Ashdown Ant. 200watt pedalboard amp for £299

[dave_bass5]

1 minute ago, Thunderpaws said:

Where do you get big long speaker cables to reach from pedal board to cabinet and how much are they? 

Not hard to find at all

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MainCore-Speakon-Speaker-Loudspeaker-Available/dp/B0785KSF5G/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=Pa+speaker+cable&qid=1579807992&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExRVMwRlVVOFRSNjFaJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTk0MDMxMkRFVU1WS04zV1E5MSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTcyODg0MzFBSlBaUFdQNjdJOSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[PatrickJ]

Liking the look of the Ant, definitely up there on my 2020 GAS list.  Can't wait to try one out - love the idea of having it behind my Helix FX for a super portable rig.

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Liking the look of the Ant, definitely up there on my 2020 GAS list.  Can't wait to try one out - love the idea of having it behind my Helix FX for a super portable rig.

Exactly what I was thinking too! Ant + Helix HX Effects would be a great combo, and the Ant addresses the lack of DI out on the HX Effects.

Hence my cheeky attempt to see if I could twist Ashdown's arms to do a version that incorporated isolated pedal PSU outputs on one side. Appreciate that's likely to be a just a 'wish list' item for the Ant for a while...

[Al Krow]

@Ashdown Engineering - the reference below is to GR Amps (Italy), from another thread, who are providing a power out to power effects pedals, so this is already being done.

But not on something that is specifically designed to go on the pedal board like the Amp or Newt. IMO it would be a 'killer app' if you managed to incorporate that into your pedal board amps, particularly if you could provide a few isolated outputs. Guitarists, who are bigger a market still, as well as bassists would start going weak at the knees...(and an aux in , so we can properly use it as a headphone amp, whilst you're at it please! 😁)

2 hours ago, Woodwind said:

Really like the look of their amps as well.

Other than the tiniest one they have 9v out to power effects!

Edited January 27, 2020 by Al Krow

[Ashdown Engineering]

On 27/01/2020 at 14:26, Al Krow said:

@Ashdown Engineering - the reference below is to GR Amps (Italy), from another thread, who are providing a power out to power effects pedals, so this is already being done.

But not on something that is specifically designed to go on the pedal board like the Amp or Newt. IMO it would be a 'killer app' if you managed to incorporate that into your pedal board amps, particularly if you could provide a few isolated outputs. Guitarists, who are bigger a market still, as well as bassists would start going weak at the knees...(and an aux in , so we can properly use it as a headphone amp, whilst you're at it please! 😁)

We did indeed look at adding a 9v out to the Ant and the Newt for powering pedals As it makes total sense but for this version at least we wanted to make it as small, light and affordable as possible. There’s so little space in the enclosure as is that we would have had to add around 40mm to the length to incorporate it plus a bit of added cost/weight so we decided against it. We will however down the line add it to a ‘deluxe’ version for those who would benefit from it.

As for on heads? Would you really want to run a barrel jacked fairly flimsy cable from the back of a head at the back of the stage to power pedals? Sounds like an accidental mute moment waiting to happen... 

[dave_bass5]

15 minutes ago, Ashdown Engineering said:

As for on heads? Would you really want to run a barrel jacked fairly flimsy cable from the back of a head at the back of the stage to power pedals? Sounds like an accidental mute moment waiting to happen... 

I would make use of that. Quite a few of us use things like pre amps, wireless receivers etc, which sit on top of the amp. Not having to run a wall wart type PSU,  but also not wanting to use a pedalboard would be fantastic. 

For years i used a BDDI and Line6 witless receiver  sitting on top of my amp. I always wished for a head with 9v out.

[Al Krow]

4 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I would make use of that. Quite a few of us use things like pre amps, wireless receivers etc, which sit on top of the amp. Not having to run a wall wart type PSU,  but also not wanting to use a pedalboard would be fantastic. 

For years i used a BDDI and Line6 witless receiver  sitting on top of my amp. I always wished for a head with 9v out.

Good point about the wireless receiver - would have been a neat solution to powering a Smoothhound absent a pedal board.

[Al Krow]

52 minutes ago, Ashdown Engineering said:

We did indeed look at adding a 9v out to the Ant and the Newt for powering pedals As it makes total sense but for this version at least we wanted to make it as small, light and affordable as possible. There’s so little space in the enclosure as is that we would have had to add around 40mm to the length to incorporate it plus a bit of added cost/weight so we decided against it. We will however down the line add it to a ‘deluxe’ version for those who would benefit from it.

Ideally it would be several isolated outputs to avoid the need for a separate PSU. A single daisy chained output is likely to lead to pedal noise if several (particularly dirt) pedals are going to be used.

Totally appreciate the engineering constraints in adding this to Ant / Newt - frankly hats off to you for beating the competition to get to where you already have.

For me a Deluxe version would comprise Ant + 3.0 Amps single 9V output (e.g. to power a Helix) + aux in. Other isolated 9V outputs would be icing on the cake.

If the Deluxe version is happening later in the year, please put me down for a pre-order - I'm supposedly trying to buy less gear this year, but I would happily fall off the wagon for an Ashdown Ant Deluxe!  

