80s EV 2 and 3-way cabinets? what ever happened to...

[richnota]

I remember gassing over these EV two and three-way cabinets. Way beyond my modest means back then; were they the grand-daddy of current Accugroove, Bergie and Schroeder multiple speaker rigs?

Pretty rugged but elegant....

[v-grooves]

Most of us could not afford the hernia and back surgery that came along with moving that gear.....

Vince

[billfitzmaurice]

They didn't look right, so they didn't sell. The average customer assumed/assumes that speakers work best when you stuff as many of them as possible into the cab. EVs and similar cabs from JBL and others didn't fit that mold so they went away. Don't shed a tear for EV and JBL, though, their prices on quality PA cabs average well above $3k, so they don't miss trying to compete at G-C in the $499 price range.

[mark107]

Originally Posted by richnota

I remember gassing over these EV two and three-way cabinets. Way beyond my modest means back then; were they the grand-daddy of current Accugroove, Bergie and Schroeder multiple speaker rigs?

Pretty rugged but elegant....

I used one of these for quite a few years, I liked it a lot. I also saw Stanley Clarke using them as well.

[Bass_Pounder]

I had the 2X15 version - great cab.

I ended up doing a straight up trade at a music store for a Ampeg SVT1540HE. Worst mistake I ever made. The SVT cab was pure garbage.

[bobcruz]

Originally Posted by v-grooves

Most of us could not afford the hernia and back surgery that came along with moving that gear.....

Vince

Hernia is right...didn't the midrange driver weigh 32 pounds all by itself?!? Great idea, just ahead of its time and in need of a serious diet.

[Calaverasgrande]

first time I saw Primus (free show in Cotati, CA back in the 80's) Les had a pair of those and an ADA rack pre/poweramp setup. When I asked in wide eyed youthful wonder what in bloody blue blue blazes he was playing through, he replied it was a "custom rack system".
Which is kind of like saying you drive a "hot rod".
Smart ass.
It sounded great back then. Much better than he did later on when he developed that dead rubberband tone.

[vinxbass]

When I was signed with RCA Records I use to use 4 of those, except they had 18" in them instead. They actually sounded pretty decent back in their day, which was the early 80's.

[4Mal]

Really nice sounding cab. Not a huge low end to the 15 version but still for it's day it was darned good. Seriously way too heavy to move ... time passes...

[bottomend!]

I just recorded with mine a week ago and it sounded really really really good. With a ribbon mic placed about a foot way to capture both drivers, it was pure bass heaven! It's heavy though - no lie.

[Jim C]

I still have both a 1x15 and 2x15; can't bear to sell them but they don't compete with the new gear

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Jim C

I still have both a 1x15 and 2x15; can't bear to sell them but they don't compete with the new gear

Only because of the weight of the magnets and limited excursion of the EVMs. Replace those with 3015s and you've got cabs that are still killer.

didn't the midrange driver weigh 32 pounds all by itself?

More like 18 lbs. As I recall it was built on an EVM-10 frame.

[Calaverasgrande]

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

Only because of the weight of the magnets and limited excursion of the EVMs. Replace those with 3015s and you've got cabs that are still killer.
More like 18 lbs. As I recall it was built on an EVM-10 frame.

replacing EVs with Eminences? That may be mathmatically better, but its a poor equation for tone.
I like EV speakers so much I once considered getting the logo tattooed on my arm. Of course I sobered up in time.

[Sundogue]

Originally Posted by Calaverasgrande

replacing EVs with Eminences? That may be mathmatically better, but its a poor equation for tone.
I like EV speakers so much I once considered getting the logo tattooed on my arm. Of course I sobered up in time.

While the new Eminence 3015's have higher power handling, longer excursion and cover a wider frequency range, those EV's had magic speaker dust sprinkled on them so they did something other than handle bass frequencies.

[MNAirHead]

I owned some .. they were fantastic and rugged.

The reality was that for the material I was at they were "too much" and walked over the band... .. traded them for some low/boomy cabinets (dumb I know).

Tim

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Sundogue

While the new Eminence 3015's have higher power handling, longer excursion and cover a wider frequency range, those EV's had magic speaker dust sprinkled on them so they did something other than handle bass frequencies.

There was nothing magical about them at all. They were simply well engineered. Their advantage over most contemporaries was a tighter voice coil gap, which increased their overall efficiency and extended their high frequency range. JBLs, Altecs, Gauss and other high end drivers did the same, to varying degrees.
But...where their additional high frequency extension is concerned that extension was all on-axis; off-axis no level of engineering can overcome the fact that large cones can't have wide dispersion at high frequencies. And that's why EV mated a smaller cone midrange driver to a fifteen, and why fEarful and other 12/6 and 15/6 designs do the same. And where lows are concerned that same tight voice coil to magnet tolerance that gives higher overall efficiency also results in less low frequency output.

[morebass!]

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

There was nothing magical about them at all. They were simply well engineered. Their advantage over most contemporaries was a tighter voice coil gap, which increased their overall efficiency and extended their high frequency range. JBLs, Altecs, Gauss and other high end drivers did the same, to varying degrees.
But...where their additional high frequency extension is concerned that extension was all on-axis; off-axis no level of engineering can overcome the fact that large cones can't have wide dispersion at high frequencies. And that's why EV mated a smaller cone midrange driver to a fifteen, and why fEarful and other 12/6 and 15/6 designs do the same. And where lows are concerned that same tight voice coil to magnet tolerance that gives higher overall efficiency also results in less low frequency output.

Good info - Thanks Bill.

[rovito]

I have pair of those and an older 215 with no mid range driver collecting dust in my garage. Like others have said before, I can't seem to part with them. They sound great but are large and ugly.

[Sundogue]

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

There was nothing magical about them at all. They were simply well engineered. Their advantage over most contemporaries was a tighter voice coil gap, which increased their overall efficiency and extended their high frequency range. JBLs, Altecs, Gauss and other high end drivers did the same, to varying degrees.
But...where their additional high frequency extension is concerned that extension was all on-axis; off-axis no level of engineering can overcome the fact that large cones can't have wide dispersion at high frequencies. And that's why EV mated a smaller cone midrange driver to a fifteen, and why fEarful and other 12/6 and 15/6 designs do the same. And where lows are concerned that same tight voice coil to magnet tolerance that gives higher overall efficiency also results in less low frequency output.

My comment of "magic dust" was in reference to the point about older EV's having a tone of their own that newer speakers don't have. Speakers can either cover a specific frequency range or not (and to varying degrees as to how well). There is no magic to them that can't be had nowadays and some modern speakers can go deeper (that frequency range thing again) with larger xmax that allows them to handle a wider (lower) range than the EV's. Mating them with a dedicated mid allows for that cab to cover more of the bass range and do it louder without farting out.

In essence I was backing up your suggestion of putting a 3015 in it, instead of the thinking that somehow the EV's have something magical to them that others can't do.

[honestjohnny]

^^^
Tone and sarcasm two things that don't translate well to the Interweb