I thought the Ubber sounded better. Thats why I have one. I liked it better than any of the cabs I tried before i bought it.With the Streamliner 900 its great for rock and metal. But I would like to know which one would get louder with the same head.
The Uber is a 4 ohm cab. The 15/6 is 8ohms. You'll get more out of your head when using it with a cabinet that hits minimum ohms.
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Mike Lull /G&L / Fender / Bergantino / Aguilar
LOLzz! I like the Canadian Waldo for Halloween Guy! Looks like a fun time, been a while since I gigged on Halloween. The LDS is stunning, I guess you use it for some gigs but not others? It would be interesting to hear you demo the two cabs with your bass (basses?), amp, eq preferences, just to hear more where you're coming from.
I use that cab for smaller gigs where space is an issue and volume is not. The gig above is at a small club (160 person capacity), and we are packed in like sardines. I don't have the time to spend on doing beneficial comparisons of my cabs, but I have live recordings with most of my cabs. Different rooms, different recording devices, and different distances skew the results dramatically. Although, I must say....the differences in those recordings are minor. I do attenuate back the mid driver on that 15/6 quite a bit (or I used to before I switched to the Fatial), but my tone sounds basically the same between all my cabs.....with minimal EQ input.
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Mike Lull /G&L / Fender / Bergantino / Aguilar
The GB is a 4 ohm cabinet with a thermal rating of 600 W. The fF is an 8 ohm cab with a thermal rating of ?? - I figured 800 W at least.
I have my doubts that the 15/6 would thermal rate AES more than the 600w of you GB cab [maybe even a dB or so less?]. But that doesn't mean anything in context because excursion is the limiting factor in a bass cab and for the 15/6 that limit is about 750 watts. I don't know what the excursion limit of the GB cab is but a differential in this capability [and well matched cab tuning] is probably why you find the 15/6 more articulate and capable in lows.
But that still doesn't get you to which is loudest because loudness is a subjective perception, and as such, not susceptible to objective measurement absent reference to preconceived standards and weightings. To get an idea of what I mean read up on equal loudness curves and the basics of measuring "environmental noise". An example of how easy it is to get a misplaced idea of loudness: a few watts run through $3 piezo horn will get loud enough to run you out of the room - but it wouldn't make for a very good bass cab.
In the context of this thread loud has a couple of useful meanings - one is superior acoustic output across the bandwidth. In the mid-band I don't know that there is enough difference between a 15/6 and your GB cab to be worth mention - both would get quite loud in that range - so the contest comes down to how the two cabs compare outside the mid-band. At both the bottom and the top of the typical bandwidth for bass guitar the 15/6 will get significantly louder [the magic of a two driver system and a well conceived crossover network].
The other meaningful concept of loudness is angular spread of the output. The 15/6 will do a much better job of serving the off axis listening positions [positions not straight in front of the cab] with the full bandwidth of the signal.
Thanks Foz, I said thermal rating but really meant "what size power amp rating" it could take. I think your analysis is right on.
I cranked all the cabs up when I first got the fF, but I was still less than noon on the master of the SM 9.2, and everything in my house was rattling and vibrating - a lot. It seemed to me then that the fF could get louder than the GB while not getting flabby or farty on the bottom, but both of them got ridiculously loud. Which is nice, but I don't need that much volume these days.
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Way Huge Pedal Club #10; Fender Jazz Bass Club #742; Source Audio Sorcerers #70; Maryland/Virginia/DC Bassists Club #40; 3Leaf Audio #66; John Paul Jones Fan Club #7
I have toured both of these cabs mentioned and I also use a ShuttleMax 9.2. Honestly, that recording sounds really close to my own experience with both.
I agree that Genz make some of the very best commercial cabs out there. The soundclips do a very good job at showing each cabs basic character, and I think could be helpful.
Of course there are some things that can be considered...power handling and such, but in general I think a great clip and thanks so much for taking the time
I used to have a stacked pair of nEarful (LDS) 15/6's, and I now have a stacked pair of Genz Uber 212 cabs.
In a live band setting, I don't really think there is alot of difference. Not enough to argue about, anyway. They are both two flavors of good, and either set of cabs can rock the house all night long IMO.
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"Too much of a good thing.......can be wonderful!" - Mae West
Thanks dukeorock! Yeah the GB is a great cab, with great bass output, but the fF is winning hearts and minds with every gig.
Earlier there were some posters asking about purchasing a fEARful. Check out the Duke's handle / header - he builds spectacularly beautiful fEARfuls. I heartily recommend searching for his posts, handle, and "BNA Audio" in the Amps section and you will see some sweet GAS-incuding shots of excellent builds.
