15/66 4ohm fearful ????

[johnnybass01]

I have been on the fence for some time in regards as to building a fearful enclosure. my main issue has been that i only need one cab and don't want to have a 15/15 or a 12/12 . i just want the single driver but want it to be a 4ohm. I know this isn't possible with the eminence 3015lf driver as it is 8ohm. So i have been looking into other drivers and one that has me really interested is the B & C 15PS100 the specs are darn close, and it is available in 4 ohms . If I was to do one with this driver i was thinking of running 2 eminence LA6-CBMR sealed mid drivers . to get my to the 4 ohm load I am looking for . I am not worried about cabinet weight as i will be doing the cab out of composite materials (blue foam with glass and carbon layup) and external finish in duratex.The numbers on the two 15" drivers are close and I think this is a doable project for me. maybe greenboy will chime in with a crossover design for me and I will be off and running.

[BurningSkies]

Maybe he won't.

In fact, probably about 0% chance of him designing a crossover for you. Its a lot of work, and not just a quick throw together. He's a nice guy but tends to get a bit grumpy when people volunteer him for heavy labor without a paycheck.

In other news I hear some grumblings about a possible 4ohm 3015LF on the horizon. I haven't had the time to check into the reality of that...

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by johnnybass01

I have been on the fence for some time in regards as to building a fearful enclosure. my main issue has been that i only need one cab and don't want to have a 15/15 or a 12/12 . i just want the single driver but want it to be a 4ohm. I know this isn't possible with the eminence 3015lf driver as it is 8ohm. So i have been looking into other drivers and one that has me really interested is the B & C 15PS100 the specs are darn close,

Nope. The sensitivity is so much lower that in most cases you'd be way better off just running an 8 ohm fEARful 15/6. Also, two mid drivers won't fit in a one woofer fEARful cab in vertical array.

[johnnybass01]

i wish eminence would just come out with a 4 ohm 3015lf already then.. I have a carvin ls1503 i leave at my rehearsal space and gig with my schroeder pl210 4 ohm . but i guess i will just keep waiting.

[Bass_Pounder]

But WHY do you need the cab to be 4 ohm instead of 8 ohms ?

The difference from the extra wattage being squeezed from the amp is going to be negligable at best.

[RickenBoogie]

+1 to that. I'll never understand the mentality of "I gotta get all the watts out of my amp". It's based on myth mostly, and won't get you louder to any degree of usefulness. Methinks more research and understanding may be in order here.

[johnnybass01]

Well in my experience I would rather have the headroom of the amp being able to run at 4 ohms , instead of feeling I am pushing it to it's limits at 8ohms. In rehearsals running my carvin ls1503 8 ohm cab I am at pretty much all my GK mb 500 has to offer, but when I use my shroeder pl210 4 ohm I don't even get near pushing the mb 500 to it's limits, I know these two cabs are totally different animals but I would rather not over work my amp and have a 1 cab solution in a fearful 4 ohm option , and if this were available I bet you would see a lot of 8 ohm fearfuls up for sale .there are certain amounts of distortion that will come out when you push an amp too hard and if you could correct this with changing your ohm load why not.

[rad bassman]

any deviation from the fEARful plans would result in not being a true fEARful, if you want a 4ohm fEARful go for a dual woofer design. Greenboy has already put far more time than we can really comprehend into the fEARful range, IMO the range is complete and comprehensive enough to cover anyones needs

[brendanbassist]

Originally Posted by RickenBoogie

...and won't get you louder to any degree of usefulness...

Perhaps you missed that part, OP?

[johnnybass01]

And in my personal experience I always liked having more power that the cabs were able to take , back in the day I used to run crown power amps and Demeter preamps that were pushing 2000 watts in a pair of cabs that could handle about 400 watts each ( did I need that much power) no! But I did like have a cleaner sound due to the headroom I had . But at this point I gig all the time and am getting older and don't have the want or need to carry around a bunch of heavy gear.I like all the new class D power amps and am probably going to get the new ashdown mibass 550 just because I like the tone and I just want a one cab solution that will suit me . I had this experience before I had a ashdown abm 500 head and paired it originally paired it with a euphonic vl210 at 8 ohms it was okay then I traded the cab for another vl210 in 4ohms and it was night and day the cab was more alive and actually had grind I couldn't get out of ABM before , I just got sick of the weight of the vl210 and moved on.

