Speculative comparision between Fearful 1515/66 and my rig.

[Pat C.]

Just speculation at this point, but I'm curious if anybody would care to take a guess as to a 1515/66 would stack up against my block of custom Carl Weber Audio 12/6 cabs. I know, I'm asking the virtually impossible, as there are so few of these out there that almost nobody has heard them, and I'm certain nobody has heard a Weber and Fearful side by side.

The Weber's seem to be sort-of similar to the fearful, in that they utilize a woofer with an extended frequency response (mine have the 1000-series predecessor to this model) crossed over into a 6" cone driver instead of the usual tweeter. AFAIK these were some of the only readily available (to me) bass cabs with a cone mid driver instead of a tweeter at the time I purchased them (~2000). That's really where the similarity ends, though, since the fearfuls have a totally different, modern woofer; a much larger cabinet; different crossover; etc.

My hypothetical/eventual goal is to have a single, large tilt-back-and-wheel-it-around cab that can take the place of the block of four at medium to larger gigs. That will also allow me to split up my 12" cabs if needed (two at home, two at the rehearsal studio, etc.) and not have to worry about piecing them all together come gig day. Also, it been over ten years since I bought a rig and GAS had to catch up to me at some point.

So, any thoughts on the 1515/66: it's max output, frequency response, portability, etc. compared to my rig? Any speculation is welcome, but I'd particularly like to hear from those who have experience with the big fearfuls, or have some knowledge of cabinet design and could possibly do some educated speculation.

FWIW, I have searched for and read a ton of threads on the 1515/66, just looking to get input on my situation specifically.

A fuzzy pic of the quad-block:

[klaus486]

Bad Ass bass amp Pat.

[edwinhurwitz]

I don't have much advice for you, but I'd love to hear your rig with the cabs stacked on top of each other 4 high. I bet it would sound great!

[Plstrns]

I can't find any specs on the CWA's to make any real comparisons.

The 1515/66 fEarful is around or under 90lbs. It's a breeze to move around with tilt back casters, and rear slide rails.

I run mine biamped through a DSP. I have a 1600W amp bridged into the 15's, and currently use the power section of a head (300W) to drive the 6's. It's as loud as any high end 810 I've ever played.

The F3's are somewhere around 40hz, and 8Kish without a tweeter.

I LOVE mine, it's the first cabinet I like the sound of a naked bass through. The mids are fantastic, plenty of top end for me, bottom for days.

[rpsands]

A 3015LF in the fEarful is F3 about 45hz, F10 about 35hz. This changes with different tuning. Tuning down around 35hz can extend your -10db to 30hz at the expense of the -3db point moving up to 55hz.

Not sure of the fEarb tuning but I think it's around there.

[Pat C.]

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

I don't have much advice for you, but I'd love to hear your rig with the cabs stacked on top of each other 4 high. I bet it would sound great!

I've tried it that way, and didn't like it. I have actually set them up a bunch of different ways, and although I'm sure there are certain cancellations occurring in the mids/highs in the quad-block configuration, I think I've actually grown to like how they sound with this set-up the best. I've also tried them with the mid drivers placed adjacent to each other (vertically and/or horizontally), but the higher frequencies just got too beamy/peaky to my ear.

My guess that there aren't more than a couple of dozen of these cabs in existence, and I'd bet that I'm the only (slightly insane) person with four of them. Two get the job done for the most part, but the sound (and feeling) of pushing 1500 watts through all four cabs is really quite spectacular. It's not that the volume is that high, I've played 8x10" rigs that were louder than mine, but the even, full-frequency response all the way down the low B is unbeatable.

If the Fearfuls can achieve (or exceed) what my current cabs can, but do it in with a smaller form factor and with less overall weight then they are something special, indeed.

[billfitzmaurice]

Comparing your cabs to fEarfuls requires knowing what woofers they use. Knowing that a very precise assessment can be made. Without that information all one can do is guess. If they contained the woofer of the link they'd be very close to the 12/6 loaded with the 3012LF.

[greenboy]

Run the numbers on the woofs for starters, yep. Just look at Vd: xmax * Sd if you want a quickie.

[Pat C.]

Unfortunately I don't have the specs for the woofers in my cabs. It's an older model, and McCauley doesn't have info for legacy products on their website. Maybe I'll shoot them an email to see if they some details.