The response to this thread has been great, want to thank everyone for posting. It's been so good I am inspired to make another comparison demo, this time using close micing in mono to hopefully get more detail, less room, and better dynamic control of the recordings. I'll use a couple different amps and basses, too. Hopefully within the next 3 weeks. Thanks again.
Yes Sacto - both cabs get the job done admirably. I wanted to make it a "fair fight", ya know?
Last question: did anyone place either of the basslines in the first two examples, the funk tune and the rock tune? Just curious...
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Way Huge Pedal Club #10; Fender Jazz Bass Club #742; Source Audio Sorcerers #70; Maryland/Virginia/DC Bassists Club #40; 3Leaf Audio #66; John Paul Jones Fan Club #7
Last edited by HolmeBass : 11-19-2012 at 09:21 PM.
Thanks dukeorock! Yeah the GB is a great cab, with great bass output, but the fF is winning hearts and minds with every gig.
Earlier there were some posters asking about purchasing a fEARful. Check out the Duke's handle / header - he builds spectacularly beautiful fEARfuls. I heartily recommend searching for his posts, handle, and "BNA Audio" in the Amps section and you will see some sweet GAS-incuding shots of excellent builds.
Another interesting test would be to record them off axis to show the sound change a lot with the Genz vs a little with the fearful. In theory anyway
There's certainly an attraction to the concept. Get your tone from bass and amp, then run your own little PA cab on stage, so you sound more like FOH. And get a nice even sound on stage and nearfield audience.
That's coming from a guy who put his endorsement deal with Genz Benz in jeopardy when he switched to greenboy designed cabinets.
Very true...I still use and LOVE the amps, and I repeat, Genz cabs are among the very best commercial offerings out there...I just found the greenboy cabs suit my needs better
Slade, that's actually a good idea. Although with only two choices there's a 50-50 proposition of getting the selection "right" randomly, I'll still give that a shot.
Pickles, the off-axis measurement is a neat idea, but technically difficult to execute. I would have to make sure to maintain almost exactly the same distance from the cab with mic placement, and then balancing the gain between the two cabs would be tough- I couldn't rely on my after-the-fact Audacity balancing b/c part of what we'd be looking at is minor change in volume with mic position. So each would be a "within cab" comparison of off-angle response. Comparing the cab recording against each other, say for "20% off axis" would not work unless the recording/amp gain matched exactly, which proves difficult to do.
Such a comparison would probably fare better with much better controlled recording environment to remove room reflection and some test program white or pink noise, or perhaps even better a narrow-banded signal centered on a particular frequency, rather than erratic program material from yours truly. Too much work for me.
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Way Huge Pedal Club #10; Fender Jazz Bass Club #742; Source Audio Sorcerers #70; Maryland/Virginia/DC Bassists Club #40; 3Leaf Audio #66; John Paul Jones Fan Club #7
Yeah, the GB sounds like a bass cab. The fEARful is too clean and bland to my ears. Never cared for that PA/Monitor sound in a bass cabinet. The Uber has attitude.
Who the heck wants to "cut" through a mix anyway? I want to punch the mix in the balls. Anyone can cut through the mix. Not everyone can beat the mix's ass
So, being a long time NeoX 212 user. I'm curious as to where the greenboy Dually (with the Faital pr400 drivers) would sit (tonally/sonically & power handling) vs the fearful & Genz Uber.
OP: Great job on the comparison. Answers a lot of Q's for those of us who have never heard a fearful before. Keep up the good work.
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"...it's just the bass player. No one listens to them anyways..." - bonzo4880
Peavey USA Millennium Club Member #10 - OFBPOAC #25 - Promethean Club #6
No idea if it's on or off axis but that tone sounded bad a$$.
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"...it's just the bass player. No one listens to them anyways..." - bonzo4880
Peavey USA Millennium Club Member #10 - OFBPOAC #25 - Promethean Club #6
Yeah, the GB sounds like a bass cab. The fEARful is too clean and bland to my ears. Never cared for that PA/Monitor sound in a bass cabinet. The Uber has attitude.
The greenboy cabs sound a lot like bass cabs to me...just really great ones. They sound like whatever you put into them, but of course it's perfectly valid if someone prefers a baked in sound from their cabs.
When I was running Genz Ubers a lot, I flip flopped between the Uber 212 and the Uber 410...they both had different strengths. The Uber 212 has that nice 'brown' sound...very classic, but my experience at somewhat high SPL was not always great...not quite strong enough lows and started to fart out/get mushy well before the fEARful. The Uber 410, I think has better lows and can handle the higher SPL better than the Uber 212.
On tour, there are just so many variables and I feel much more equipped to deal with them all now...sayin'
