MB1 Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 MB1. Went to sound control today to check out one of these amps.aha in the corner there it was very nice.first thing it has two speakon leads going into 2 mag cabs which i noticed were both rated at 8 ohm(£149 each so i was told even though i didnt want to know!)anyway i fired it up,first impressions, its not very loud,nice sound,nice graphic eq no volume.i got the instructions out and its actually for use with 4 ohm speakers.after attempting to explain this to the assistant he told me the mag speakers were £149.now bear in mind i was trying to tell him the amp was attatched to the wrong speakers?.anyway he soon dissapeared( and brought me back a ashdown brochure )and i had a quick look round at the ashdown stock. the only speakers i could find rated at 4 ohm was an ashdown 8x10.so in theory id have to rig the amp up to 2 ashdown 8x10s to get a full 250 watt from the amp?ashdown cabs have one jack and one speakon connector unless youve got the older ones.i unfortunately have the older ones rated at 8 ohm each(mini 15,mini 4x8) so this was beginning to look like a waste of time.im not entirely sure about this so please correct me if i am wrong, is the output of the amp effectively halved if you connect a 8 ohm speaker to a 4 ohm amp?sound control had connected 2 x 8 ohm cabs to a 4 ohm amp,is this why the amp was so quiet?.overall i thought the sound was quite good,played a warwick thumb and a stingray through it nice sound but to be honest ive heard louder practice amps.ive looked through ashdowns catalogue and they do very few 4 ohm cabs so this is not really the bargain i expected.can anybody throw any light on this matter and has anybody whose bought one of these amps had this problem?.i didnt purchase one! MB1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 The superfly has 2x250w into 4 ohms outputs, not 500 watts into 2 ohms. Thats 500 watts into 2x4 ohm cabs. If it was connected to 2x8 ohm cabs then it would put out less, although it depends on the amp how much less but could be as little as 125 watts into each 8 ohm cab. Thats still 250 watts. Should have been louder than a practice amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted May 27, 2007 Share Posted May 27, 2007 An amp rated @ 250 watts into 4 ohms will be putting out about 180 - 190 watts into 8 ohms. So the cab selection wouldn't have been displaying the amps true potential but certainly should have been loud enough to appear louder than a practice amp (depending on your definition of 'practice amp'). Saying that the logarithmic effect of volume increase means that to be twice as loud as a 100 watt practice amp you'd need something close to a 1000watt amp! Was the input gain set appropriately? Saying that... for the sale price of £199 any one starting out on bass would struggle to find anything of comparable quality but for the seasoned regular gigging musician it isn't going to blow you away; though it does have the software upgrade functions, PC editing software (downloadable) and the midi capability, if that is your thang! Also if you are starting out on bass the fact that you could mix and match most cab ohmages without fear of frying your amp is no bad thing. I bought 2, and as and when my band get their combined digits out of various orifice we'll be using one to power monitors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB1 Posted May 27, 2007 Author Share Posted May 27, 2007 MB1. Thanks guys, kind of thought that might be the case the quality of sound was great just couldnt get any reasonable volume out of it,it would definately not compete with our drummer,but as you say great for home use and still excellent value for money. many thanks! MB1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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