stevie

Much as I applaud any effort to DIY your gear, you really are wasting your time with that driver. Not to put too fine a point on it - it's rubbish for your particular purpose. Just trying to save you some grief.

Thanks guys. I'm going to give it a go, and I'll let you know how well it works.

The old bag in which I carry my amp, guitar stand, cables, tuner, mics, etc. is on its last legs. I've been looking around for something that would take a lightweight amp and all my bits and pieces - something with wheels could be good. The only music-specific wheeled bag I can find is the Protection Racket cabin bag at £110, which is a bit pricey. Does anyone use a normal cabin bag/trolley for their gear?

I think Trace is a yardstick for many people - not without some justification. Ashdown's efforts with lightweight amps over the years have been very hit and miss. I had a miBass 550 at one point and didn't keep it very long, and the less said about the jolly green giant amps the better - although you can't knock Ashdown for trying. At the said bassbash, we compared the Ashdown Retroglide with a really nice early Trace 150 head. The Trace had the heft (sorry!) and the Retroglide didn't. We then compared the Trace with the Ashdown RM500 I had just bought at the bash, and it sounded very close - the same "slam", if you like. I have no idea why the RM500 had "it" and the Retroglide didn't. A few days before the bash, Chienmortbb and I compared one of the RM500s (that Ashdown had kindly supplied for the bash) with my highly rated, US-built lightweight head that currently retails at close to a grand - and we both preferred the Ashdown. It's all subjective, of course. That's just my experience. So make your own minds up.

Don't forget to check out the Ashdown RM500 and RM800. I compared the former with an old but respected Trace Elliot head at a recent bass bash, and it was in no way inferior. It has a well considered feature set too.

Without checking, more than likely in an enclosure.

“My slight reservations are with the bottom end. Bass is tight,…” Siegfrid Linkwitz - Dipl.. Ing. (on his website) "The phrase "deep, clean and tight" comes to mind." Floyd Toole - Phd (in his book), ex head of acoustic research for the Harman Group (JBL, etc.) "... all other things being equal a sealed box often sounds tighter than a vented box and a vented box tighter than a high order bandpass." Tom Danley, R&D director of Danley Sound Labs on the AVS Forum website

Just out of interest, Kevin, do you remember the model number of the Sica 12 that Ashdown fitted?

Sorry about that.He certainly used to do solid amp state repairs. I guess he has now decided to limit himself to the more interesting work.

Actually, any speaker engineer will tell you that the thermal rating of the voice coil does affect driver performance. Why else would speaker manufacturers have spent so much time over the years trying to improve the power handling of the voice coil? Think kapton voice coils, high temperature glues, high temperature wire coatings, sophisticated cooling mechanisms, etc. Kevin, I'd guess that the 15" ceramic driver in your RM cab is underdamped, i.e. a bit loose and boomy, while the more expensive neo version is exerting more control over the bottom end. More bass doesn't necessarily mean better bass. Without measurements or proper data, however, nobody can tell you for sure what's happening.

Roland Lumby in Salford. Lovely guy and a genius with amplifiers. https://www.facebook.com/theampclinic/ {Edit] Also as honest as the day is long. He won't rip you off.

No need to alter the tuning.

The Beyma that Phil uses costs around £90 from Blue Aran now, although if you order it directly from the UK distributor it's under £70, which is great value. If you want to go lightweight, the neo Faital Pro 12PR320 is similar in performance and costs £128. If you're on a budget, the older version of the Celestion Pulse 12 , the B12-200X (which seems to have an identical specification), is currently selling for £45 at Watford Valves and Lean Business and is definitely a budget "best buy". If you go for the Faital Pro, you should be able to convert your cab at a later stage to the two-way design currently being finalised in the 12" Cab Diary Continued thread on here.

The great thing about this cab is that it is not restricted to that one Beyma driver (nice though it is). Others will work too - although it would be sensible to check with Phil before using any old driver.....

I wonder if a Chinese company will snap it up. It wouldn't be the first time.

Ashdown made a claim and proceeded to provide proof of that claim. Such transparency has to be applauded. It is a fact that many high profile musicians (or at least their managers) expect to get their gear free in return for being seen with it. None of the companies ever mention that, do they?

This is a great video and an excellent demonstration of how easy it can be to assemble your own cabinet.

I'm not sure that someone who can't tell an invoice from a bank payment advice should really be calling people nerds with no ACTUAL knowledge.

That's too simplistic a calculation. Manufacturing and distribution efficiency has increased in leaps and bounds since 1965.

I've got a Beyerdynamic Opus 69 that I like. I'm also a fan of the Sennheiser dynamics and (for the price) the cheap Behringer Shure copies. My experience of the 58s is that they are a bit muddy and a bit "raspy". Same goes for the Audio Technica dynamics.

It's perhaps not fair to single out Aguilar. How can anyone justify the cost of a US Precision Bass? Or over £100 for a "boutique" pickup that costs less than a tenner to make? Two grand for a Rickenbacker? £1500 for a single-pickup Stingray? Come on!

Although the R&D effort involved in specifying an OEM driver is usually miniscule; almost all the work is done by the driver manufacturer anyway. Don't let anyone tell you different. So it wouldn't really cost Aguilar any more to spec an OEM version of whatever they're using. There is such a huge range of loudspeaker chassis available on the market that specifying an OEM version is often more of a commercial decision than a technical one. Markbass, with its yellow cones, is a good example. I get the impression that Apple spends more money on tax lawyers than it does on R&D.

The same place that they make the Apple iPhone X - a snip at just £1,149. Aguilar's prices, like Apple's, are probably more to do with profit margins than labour costs. As long as they can persuade people to pay those prices, they'll get away with it. That's business.

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