Edited January 28, 2020 by Al Krow

[Merton]

16 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

For me a Deluxe version would comprise Ant + 3mA single 9V output (e.g. to power a Helix) + aux in. Other isolated 9V outputs would be icing on the cake

Hopefully you mean 3000mA; 3mA won’t get you very far!

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, Merton said:

Hopefully you mean 3000mA; 3mA won’t get you very far!

Hah! You're right, thanks; although I guess more commonly expressed as 3 Amps? I'll correct my post.

[Merton]

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hah! You're right, thanks; although I guess more commonly expressed as 3 Amps? I'll correct my post.

That’s the ticket!

[MartinB]

Save the 9V power output for the Ashdown Power Ant*, which will also have:

• Line-level inputs (balanced?) for connecting a pre-amp (or a keytar, or anything else you fancy)
• No amp-style EQ or tone shaping; flat response
• Adjustable high-pass filter (to DI and speaker outputs), for keeping your bottom clean
• Adjustable low-pass filter (to DI, and switchable to speaker output), for taming overdrive fizz into the desk or a full-range speaker
  • I mean some sort of IR loader would be nice too, but let's not be greedy 😆
• Go-faster stripes

* See what I did there? 😁

Edited January 29, 2020 by MartinB
Got my LPF and HPF the wrong way round!

[Chienmortbb]

On 15/01/2020 at 10:51, thodrik said:

A brilliant idea, however for me, an amp should only be rated in accordance with continuous power. In which case this is a 140 watt amp. 

In a couple of years, I think that output power will be doubled or tripled. 

Not possible I am afraid. Class D amps with switching power supplies already achieve north of 80% efficiency so you can only achieve probably an extra 20% increase in power from a given mechanical envelope.

[naxos10]

How about a variable voltage output to cover 12/18v pedals and wireless systems.? but I would accept that this may be a step to far when trying to to keep the footprint size down.

[Al Krow]

@MartinB and @naxos10 - totally get where you are coming from. But...

If we remove the pre-amp section we will need to replace it with a separate preamp, so this ceases to be a stand alone amp.

I'm also a big fan of HPF but how many amps offer this?

I'm guessing around 95% of pedals are 9V?

From a marketing point of view Ashdown absolutely need to consider what is going to sell / be useful to an "average" guitarist or bass player. 

[lemmywinks]

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

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!!]

 

It's a fair bit bigger than the Elf and also the BAM200:

AE Ant   -   21 x 11.8 x 6.2 cm
TE Elf   -   17.1 x 10.4 x 3.4 cm

TC BAM   -   16.6 x 13.3 x 4.3 cm

Edited January 30, 2020 by lemmywinks

[Al Krow]

13 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

It's a fair bit bigger than the Elf and also the BAM200:

AE Ant   -   21 x 11.8 x 6.2 cm
TE Elf   -   17.1 x 10.4 x 3.4 cm

TC BAM   -   16.6 x 13.3 x 4.3 cm

Interesting. What's the power rating of those two amps at 4 ohms? The Ant delivers 196W.

[lemmywinks]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Interesting. What's the power rating of those two amps at 4 ohms? The Ant delivers 196W.

Well that's a debate in and of itself! Quoted ratings are stated as 200w for both I think, no idea if they are realistic numbers or marketing trickery though.

 

If this is going to be pedalboard mounted I wonder if it has any splash proofing as the risk is far greater on the floor at the front of the stage. 

[Stub Mandrel]

How about an onboard compressor?  🙂

The Elf is 200W but doesn't have a preshape although it claims to be able to give that ';classic Trace sound' with the three band EQ.

Is it fair to say the Ashdown preshape is pretty close to the TE one?

 

[CameronJ]

Did anyone end up getting one of these?

[stewblack]

10 hours ago, CameronJ said:

Did anyone end up getting one of these?

They must have done surely? After spending all that time explaining to Ashdown how to their job, they'd feel obliged to at least try it. 

Wouldn't they? 

😉 

[ahpook]

4 minutes ago, stewblack said:

They must have done surely? After spending all that time explaining to Ashdown how to their job, they'd feel obliged to at least try it. 

Wouldn't they? 

😉

Ouch.

[Painy]

Reading through all the suggestions here for adding various features reminds me of the evolution of mobile phones. If this follows suit, we've now got this generation of micro-amps down to about as small a form factor as they're likely to get. The next step is to keep bolting on more features and gadgets until eventually you end up with something the size and weight of a 400w valve amp - you can still play bass through it but it does a million other unrelated things bedsides! 😁

[fretmeister]

Are these passive cooled or do they have a little fan in them?

[mcnach]

On 23/01/2020 at 19:30, Thunderpaws said:

Where do you get big long speaker cables to reach from pedal board to cabinet and how much are they? 

 

I actually saw it as the ideal amplifier for a stage monitor. When I have my bass amp/cab on stage it's typically just for monitoring and placing it behind me was never the best idea. Have a single speaker on the floor angled towards you, just in front of your pedalboard containing not only your pedals but your amp too.