Single 15 or 4x8 cab for low end

[Chef]

[quote=Chef;13840381]Don is a good guy. If you talked to him, you can pretty well believe what he told you.

I have three LDS cabs with Faital long throw 8" drivers.
One 4x8+horn, one 2x8+horn, one 2x8+5"mid.

They put out way beyond what you'd expect, looking at them.

[will33]

You're still generalizing speaker size with tone....which is a mistake.

Find out the exact drivers that are in the cabs you're looking at and get with Don at LDS.

In general, the Acoustinators will be generally wide range, which means decent lows as it applies to acoustic guitar. That means good 80-160hz response with some power handling down there, but not so much that you sacrifice topend response. The "long-throw" 8's (mis-leading term tjere) would be geared towards superior lowend performamce, bit at the expense of topend, meaning a relatively low crossed tweeter or small come driver would be needed to take up the topend.


Of course, all this depends on your overall volume and frequency response needs. If you play 4-string finger plucking but need to carry rooms with your rig, strong output from 80-3000hz is your friend. If you play low B strings or slap, but have PA support, you can give up some sheer volume in exchange for more wide range response, seeing as it doesn't matter what it sounds like beyond the vocal wedges anyway.

[Type-55]

Originally Posted by will33

You're still generalizing speaker size with tone....which is a mistake.

Find out the exact drivers that are in the cabs you're looking at and get with Don at LDS.

In general, the Acoustinators will be generally wide range, which means decent lows as it applies to acoustic guitar. That means good 80-160hz response with some power handling down there, but not so much that you sacrifice topend response. The "long-throw" 8's (mis-leading term tjere) would be geared towards superior lowend performamce, bit at the expense of topend, meaning a relatively low crossed tweeter or small come driver would be needed to take up the topend.


Of course, all this depends on your overall volume and frequency response needs. If you play 4-string finger plucking but need to carry rooms with your rig, strong output from 80-3000hz is your friend. If you play low B strings or slap, but have PA support, you can give up some sheer volume in exchange for more wide range response, seeing as it doesn't matter what it sounds like beyond the vocal wedges anyway.

This is a very good point. Which is why I'm trying to get educated on the good or bad of 8" drivers. The Acoustinators
are described as acoustic guitar speakers. Don says they're a hearty speaker and 4 of them put out good low end.
The other camp of 8" are the long throws which seem to be designed for more low end. So, even though a 4x8 cab has more cone area, will a 2x8 with long throws have equal low end in a smaller box or better low end? Again the 4x8 would seem to play louder. The 2x8 is a 3 way. trying to find out what drivers are in this cab. I'm coming from a single Epifani UL-115 cab. I want a smaller box with more balance ie the 3way 2x8 or the 2 way 4x8 are available and won't break the bank. 4 string player from surf to British Invasion stuff to Patty Larkin to Tom Petty. No slap or pop.

[will33]

Originally Posted by Type-55

This is a very good point. Which is why I'm trying to get educated on the good or bad of 8" drivers. The Acoustinators
are described as acoustic guitar speakers. Don says they're a hearty speaker and 4 of them put out good low end.
The other camp of 8" are the long throws which seem to be designed for more low end. So, even though a 4x8 cab has more cone area, will a 2x8 with long throws have equal low end in a smaller box or better low end? Again the 4x8 would seem to play louder. The 2x8 is a 3 way. trying to find out what drivers are in this cab. I'm coming from a single Epifani UL-115 cab. I want a smaller box with more balance ie the 3way 2x8 or the 2 way 4x8 are available and won't break the bank. 4 string player from surf to British Invasion stuff to Patty Larkin to Tom Petty. No slap or pop.

I'd have to run the Acoistinators through a cab modeling program or somethin' before a definite yes or no, but, given your description, I'd be more inclined to run more speakers that are strong in the lowmids/highbass (4 Acoustinators) rather than fewer speakers that are strong in the low bass ( 2 long-throw 8's).

[Type-55]

Originally Posted by will33

I'd have to run the Acoistinators through a cab modeling program or somethin' before a definite yes or no, but, given your description, I'd be more inclined to run more speakers that are strong in the lowmids/highbass (4 Acoustinators) rather than fewer speakers that are strong in the low bass ( 2 long-throw 8's).

That seems to make sense.
Thanks.
I'm just a little unsure of having an acoustic guitar speaker in a bass cab. I'm gonna have to go hear the 4x8 cab and see.

[will33]

Originally Posted by Type-55

That seems to make sense.
Thanks.
I'm just a little unsure of having an acoustic guitar speaker in a bass cab. I'm gonna have to go hear the 4x8 cab and see.

I would be leery of it as well until you separate yourself from the sales labels such as " acoustic guitar speaker" or "bass guitar speaker", or PA speaker", and just look at what the speaker is, what it can and can't do, and how many of them you are hooking up to how powerful, or un-powerful, an amp, etc. Turns out, there isn't a such thimg as Acoistic, or Bass, or PA speakers. There's just speakers with different qualities that lend themswlves towards different applications. Turns out, many of the high performing "bass guitar" speakers nowdays are found in the PA section . Guitar speakers are the real different animal....they are made to distort early rather than later in the volume spectrum.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Type-55

Long throw drivers?

http://www.usspeaker.com/ciare%20ndc8-3-1.htm

[will33]

Upon further thoight, I wouldn't discount the lomg throw 8 as a viable "one speaker plays it all" option either. Due to the size of this speaker, uou can't really add so much mass as to make it an "LF only" type driver while maintaining SPL requires for live instrument use. "low frequency" for an 8might mean 60hz while maintaining useful spl, so that means you ahould still have plenty of usable topend for bass guitar. You can make 8" speakers that reach 40 or even 30hz and lower, but spl suffers to a point that isn't usable for live instruments, nor the stiffness of suspension needed to handle the dynamics that come from plucked vibrating strings rather than compressed mp3's.

[Type-55]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

http://www.usspeaker.com/ciare%20ndc8-3-1.htm

sweet. What kind of application do you use this in?

[Type-55]

The Speakers are Eminence 8s , 8 ohms ea. 4 ohm final load, rubber surround, long throw, at 6.2 mm, 2 in. voice coils, bumped and vented back plate, 45 to 3khz. For the woofers, 5 1/4 in. mid-driver, Eminence apt 80 tweeter , lpads on both the mid and tweeter, mid crossed at 4khz.

This is what's in the 2x8 3 way. So what would be the upside and downside to each cab?

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Type-55

sweet. What kind of application do you use this in?

I gig with it when doing shows I don't want to take my LDS 2-12 version of it. Jazz fusion and classic pop/rock stuff, primarily. Here are some more photos.