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Ashdown ABM 750 Evo V!


fretmeister

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That's not an unreasonable price for a low production quantity hand built in England amplifier. If they ever get built in PRC then the price could come down, but I'm not convinced another 150 watts and an output meter make this amp any better than the brilliant ABM600. 

Edited by Sparky Mark
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  • 3 weeks later...

I saw that the other day. £1500 for that is total crack pipe territory. Its not light, it doesn't do 2 ohms and appears to be not that much different from recent models.

 

I appreciate that Ashdown are trying to reposition themselves as some sort of musical lifestyle brand what with headphones and studio monitors. However, they're not Darkglass and won't sell many of them.

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This has two outputs on the front, a line level (which I understand) and a 'full range', which I don't. I can understand the days when you'd have LP and HP outputs for tops and subs, with an accompanying full range output of those two summed, but this one is on its own. What's going on here?

 

The output isn't even listed on the specs.

 

Update: there is a Tuner output in the specs which could be a mislabelling of this Full Range.

Edited by chyc
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On 20/06/2022 at 23:10, Wolverinebass said:

I saw that the other day. £1500 for that is total crack pipe territory. Its not light, it doesn't do 2 ohms and appears to be not that much different from recent models.

 

I appreciate that Ashdown are trying to reposition themselves as some sort of musical lifestyle brand what with headphones and studio monitors. However, they're not Darkglass and won't sell many of them.

 

 

I bet within a year it's being built in the far east and the price will come down.

I don't think it's a bad price for a UK built item, but as you say, it's not really competing against other UK built stuff.

 

I'm not sure a lack of 2ohms is a real problem though. Most working bass players who would be the market for this would be letting the PA do a lot of the work leaving the cab for on stage monitoring. 

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5 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

I bet within a year it's being built in the far east and the price will come down.

I don't think it's a bad price for a UK built item, but as you say, it's not really competing against other UK built stuff.

 

I'm not sure a lack of 2ohms is a real problem though. Most working bass players who would be the market for this would be letting the PA do a lot of the work leaving the cab for on stage monitoring. 

Yeah. I just think it's a bit too pricey. Then again, I thought that about the Geezer head as it really wasn't that great when I tried one. 

 

The 2 ohm thing was an observation as my GK Fusion 1200 cost a lot less than that and does 2 ohms. As does a fair amount of EBS stuff as well. The Ashdown stuff of old used to do 2 x 575W. Not anymore it appears. 

 

I have nothing against Ashdown as they make some great stuff, but the hit/miss rate of things they have is now being compounded by a whopping price increase which had started to happen as far back as the B-Social debacle.

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The B-Social was a bizarre product.

 

Ignoring the stupid price it was a product that just wasn't needed. It didn't fit into the ipad bracket of "didn't know I needed it till I tried one" - it was just an awful concept. And then the price!!!!

 

Yamaha had the right idea for that sort of thing with the THR amps. Still not cheap but actually useful and sound great.

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I like it, If I could afford it I'd buy it, but I do hope it does into mass production like the ABM 600, I have that and it's great.

Class A/B amps are hard to find nowadays as not many big name brands are making them anymore, which is a shame really. 

Ashdown as far as I am aware are still quite a small family run business, with customer service second to none.

Still if it is a step up from the Evo IV it'll be immense. Best amp on the market in my opinion.

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18 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I'm not sure a lack of 2ohms is a real problem though. Most working bass players who would be the market for this would be letting the PA do a lot of the work leaving the cab for on stage monitoring. 

 

I think 2.67ohm capability would have made it more interesting to me personally - I have a matching 4ohm 2x12 and 8ohm 1x12 which it would have stacked with very nicely.

 

I'd maybe think the same as you about the potential userbase, but for the fact that it's apparently been produced in direct response to players asking to bridge the 1200. I guess that in itself perhaps suggests they want their 1200W into a single cab, which is fairly likely to be either 4 or 8 ohms - fair play. But then, is giving 750 to somebody who just explicitly asked for 1200 really going to appeal if they're already rejecting 600?

