manner 7. It has a good limiter which allows you to push it harder before clipping or unpleasant compression occurs 8. It has in-built compression which increases the average:peak level ratio (These are specification and power section issues - these points relate to amplifiers actually producing more power in the real world) 1. Its power was rated at a lower %THD 2. It has greater current delivery reserve 3. It can deliver more peak power 4. It is better at handling reactive loads All comparisons need to be done with a very high spec loudspeaker otherwise its non-linearities at high power will lead you astray. Change the cab and all bets are off - sensitivity makes a HUGE difference to dB out.

Don't put a power conditioner in - they're a nightmare with high power amps as they restrict the current delivery from the mains.

Economically you'd be better off finding someone selling a Goliath and someone else wanting to buy a Goliath Sr (though that alone appears to be a sticking point...) but logistically that may be challenging! Your plan is certainly possible but the ports would need lengthening and the impedance may go sub 4 ohms depending on how it's currently wired, so it's not entirely simple. If you're curious, open it up and see if the drivers have an impedance stated on them and/or check whether it's wired all parallel or series/parallel (mostly likely) and if the latter whether it's (3 in series) all in parallel, (3 in parallel) all in series, (2 in parallel) all in series, or (2 in series) all in parallel.

[quote name='sixdegrees' timestamp='1319539431' post='1415301']Cool. I'm now thinking - two Ampeg 410 HE's. That way I'll have the choice of half or full stack, and not have to have a chiropractor on speed-dial, while getting the full potential out of the head. But if a 610 comes up in the meantime I'm sure I'll have another sleepless night...[/quote] That'll be a great rig and will sound just like an 810E of the same era. But two points to bear in mind - you don't need to get the 'full potential' out of the head, and in fact those cabs can't handle it anyway (200W excursion limited if you're lucky!) and that because they're small sealed cabs they can't move a lot of air on their own (four low excursion 10"s and no port to help) so start compressing/overdriving/farting fairly early on. But with both at once you'll certainly overpower drummers should you desire!

Here's the other 'Super 1x12' cabs on the market - Acme Low-B112: Audiokinesis Thunderchild TC112: Baer ML112: And a fEarful 12/6 (cosmetically these all vary depending on who builds them!)

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' timestamp='1319492211' post='1414954']Similar but different! It was the one that did a tour around the UK about 18 months ago.[/quote] Yes, same size box and tuning, same woofer as we still use in the Compact. The only things that have changed are the plywood, the bracing, the textured finish, the corners, the screws, the grill, the feet... And as a very recent customer said: "I finally received my S12 yesterday, woo! The cab looks fantastic, no evidence of that DIY look people have commented on on your earlier pieces." And he's not the only one saying that kind of thing: http://barefacedbass.com/customer-feedback/2011-sept---dec.htm I'm glad that all the early cabs performed so well that enough people could look past the less than perfect aesthetics. But times change and what we hear now about the aesthetics is overwhelmingly positive. One of the old 'on-tour' demo cabs was recently put through some destructive testing because I wasn't happy selling it off cheap because it doesn't match the brand appearance we now expect - you may be interested to know that from 20' up onto solid concrete it bounced! Took four similar impacts to properly break it...

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' timestamp='1319490718' post='1414933']I have had a Barefaced cab on trial and unfortunately would concur with JTUK that they do look homemade - sorry![/quote] What, like this? And larger here: http://barefacedbass.com/uploads/images/page_images/BIGBABY.jpg