NCD db Elbee 1210

[la bam]

Hi all,

New cab day today. Thanks to @krispn for the tip off.

It's a little known make - db. The company produce the Elbee range and the more expensive Embee.

Ok, so first things first. It's a 10" and 12" speaker combined in one cabinet - and its SMALL! They have saved height by angling the speakers themselves at around an angle of 45°. The upper 10" faces upwards towards your head (ears) and the lower 12" speaker faces 45 downwards.

The cab is very well constructed. Very solid. A real strong metal grille (rather than cloth that some supply) and tough wood coated in tuff stuff paint. It's a really nice deep black finish and the logo works really well. There is an angled strap handle on either side. It took a while to work out why, but they're ideal for both a one hand lift and if carrying with 2 hands, it makes carrying ot a breeze.

This is 4ohm version cab, which makes perfect sense allowing you a better chance of getting full power to the 2 speakers.  That is one of the major gripes I had with the barefaced super compact - if it's supposed to be a one cab solution and handle 600w then make it 4ohm so most amps have a chance - especially class d amps.

Weight wise it's an absolute doddle. The handles work really well with the weight distribution so it really does feel light. On paper it's only a few kg heavier than the single 12" barefaced super compact, despite housing an extra 10" speaker. I've had a super compact and this feels smaller, more compact. It's almost certainly longer but I like that as theres no way it feels it would get knocked over, unlike the super compact used too, but it feels smaller in every other way.

Sounds - I've been playing with it all day using my Sire p7 v2 with daddrio exls, Quilter bb800 and helix stomp.

The bass itself is a very bright bass. Plugging straight in to the Quilter produced a bright sound. A play around with the bass - tone rolled on and off and switching between p and j - produced some nice changes in tone.

The only way I can describe the initial sounds were that you could tell they were coming from the speakers. By that, I mean that area specifically. Quite a focused area.

After a while I decided to play with the amp settings. This is were the cab came to life. Rolling on a lot of bass (more than I would with my Laney n410) added the comfy bass pillow of a sub sound. Now we are talking! The sound was still focused, but it had the extra warmth around it. Making the cab sound much much bigger than it is.

Being stuck in with lockdown and neighbours stuck in too, meant I could give it a real blast, but I did hit a few full power notes and the response was very nice. Very warm and full of character. I decided to try the highest note on the G string and it was bright and very clear.

So to the angled speaker design. I believe this is designed so that the downward facing 12" produces the low end and the upper 10" angles the sound towards your ears, rather than the back of your legs. So, with that in mind I tried the cab from a few different angles. Standing around 8ft away looking head on at the cab was a nice full sound, quite rich and smooth. Standing right in front of the cab as you might do in a small tight gig (the type where you cant move) was really nice. No problem at all hearing what I was playing. In fact it did achieve its aim. It sounded like when you have a walk out at sound check and everything is really nice and punchy. Not muffled in the slightest. A great idea, well executed.

Price - I think these are usually around £600. Thanks to the tip off I got this for £295. Which considering size, weight and sound is a fantastic deal.

Summary - Its a shame it's still lockdown and I cant hammer this for a good few hours, but i think on initial first inspection this is potentially a great cab. It's well built, sounds great, lightweight, cheap, a superb monitor and being 4ohm and I believe it will be absolutely fine gig wise. I think you may need to feed it more bass eq than normal, ie the flat sound is very focused, but that's just the design. It wasnt bought to replace my 4x10, but its 9kg lighter and a lot more portable, so you never know! 

Looking at it the best way to describe the size is that it's probably the same size (height and width) as a  boxed off standard p bass body (as shown in the photo).