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1 hour ago, Wolverinebass said:

The 2 ohm thing was an observation as my GK Fusion 1200 cost a lot less than that and does 2 ohms. As does a fair amount of EBS stuff as well. The Ashdown stuff of old used to do 2 x 575W. Not anymore it appears.

 

While I'm on this thread "not getting" things, here's another one for my list. The reason amps don't usually go down to 2Ω is because the current draw would be too great when the amp is going hell for leather and you risk overheating the amp. What the GK Fusion does is have a switch so that when you're running 2Ω it limits the voltage swing so that this cannot happen. I imagine you could achieve similar results with judicious use of a volume knob.

 

So, getting back to my question, is that for something seemingly so simple and obvious, why doesn't every amp have this feature? I cannot imagine it would add significantly to the cost and would make a number of people happy with the increased versatility.

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I'd say that 90+ percent of users just have an 8 or a 4ohm load to contend with, 2 ohm, isn't day to day usual, it's great that brands offer this now with switching, but you cant please everyone with everything.

If you had 2 x 4ohm cabs get the 1200W for dual 600W at 4ohm outputs.

 

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Maybe they did some research and discovered that dual power section amps aren't as wanted as bigger output single section anymore? 

 

Not sure I can think of anything other than the Ampeg SVT and the ABM1200 that does that these days. And of those being used, how many get anywhere near the top of the volume dial?

The idea seems a bit obsolete to me. Those that want 2 amps / 2 sounds often need 2 separate signal paths or at least stereo FX loops so there's a actually a benefit of having 2 power sections.

 

But what do I know? Ashdown are stickling with Class A/B with a shrinking number of competitors and seem to be doing that well enough.

I wonder if the RM series is outselling the ABM stuff? The RM800 is probably close enough on price to the ABM600 to let features rather than price decide, but the new 750 is well outside that.

 

 

 

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In terms of pricing, Ashdown website is (almost) always more expensive than retailers (eg ABM 600 is £100 more on Ashdown site), so presumably this new amp will be available for closer to £1300 (still a lot of moolah, granted). What I don't understand is how they decide on retailers. The ABM 600 for example is available at PMT, Bax Shop and out of stock at some others (Andertons, Mansons). The newish Guy Pratt sig amp, the Interstellar 600, by contrast is only available through Ashdown (£1,299) or Bax Shop (£1,065).

Edited by Clarky
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The older ABM power sections were tested to 2 ohms and would survive if you aren’t going hell for leather - as @chyc says that’s where things get messy.

Mark Gooday once told me my ABM should have no problem with a 2.67ohm load and would shut down into protection mode if it did.

Remember of course that the nominal impedance of cabs tends to be at a specific frequency and actually all other frequencies are higher than this...

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Do all Ashdown amps start off being made in the uk?

I really like supporting uk business when i can, even when it’s a little bit more expensive. I don’t think it’s badly priced considering it’s made in the uk.

Does anyone know when they’ll hit the shops?

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Although we all know Ashdown and its products, it isn't a large organisation. When I visited Ashdown HQ a couple of years back I was heartened to find a family business working without pretentious frills in modest surroundings.

I imagine in the current environment of component shortages and increased logistical costs that launching new products is even more challenging, especially as asian manufacturing needs decent volumes to be viable.

When I visited it appeared that Ashdown maintains a small electronics diagnostic/ servicing/ prototyping facility where I assume its premium products are built. I don't think the ABM750 is overpriced considering its UK handbuilt heritage. 

Edited by Sparky Mark
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On 22/06/2022 at 10:23, fretmeister said:

I'm not sure a lack of 2ohms is a real problem though. Most working bass players who would be the market for this would be letting the PA do a lot of the work leaving the cab for on stage monitoring. 

I am always wary of 2ohm rated amps. It is too close to a short and with today's speakers I don't think you need 2 ohms.

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