stevie

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1317377260' post='1390004'] Apparently, and Ive no idea when this is coming into fruition, but TC have some very interesting news on the TC amps specs. No changes to the amps, but information on specs that will put that all to rest. [/quote] They haven't published the information yet because they are still making it up!

Buying an amplifier made in China is as much Buying British as buying a bottle of Scotch made in China. It's about manufacturing jobs, not who owns shares in the company.

Probably the only thing on that amp that's British is the plug, and you can't even be sure of that nowadays.

Super speedy now - thanks!

It's much too slow, it's just annoying. And, dare I say it, I preferred the look of the old site anyway.

Bought a bridge from Keir, who was kind enough to send it off without waiting for the cheque to clear because he was about to go on holiday. Much appreciated. A very nice chap to deal with.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1371943' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:11 PM']That Fane will give no better a result than the Eminence.[/quote] Yes, you have a point. They are more similar than I thought. I can't think of anything else off-hand that might work without being very quiet. At least the Fane would be cheaper.

[quote name='CraigPlaysBass' post='1368425' date='Sep 10 2011, 11:40 AM']Any one got any good ideas for what to use it for? If it's so terrible for bass? [/quote] It depends in your current setup. If you are using a single (8-ohm) 15 and are of an experimental bent, put it in a 30-litre cab tuned to 60Hz. Placed on top of your 15 cab, it will raise your sound closer to your ears and is likely to give your 15 more punch and definition. Electrovoice published a cab design for its 12L called the 806, which is out there somewhere on the web. You could use that. You're not going to get any extra low end this way though.

Replacing the OEM speaker in most bass cabs is usually a very good idea. This is because most bass cab manufacturers skimp on the drive unit, as they know they can get away with it. There are not very many bass cabs on the market that you couldn't substantially improve by fitting a pro driver. Whether you will actually save weight depends on whatever is in your cab at the moment. Cheap ceramic speakers are not terribly heavy.

Those are midrange drivers and completely wrong. Don't replace them with the same unit whatever you do. The Fane Sovereign 6 is only £20 and would probably do the job. [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=FANSOV6-100&browsemode=category"]http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=FAN...semode=category[/url]

If this is a 300-watt driver as the seller has stated, it's not the EM-2008, which was a 200-watt driver with a 56oz magnet. If it is a 300-watt driver, it is an EM-3008. This had a 95oz magnet (like in the photo), a Qts of .21 and an xmax of 1.8. It is more of a horn driver and definitely not a bass guitar speaker.

[quote name='chris_b' post='1366395' date='Sep 8 2011, 01:53 PM']Most published cab specs are calmly dismissed as fiction so in my view the anti TC lot just look like an irrational lynch mob.[/quote] That's an interesting comparison, because bass guitar cab specs are indeed almost entirely a work of fiction. Unfortunately, most punters believe them - and that's the problem. If this furore has the affect of persuading manufacturers to describe their products more honestly, some good will have come out of it. I'm not holding my breath though.

[quote name='CraigPlaysBass' post='1366541' date='Sep 8 2011, 03:50 PM']The seller has just informed me, they are Eminence ME12s and are 300W and 8 ohms. I assume they are the Me12-2008 speakers, which were rebranded as the Delta 12s.[/quote] I think you'll find it's the ME12-3008, which is the older version of the Kappa 12. As Bill says, it is a clone of the EV12L. I designed an Electrovoice SX200 copy with this a long time ago. It's very loud in the midrange with great attack, but it has no bass to speak of - great as a monitor speaker, but not very good for bass guitar. I'd pass if I were you. They're also bloody heavy.

I'd guess it could be a Kappa 12, but the info on the sticker should tell you for definite.

What does ithe sticker on the side of the magnet say?

I wonder why anyone would buy a product named after somebody called Randy.

[quote name='dave.c' post='1361008' date='Sep 3 2011, 03:13 PM']How many people would also have dismissed it as too expensive at £600 or so for a 250 watt head? no matter how good they are.[/quote] In that case, TC had two options: reduce the price or increase the power output. That would have reduced their profit margin, of course. which ultimately is what this is all about. If they had not been so greedy (it has to be said!), they could have called it a 300W amp and nobody would have thought any more about it. On the other hand, TC has spent a small fortune on the tooling for the case (as far as I can see) and the build quality and feature set are outstanding. Which is why I had no qualms about paying a premium for mine.

