Another Portaflex Question

MrMeacham · #1 02-20-2011, 11:15 AM

I'll be glad when these finally ship. I was looking at the specs for these. I don't clearly understand the math but it looks to me that a 500 will be slightly louder than my 100br but will have 3db of headroom and a tweeter. The cabs are close in size with the only diff. being 4" wider.

My other question is stacking. It would seem like stacking two of the cabinets would give me 500 watts and volume. The cabs don't look like they are set up for this. I'd hate to ruin the covering.

A 500 with a 15/210 stack sounds like a nice rig. I could wheel two cabinets in with everything stuffed inside.

Any thoughts?

Vintage-Blue · #2 02-20-2011, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrMeacham

My other question is stacking. It would seem like stacking two of the cabinets would give me 500 watts and volume. The cabs don't look like they are set up for this. I'd hate to ruin the covering.

The cabinets, while not having foot cups on the top, do seem to stack well. Ampeg had some stacked in their showroom at NAMM. I didn't take a close look at the diameter of the rubber feet used on the bottom but for some reason I think they are larger rather than smaller diameter feet (I could be wrong). Larger would certainly be better although I can't speculate on how they would wear on the Tolex over time. My gut feeling is that they would be fine, especially if you were careful not drag them a lot during setup and tear down.

JimmyM · #3 02-20-2011, 09:08 PM

chrys and ryan at ampeg said the cabs are definitely made to be stacked.

stiles72 · #4 02-21-2011, 09:17 AM

I am now cautiously optimistic about the cabs. Tom Bowlus reported that per Zane Williams, the production 15" cabs will not be ported like the units that were at NAMM. If they aren't ported, I find it hard to believe these will compare to the B-100R. IMO, the ported cab is really what made the B-100R special and closer to an actual B-15. That's not to say the PF's will sound bad - just that they will be different. My guess is they will be tighter in the low end, and more Micro VR than B-100R sounding.

C.Linton · #5 02-21-2011, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stiles72

I am now cautiously optimistic about the cabs. Tom Bowlus reported that per Zane Williams, the production 15" cabs will not be ported like the units that were at NAMM. If they aren't ported, I find it hard to believe these will compare to the B-100R. IMO, the ported cab is really what made the B-100R special and closer to an actual B-15. That's not to say the PF's will sound bad - just that they will be different. My guess is they will be tighter in the low end, and more Micro VR than B-100R sounding.

Tom Bowlus also said he found the sealed cabs to be a lot better sounding than he expected from a non-ported cab. He seemed to indicate the cabs being sealed had no negative impact on the sound.

stiles72 · #6 02-21-2011, 11:09 AM

All depends on what kind of tone you are after. If your main tone is more mid range focused and not heavy on the low end - then no - I don't think you would tell a big difference. But I find it hard to believe that a sealed cab will put out the same depth and low end that a ported one will. Granted, not everyone likes a big booming bottom like I run. But if I back my B-100R up against the wall and block the ports - there is a big difference in sound. Like I said though, different strokes for different folks. You could always leave the lid cracked a bit to create a porting effect, or just add two holes on the back and some port flange and tubes like the B-100R. Nothing that couldn't be remedied if you want it to sound more "B-100R"ish. My guess would be that the decision to go sealed vs. ported is more of a production trade off than anything. If they can trim a fraction of production cost off and make it just that much easier and faster to make the cab - so much the better from a business stand point.

dickdunn · #7 02-21-2011, 12:00 PM

The new Portaflex series looks amazing - I'm currently using an Ashdown ABM Evo III Head and 810 Cab and I'm looking to downsize.

I'm almost positive I'll get the PF500 w/ the 210 cab - however, I may consider buying the 115 for any 'bigger' gig - pardon my ignorance, is it possible for the PF500 to take an external cab??

Cheers

Sent from my iPhone using TalkBass

JimmyM · #8 02-21-2011, 01:28 PM

yes, you can use two 8 ohm cabs with the pf heads.

JimmyM · #9 02-21-2011, 02:37 PM

btw, tom also said that they had a ported and sealed prototype at namm and he agreed with zane williams that the sealed cab worked better in this situation.

dickdunn · #10 02-23-2011, 09:00 AM

Excellent! Cheers JimmyM

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tombowlus · #11 02-23-2011, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C.Linton

Tom Bowlus also said he found the sealed cabs to be a lot better sounding than he expected from a non-ported cab. He seemed to indicate the cabs being sealed had no negative impact on the sound.

The cool thing was, we had the ported cabs and the sealed cab right there next to each other. The less helpful thing was that even though we were not down on the NAMM floor, there were still a lot of people milling about, and I wasn't able to really put these amps/cabs through their paces.

But, they did sound fairly similar to each other, and I did prefer the sealed cab, slightly.

I should add, though, that I have not owned a B100R, to I don't have extensive experience with all they have to offer (though I have played through them a couple of times).