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Ashdown Ant. 200watt pedalboard amp for £299


dave_bass5

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Very nearly got me excited and thinking about falling off the GAC 2020 wagon!

This is getting pretty close to a pedal board amp that I would snap up. But 140W RMS at 4ohms => 100W at 8 ohms won't quite cut it for me, sadly. [INCORRECT - PLEASE SEE UPDATE BELOW] But, seriously, bravo to Ashdown Engineering!

If they can get to 200W (ideally 300W) at 4ohms they will have cracked it IMO i.e. TE ELF power territory, but in a package ant sized. [IT CAN!!]

I'm guessing that efficient heat dissipation is the engineering limitation to this nirvana.

Edited by Al Krow
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On 13/01/2020 at 15:47, Al Krow said:

Very nearly got me excited and thinking about falling off the GAC 2020 wagon!

This is getting pretty close to a pedal board amp that I would snap up. But 140W RMS at 4ohms => 100W at 8 ohms won't quite cut it for me, sadly. But, seriously, bravo to Ashdown Engineering!

If they can get to 200W (ideally 300W) at 4ohms they will have cracked it IMO i.e. TE ELF power territory, but in a package ant sized.

I'm guessing that efficient heat dissipation is the engineering limitation to this nirvana.

Good news: the website says 196 watts continuous power...

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2 hours ago, Muzz said:

Good news: the website says 196 watts continuous power...

Yup they seem to have updated their website to refer to 'continuous' rather than RMS and have  changed the numbers from 140W RMS to 196W continuous at 4 ohms

@Ashdown Engineering is your rather tasty new piece of kit delivering 196W RMS at 4 ohms? If it is, colour me interested!

If not, what are you meaning by 'continuous'?

Also when you refer to 'max' power of 200W is this also at 4 ohms and is 'max' = 'peak' power in standard speak? If the peak power is 200W at 4 ohms, the ratio between RMS (if that is 196W at 4 ohms) and peak seems to be out of kilter.

Edited by Al Krow
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28 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yup they seem to have updated their website to refer to 'continuous' rather than RMS and have  changed the numbers from 140W RMS to 196W continuous at 4 ohms

@Ashdown Engineering is your rather tasty new piece of kit delivering 196W RMS at 4 ohms? If it is, colour me interested!

If not, what are you meaning by 'continuous'?

Also when you refer to 'max' power of 200W is this also at 4 ohms and is 'max' = 'peak' power in standard speak? If the peak power is 200W at 4 ohms, the ratio between RMS (if that is 196W at 4 ohms) and peak seems to be out of kilter.

We’ve tested the hell out of the production version over the past week so as to get the truest accurate figures.

Essentially peak/burst ratings are irrelevant in the real world so we test for what the amp will produce all day long hence continuous power, it actually peaks at around 265 watts but when measuring the true RMS before clipping it will produce 196 watts happily into a 4ohm load and 140 into 8ohm. 

Hope that helps...

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Perfect - thanks guys! 

Can I maybe suggest you consider amending your website page to either delete reference to 'max power = 200W' altogether or replace it with a peak power of 265W to avoid confusion on this point?

I very much look forward to getting one of these - very well done for cracking the power / size ratio in making a truly usable pedal board bass amp, the very first on the planet that I'm aware of(!), which could also double up as a very useful headphone amp if only it had an aux in - any chance of adding this before release @Ashdown Engineering?

Speaking of which, do you have a release date?

Edited by Al Krow
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52 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

This little Ant amp is now top of my list 😊

Tell me about it! Already imagining the day this can slot into my bass gig bag, with a lightweight 4 ohm cab in one hand!

Right...now to find that lightweight 4 ohm cab... :) 

 

...found one 😁 

Eich 112XS-4 27 lbs & 300W RMS at 4 ohm

droppedImage.png

If anyone knows of a lighter equally capable 4 ohm cab, please shout.

Edited by Al Krow
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2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Perfect - thanks guys! 

Can I maybe suggest you consider amending your website page to either delete reference to 'max power = 200W' altogether or replace it with a peak power of 265W to avoid confusion on this point?

I very much look forward to getting one of these - very well done for cracking the power / size ratio in making a truly usable pedal board bass amp, the very first on the planet that I'm aware of(!), which could also double up as a very useful headphone amp if only it had an aux in - any chance of adding this before release @Ashdown Engineering?

Speaking of which, do you have a release date?

Yes will tidy up the web page, it was all done pre NAMM in a bit of a whirlwind to be fair so there’s lots of bits admittedly to sort yet on most of the new product pages. We’re a small team so we don’t always immediately get everything how we want it done sadly as we do everything in house. 
 

In the UK we expect the first ANTs to arrive in around a months time. Dealers should be taking pre orders now 
 

 

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14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Tell me about it! Already imagining the day this can slot into my bass gig bag, with a lightweight 4 ohm cab in one hand!

Right...now to find that lightweight 4 ohm cab... :) 

 

...found one 😁 

Eich 112XS-4 27 lbs & 300W RMS at 4 ohm

droppedImage.png

If anyone knows of lighter equally capable 4 ohm, please shout.

We could likely do a custom 4ohm RM cab For that weight or less or if you were to hang fire a bit an ABM Neo, just a thought...

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6 minutes ago, Ashdown Engineering said:

We could likely do a custom 4ohm RM cab for that weight or less or if you were to hang fire a bit an ABM Neo, just a thought...

Great stuff!

I'm guessing that if the Ant is already in manufacturing, it's way too late to add an aux in at this stage to make it a standalone headphone amp for the silent practice you refer to on your webpage? Maybe something additional for the de-luxe version then? That absolutely would make it a no-brainer for me :) 

Edited by Al Krow
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@Ashdown Engineering - have just given the Ant a little plug on TB over in the US.

One of the bassists there came up with the really cool suggestion (again perhaps for a "Deluxe" model): provide isolated power outlets for other pedals. If you're managing to save us cost and space by avoiding the need for a separate PSU (which can easily cost £100+) then the Ant suddenly becomes an even more compelling proposition.

Dunno if the engineering involved and space requirements would make providing isolated power outputs for other pedals a non starter for the Ant? If it's a possibility then there are very few multi output PSUs which can deliver the circa 2A required to power a Helix, but this should have oodles of power to spare, and potentially mean just one power lead to power an Ant laden pedal board.

Edited by Al Krow
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