Carvin Cyclops

[Gabu]

Well guys... I finally broke down and bought a big amp. I got the Cyclops which is the Redline Stereo 600 head in a 1x15, 2x8 + horn combo. Before that I played through a GK RCB 200 with a line out going into a Peavey Century 200. (GK played through a 2x8 cab and the Peavy through a 1x15) Kinda weird that I found the same combination in a combo amp. Let me just say that it is sooo nice to be able to turn it way up with hardly any distortion. My walls are rattling before it gets muddy. I put those old amps up for sale on ebay, but I have to admit curiosity and will probably go down to guitar center to check... Could I have stayed clean at higher volumes with a much better cab? But anyways, with regard to this Cyclops... It's the best that I have owned or played through hands down. Great lows, great punch (when I want it) and I love the footswitch selectable EQ.

[Al Steen]

Best Damn Combo On The Market! .. Al http://www.artistlaunch.com/badart

[bassmonkeee]

I have the RC210 combo and love it. Same head with 2x10's. It sounds amazing. I'm also a big fan of Sammy's Cabo Wabo Tequila--that was my New Year's drink of choice. : - )

[rickbass]

I bought a Cyclops with the Series II head as a home practice amp. I was using a small Ampeg. (I don't mean to dis your comment, "a big amp." But some of my gigs draw 2-4000+ people, so the rigs I use for those are considerably bigger than the RL6815). Boy, was I fooled. I wasn't expecting a beast! Every day after my main practice, I have to go back upstairs and check each room to see what was knocked off a shelf or table to the floor.

When it arrived, one of the cables was already attached to the cab, so I just took the other cable and connected the remaining appropriate head/cab jacks. For several days I thought I was going to have to return it because the low end was just horrible. Before doing so, I gave it a final once over and discovered that the factory had connected the low and high freq. jacks and I had inadvertently done the reverse. After connecting it correctly...what a difference.

Anyway, you asked a question, not for me to rave on about the Carvin. I don't know of any head/cab combination that doesn't sound flabby once the volume/volumes are turned up past, say, 7, at least where the cab isn't underpowered. That's why they talk about "clean headroom" - more power than the cab can handle to use its full potential before it distorts. My thinking is that the Cyclops cab and the R600 head are a better match than the other rigs you sold. It gets way up there decibel-wise before it craps out because the cabinet/speaker combination/porting were conceived specifically to work with the R600. For instance, that horn and those 8"s aren't used in any other Carvin bass rig. Some combos I've seen seem to be a manufacturer's mix n' match affairs. Or, they are true mix n' matches, like your Gallien-Krueger/Peavey set-up.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the Cyclops to keep a strong, firm, bass sound once I turn the master up to about 6 and the separate power amp volumes are set at about 8. I've tried fooling around with the two, 3-position switches on the back of the cab. The upper one is marked "Hi Freq" and I don't know what the lower one is since it isn't marked. So far, I haven't heard a substantial difference in the various ways I've set them.

Then again, I haven't had much time to explore the Cyclops since it was delivered. As a matter of fact, I just found out yesterday that pushing the bridge switch in will boost the volume WAAAAYYY UP! even though I didn't have a second cab hooked up. I guess doing this bumps the RMS up to it's 600 watt potential even though no additional cab is connected. So I guess I'd better not do this as it may blow the speakers???

[MikeyD]

Originally posted by rickbass1
I bought a Cyclops with the Series II head as a home practice amp. ...SNIP... I'm still trying to figure out how to get the Cyclops to keep a strong, firm, bass sound once I turn the master up to about 6 and the separate power amp volumes are set at about 8.

I have an R600 in the RC210 combo, and I feed it with passive electronics mostly. I find that setting the input gain about 5 (one half) the two channel gains at 5, and the master at 5 results in fairly frequent clipping (note: I use a lot of EQ pre-shaping and low boost). Your levels seem to be higher, so you may be overdriving the amp a lot.

Originally posted by rickbass1
As a matter of fact, I just found out yesterday that pushing the bridge switch in will boost the volume WAAAAYYY UP! even though I didn't have a second cab hooked up. I guess doing this bumps the RMS up to it's 600 watt potential even though no additional cab is connected. So I guess I'd better not do this as it may blow the speakers???

Be really careful. Make sure you read the owner's manual. That one 15" speaker (which is the most robust one in that cabinet) is rated for 600 watts, I believe. It might handle bridging the R600's output, but it would be borderline. On the other hand, you might blow the 8" drivers, depending on whether you run bi-amped or full range. Please don't "guess" when it comes to bridging an amp: know the load impedance you are feeding, and know how much power the drivers can handle. Find out the impedance of each driver, and figure out how they are wired (or the cabinet may say this on the jack plate). That way, you'll be able to tell if the impedance is too low. The R600 can handle only 4 ohms safely with outputs bridged.