To be fair to TC, there is a temptation for any manufacturer to exaggerate the performance of their product if they can get away with it, and bass amp makers have been getting away with it for a long time now. Not so in the hi-fi sector, where you can be sure your product will be bench tested by a number of popular magazines, or in the prosound market where the media publish proper tests and many end customers are able to carry out their own in-house measurements. Oddly enough, some hi-fi amp makers (notably Nad and Rotel) have tried to earn brownie points by publishing deliberately conservative specs - knowing that the true measurements will actually be published. Until Bass Gear magazine started publishing their tests, we had to rely on the honesty of bass amp manufacturers. Not surprisingly, some have proved to be more honest than others. What's interesting about the Bass Gear measurements IMO is how generous they are to the makers. 2.5% distortion at 1kHz is not a very stringent test for an amp, especially an amp whose role is to produce bass. I suspect the reason they have chosen to do this is that they would seriously embarrass their potential advertisers if they were to use the FTC standard - [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_power"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_power[/url]. However, thanks to Tom Bowlus and his crew, I think amp makers will now think twice before following in TC's footsteps by simply thinking of a number and doubling it. For this we should be grateful. Without testing, you can get a rough idea of the output of an amp by checking the output devices. I had a Trace Elliot 200W amp that used exactly the same output devices as my Rauch PA amp. The Rauch is rated at 120W and probably has a beefier power supply. I found this quite interesting at the time, as Trace has always had a reputation as one of the 'louder' amps for its rated output. When I bought myself a 300W Trace amp, I decided to check out the output transistors on the internet, and various sources (including the manufacturer of the transistors) told me that those devices were not capable of producing 300W. It was still a good amp, however, and plenty loud enough. I think we have been labouring under the assumption for a long time that our amps are a lot more powerful than they really are. This might explain why the TC 450 doesn't sound less powerful than other amps in the 300 to 500W range - smoke and mirrors from the TC marketing department notwithstanding.

That person deserves a round of applause for posting that video. I heard a difference, but it was not major.

I suggested the BMS because I'm familiar with it and know it will work in the EBS cab. I accept that the other companies you mention build some equally fine products, although I'm afraid Eminence don't currently compete at the very top end. Which is why you need to retrofit if you want to go there, IMO.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='1359938' date='Sep 2 2011, 02:50 PM']Oxymoron?!![/quote] Well, Alex, I mentioned those things because the basic build quality was sound and those things would not be too difficult to remedy. I've yet to see a bass cab where the manufacturer has not skimped in some areas - although I haven't seen any of yours up close yet . I seem to remember EBS didn't use any foam gasket on their HF unit either, but I don't want to get too anal.

"[This Audio Precision (”AP”) measurement shows a 1kHz sinus burst (20 ms) that have a peak value of 60V, corresponding to 42.42Vrms 450W RMS in 4 Ohm]" In that case, perhaps TC will rate this amplifier accordingly, at 450 watts PMPO (Peak Music Power Output) in future. To answer the original question - no, the RH450 is not a 236W head. The power output measured in the test was at 2.5% distortion into 1kHz. The accepted level of distortion for these measurements in most circles is 0.1% across the rated bandwidth. So the RH450 is probably not even a 200-watt amp. I'll bet my bottom dollar that the technical guys will have issued a disclaimer in writing to protect their backs when they heard that the product would be rated at 450 watts. My guess is that they are laughing up their sleeves now that the marketing experts have been caught with their pants down.

[quote name='bobpalt' post='1358467' date='Sep 1 2011, 09:39 AM']I have been through a number of cabs in the last year, constantly looking for the Holy Grail, but the fact of the matter is, I really dont know what I'm looking for![/quote] What you're looking for is a cab that uses a top quality driver, and the only way you're going to get one is by fitting it yourself. Screw a BMS 15N620 into your EBS cab and you'll never look back. They're around £300 from UK sources but some German resellers were charging £200 last time I checked. I had a good look inside an EBS Proline cab not too long ago (a 2 x 12"). Apart from the serious omission of proper bracing and the lack of t-nuts, it was beautifully built from Baltic birch ply and I doubt if anybody else makes anything better. Just get a premium quality driver and you'll be sorted.