Full specs here:

• Impedance: 4 Ohms
• Speakers: 1x10” & 1x12”
• Bass Port: Bottom
• Power: 600W RMS
• Sensitivity: (1W/1m) 99 dB
• Frequency Range: 50 - 5000 Hz
• Input: Speakon
• Link: Speakon (for connecting an extra cabinet) 
• Height: 53.8 cm - 21.18”
• Width: 34.4 cm - 13.54”
• Depth: 45.0 cm - 17.71”
• Weight: 14.6 kg - 32.2 lbs

Edited May 26, 2020 by la bam

[krispn]

Glad the initial impression is good! I’ve got the Embee112 and I find having the additional flexibility of my ‘modern’ amp with 3 bands of semi para eq really allows me to dial in a great sound with the 112. You may find the additional eq on your Stomp really lets you fine tune it. Looks like you have some amp/cab based fun ahead. 
Hope it all works out 👍🏽

[la bam]

Cheers. I've been playing with the stomp for the last hour or two and turning off the cab sims really makes the cab lively. Sounds great. Liking it more and more the more I play.

[stevie]

Nice review.

[la bam]

One more photo to add. 

Bottom of cab. 4 sturdy rubber feet, and 2 ports.

 

[BassBunny]

Great review. I was considering one if these, got sidetracked and now they're all gone. Similar idea to original Schroeder's, which I loved.

Ah well, snooze and you lose.

[la bam]

Been playing the ctm300 through his today. Absolutely loving it. It a really good sound. 

The cab just keeps getting better.

If it can hold the sound quality at high volume, it's a winner.

[krispn]

I’d say once those speakers get broken in you’ll be right in the sweet spot. Are you noticing that the cabs is putting out what you put in? As in you can hear the difference between the CTM and the Quilter? I’d imagine they are two different sounding amps!

[la bam]

Definitely.

Im starting to get a real rich sound which I like. But its punchy too which is perfect.

With the quilter i had to add more bass eq to get that feel of a bigger cab, with the ctm it's right there from the start. I'm also managing to get that kind of third harmonic sound.

It's just such a shame I cant give it a full blast work out yet!

The one think I will say (although it's based on 2 days at low level playing) is that it's more an old school proper bass cab. It's not a high fidelity slap machine cab. I may be wrong though.

So far, very impressed.

[krispn]

Man I’m super happy that it’s been a positive experience! Recommending gear is such a mine field when you own it let alone only have experience of a company/builder’s products especially one which doesn’t have a lot of users posting about it on forums. I think my Embee112 has a much higher ‘High end’ response with my old school amp not putting out anything near the 20kHz or whatever the rated top end is. With that amp and the tweeter rolled off for good measure it sounds great. I was tempted to nab another of his cabs in that sale but my other 212 is already a great sounding cab and I’m running out of room!

[la bam]

I think that with any decent cab, it's easy to see its potential straight away, even at low levels. I've put a lot of different things through it including different amp modellers as well and it replicates what I'm putting in, which is great. 

What has impressed me is that it's quite a tight cab, ie theres no sludge in the sound and it is reacted very well to adding or subtracting eq. Even when I've hit a few full volume notes.

The acid test is going to be at volume. Theres nothing to make me think that it wont cope at volume so far. If it does live up to its initial performance, it's a seriously killer cab. I'm talking for fairly large stage areas too - clubs etc. For pubs I've no doubt already it will be a winner.

4ohms you see. Make one cab solutions 4ohms. Stop messing about with 8ohm. Powerful head, 4ohm, lightweight cab = winner.

 

[krispn]

34 minutes ago, la bam said:

4ohms you see. Make one cab solutions 4ohms. Stop messing about with 8ohm. Powerful head, 4ohm, lightweight cab = winner.

Testify! 

[Chris1127]

I've got an elbee 210 I've had a few months now - it shifts some serious air for such a tiny cab. I was a bit concerned playing upright with slap that it might lose some of the top end definition but no worries at all so far! I've not gigged it yet but it has handled fairly loud practices with no worries. being driven by a Veyron t. I have a 115 I was planning to pair it up with for bigger gigs and to run the amp at 4ohm but am actually quite tempted to get a second elbee 210 as a mate is selling one at the moment

[la bam]

Great stuff. Keep us informed. Potential great cab here.

[krispn]

That would be a very neat 410 modular rig, compact and punchy!

[Garethp15]

If anyone is selling one of these, please let me know! I’d like to pickup another 1012 to match the one I’ve already got