- Mike

[Gabu]

As far as I can tell from the documentation:

The 15 is 8ohms

the 8s are either 4ohms each in serial or
16ohms each in parallel

The 2 speaker jacks on the back REQUIRE 8ohms minimum when bridging. (which gives you a net impedence of 4 ohms with two speaker cabs added) It also adds that a single cab can be used at 4 ohms SO LONG AS THERE IS NO OTHER CAB ADDED.

But no matter how ya slice it, damn it sounds good.

I am sure that the speakers can handle it when it is bridged and turned up... If they are the stock speakers they darn well better!! hehe

[ubersam]

Originally posted by gbrooks

[snip]
the 8s are either 4ohms each in serial or
16ohms each in parallel
[/snip]

i think you meant 4ohms parallel & 16ohms serial. that would make each of the 8's - 8ohms.

[Gabu]

I don't know that much about speakers, but I am a trained electrician. In electronics if you were to take two resisters and run them in series the impedence would double. (assuming they were the same rating) Then if you took those same two resisters and ran them in parallel the impedence would half. I believe that speakers would behave the same way.

[Lance Jaegan]

I agree with gbrooks. If two resistors are in parallel, the equation for determining the sum resistance in a DC circuit would be R1(R2)/R1 + R2. If it were two 16 ohm resistors, 16(16)/16+16 = 8 ohms. Similarly, if it were two 8 ohm resistors in parallel, 8(8)/8+8 = 4 ohms. The way you would get the lowest possible load impedance that most audio amplifiers handle (2 ohms) would be to put two 4 ohm cabs in parallel. 4(4)/4+4 = 2 ohms. In a series circuit, rather than the resistance being the reciprocal of the sum of the conductance values for each parallel leg, the values of resistance are simply added. Therefore, two 4 ohm resistors in series comes to a total circuit resistance of 8 ohms.

[rickbass]

About the guesswork regarding the Carvin speakers resistances and whether the Cyclops can handle the extra juice by itself when the bridge switch is pushed in...

Not that I'm second guessing any of you guys. You all know your stuff. However, I think I'll ask Dr. Sound at Carvin who has access to all of this data and probably knows how the Cyclops came to be.

If you're interested in what the good doctor has to say, I'll make that response available to you a future thread. (I'll probably need MikeyD to decipher it anyway).

[ubersam]

gbrooks,
i re-read what you wrote & i see now what you're saying. i misunderstood, just as my statement was misunderstood. so let me clarify:

if both 8" speakers were 8ohms each then;
the total impedance if wired in parallel would be 4 ohms.
the total impedance if wired in series would be 16 ohms.

[i think we are trying to say the same thing]

[drainsurgeon]

i have "sort" of a carvin bass rig. i use the carvin cyclops bottom with an eminence kappa 15 and 2 eminence beta 8s. i use different bass heads suck as an old(early 60's) peavey century 200 or an svt head. i reaplaced the crossover(which was junk)
with a custom make two way crossover. i shitcanned the 3 way active cross over. the sound is great. i don't have much good to say for carvin amps persay, but i do like the set up i have. my rig can get real good clear bottom end and punchy high end. pretty much i'm trying to say i like the cabinet layout, but have replaced everything else to suit my needs. i own 6 other bass rigs(ampeg, peavey, hartke and eden) but this is my workhorse.
by the way, the eden sounds fantastic if you can keep it out of the repair shop.

[rllefebv]

Dang... For a second there I was like "GABU IS BACK!!!!"...

::sigh::

-robert

[DLEE]

I used my Cyclops with a Carvin 115 ext cab for a few years before I went back to my old SVT's. Biamped with the second 15 made it a whole new animal. Indoors or out I never had any problem hearing myself. It was a cool set up that Carvin should rerelease with Neo's and a BX head IMO.

[13repel]

I bought an RL6815 from a pawn shop, and the head had been swapped out for a BX1200 Dual mono.
I'm interested in bi-amping to a second cabinet, and I now have the option of buying used either a RL115 redline series 4ohm 600watts 1/4 inch connections only (no speakon) for $100 or a Carvin BR118 for $150. (with speakon). Any suggestion?

[mikepaulhamus]

carvin bass cabinets are tuned for their solid state amps, when using a svt all tube head on carvin cabs it's not good the bass tuning frequency in carvins is bad get real muddy and b notes come out real strong and over the top. went back to my ev cabs real quick and sounding way better. carvin is cheap there you go. real bass players play svt's period everything else is lame.

[bassmonkeee]

Zombie threads from 12 years ago are lame, as are the people who resurrect them.