I did not bring my bass to the event (mainly because the weather had thrown all of my bass necks out of whack), but got to listen first hand to some amazing bass players. I am pretty sure I heard Maurice Fitzgerald play...... I also heard Bill "Buddah" Dickens play! Bill has lost a bunch of weight and I did not recognize him when he walked in. Listening to him play, it was beyond insane. The man can slap and do things on the bass I have never heard in person. I had a chance to play after he was done, but I felt a little intimidated! HA!
So I just stood around and listened to the other great bass players play.
I met a cool dude named Jeff Carlson at this event and struck up a conversation with him. Turns out he had two DNA single 12 (not the micro) cabinets at his house and he invited me over to try them out. Sweet!
After talking with Jeff, David, and playing the cabs, I can safely say these are cabs worth auditioning. Listening to Bill Dickens PUNISH the 410 with his 6 string was an experience! The DNA 410 could take the punishment and not once sounded bad. Much better than my Mesa 410 could. The DNA 210 was pretty sweet too. The 10's are all ceramic while the 12's & 15's are NEO. The 210 and the 410 both were more aggresive in the upper mids while having great low end and detail throughout. The 12's were definitely smoother overall and sounded really good for fingerstyle. Slapping on the 12's resulted in a cleaner sound - less aggressive than the 10's. Most of the bass players liked the 12's better - a lot of slappers with 5 and 6 string basses perferred them.
Jeff and David told me the speakers are designed for an even response - no big midrange hump like the Eden XLT cabs had. These are cleaner sounding cabs compared to the Eden's and will let more of the natural characteristics of the bass guitar shine through. The tweeters are really nice too, 3.5k crossover point on the woofers, really clean sounding, and David liked them better than the Eden tweeters. I liked the clarity overall.
These cabs are LOUD! Hearing them in the room by themselves was a little misleading - you could tell they were pounding pretty good, but it's the test in the band that proves everything. Jeff told me he shows up to shows with one or two 12's and routinely asks to turn them down! He plays in Motown style bands with three guitarists who all run Fender Twins, a drummer with volume control and so on. Still, these cabs cut it for live use. One of the best parts of these cabs is the midrange content. It sounds like all of the midrange is there - no "missing" frequencies. The cabs sound round and full in the midrange - no doubt about it. The low end is prety darn good too! The single 12's were doing really well with the low end - I could not believe how much they could pump out below 100hz!
I have not used any of the cabs in a band setting, but I think a 210 is going to be on my audition list pretty soon.
Lastly, the cabs are light (30-60lb range)! The 410 is 79lbs though, BUT, it beats carrying around the EDEN 410XLT or the Mesa 410's! The 12's were 53 lbs, but were well balanced and did not feel like 53lbs.
