Mixing Cabs

[SimonK]

...of course the irritating thing I have just noticed is that someone has replaced one of the 10" speakers on my 2103x so they no longer match - I've had it for years and thought that was the original design, only noticing today when looking at the advert above and thinking that's funny, the tens match in the pictures whereas mine don't! I shone a torch (flashlight for Americans) through the grill and sure enough you can see it wasn't factory mounted!

 

So if we want speaker mixing mine is 2x5, 1x15, 1x10 + a different 1x10... but still sounds fine and survived tens of gigs and yes, is plenty loud.

 

[Lfalex v1.1]

Not to do Trace down, but you'll notice that they only actually made 3 cabinet sizes at any one time. 

Take the SMX era;

 

There's the combo; 122SMX and 115SMX. Same horizontal and vertical dimensions as the mid-sized cabs, but a shallower footprint to keep the weight down. 

 

The mid-sized cab; 2103 and 1153. Deeper than their combo equivalents, and lacking the sleeve at the top. Tellingly, they share a baffle with their combo variants. 

 

The bigger boys; 1048 and 1158.

Same footprint as the 2103 and 1153, but taller.

 

Note that at any given size level, the 10s share exactly the same enclosure as their 15 brethren. The difference is the baffle (naturally) and, most critically, the port tuning.

 

(I've overlooked the 1524 and 1084, but I bet they probably share an enclosure,  too)

 

The whole design concept was geared towards ease and cost-effectiveness of manufacture, with as many common components as possible. Right down to only needing to cut 3 shapes of carpet/vinyl to cover the entire complement of cabs/combos.

 

I used Trace as an example as I used their gear quite merrily for many years.

 

I see that many cabinet manufacturers use the same manufacturing model. Of course they do. It's all about profitability while making a product that is fit for purpose and that meets consumer needs and expectations. 

 

I think that the "expectation" part is key.

Until fairly recently,  we all expected a bass cab to be a large,  hefty black cuboid. We even expected it to sound a certain way, particularly if driven with amplification from the same manufacturer. 

 

The game has moved forward with lighter weight alternatives and FRFR cabinet.

I wonder, though, how many players with more modern, neutral cabinets end up EQing their sound back towards the sound that the older systems delivered? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lozz196]

That’s what I always tried to do.