[will33]

Look into the Avatar TB153. Not a fearful but uses a 4ohm 3015lf. I too think a 4ohm version has merit because one of these things has enough potential output, most people wouldn't need 2 of them. Dropping the impedance gets you to an area where medium size amps may have the juice to get the potential out of one and still be able to use amps they already have, ie: don't have to buy a giant amp. In the 8ohm version, if you don't have the big power, you're buying a whole lot of speaker you will never hear.

However, they are super high spl as well so a smaller amp may get you where you need to go with it....but you're still buying performance potential you'll never hear.

The Avatar is not a fearful, the baffle layout isn't right, the crossover is inferior, it's heavier, etc....but you might be able to get the potential out of it with your current amps. It's the reason I don't have one. I already have a few amps, I have no interest in buying another, but none of mine have the juice to make a fearful do what it can do. That said, seeing what happened with neo, I sometimes wish I would've done one anyway back then.

I wouldn't go asking greenboy to go doing special oneoff stuff for you, the guys already done a huge number of people a great service putting all this together. If, back then, you could've seen in your crystal ball what is happening now, he should've been filing patents and charging a pretty penny for his efforts.

[johnnybass01]

I also disagree about the rickenbass comment about the wattage issue , a fellow bassist friend of mine bought the same Schroeder PL 210 as I did only his is 8 ohms and he has the same head as me GK mb500 and we did a heads up comparison between my 4 ohm rig and his 8 ohm rig ., sound is different I can get more of a heavy grind out if mine and his 8 ohm rig does not sound as mean and after about 30 minutes of trying to achieve the same volume levels his amp is hot and the fan is running , as where mine is still cool and the fan hasn't even turned on .

[will33]

The "more watts won't get you louder" thing holds true in "normal" bass cabs. The fearful is not a normal cab, it can actually do something with the extra power. Your point on headroom is valid although your experiment may have been flawed. Different basses, input gain, room positions, listening positions, etc.

[johnnybass01]

the comparison was something we thought out ahead of time , it was in a live situation . i did a set during break we set up his rig in the same spot , same bass , same volume levels due to the guitarist not changing any levels.

[Nightlyraider]

Why do you want it 4 ohm so badly?

I built two 15/6 cabs to get there if I want to, but even one is absolutely rediculous with any decent amplifier.

Disregard all the advice you want, but a single built-to-spec 15/6 fearful will cover every bass gig you ever play shy of big arenas (thousands of people) and un-supported outdoor gigs.

[ian_s]

Originally Posted by Nightlyraider

Why do you want it 4 ohm so badly?

Because resistance is useless!!

[will33]

Originally Posted by ian_s

Because resistance is useless!!

No, resistance is futile!!

[coreyfyfe]

Originally Posted by Nightlyraider

Why do you want it 4 ohm so badly?

I'm not the OP but I want a 4 ohm 15/6 for my SVT. I've thought about going the avatar route, but it's not really the same, and I don't think they'll sell it without the tweeter. Realistically though, as much as I'm interested in these fearful cabs, I like my 8x10 specifically for the sound it makes with it's late 60's design guitar drivers, so I'm really not the target market here and whether or not I'd buy/build one were they available is unclear

[lelandcrooks]

4ohm 3015/12 is not going to happen. Neodymium.

It's 3db between 4 and 8ohms. Build another cab and get 6db. Or build a fearful 15/6 and a 15sub.

Or a Fitzmaurice Omni 2x12.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by lelandcrooks

It's 3db between 4 and 8ohms..

Actually it's closer to 2dB, if that. Insisting on a 4 ohm load 'to get all the watts out of my amp' is a misguided quest unless you have a tube amp that needs a 4 ohm load.