I purchased a Carvin BX500 about 6 months ago for home practicing, quick noodling, recording, etc so that I don't have to fire up my SVT2-Pro for things like that.
I have an old SWR workingman's 12 that I bought in about '95-'96. It was like one of the first ones ever. But the amp fried on me somehow. I think my wife dropped something heavy on the volume knob and it shorted out (the volume knob is broken)...but that's neither here nor there; what's done is done.
I kept that amp around for like 8 years, broken as it was because I thought I can put the speaker to good use one day.
When I got the BX500, that day came. I took a sawz-all and cut the amp section away from the cabinet, installed an old Carvin RL horn pad I had laying around, relocated the handle...and voila! a 1x12 cabinet.
The speaker in it is a Celestion KT-200 (or something like that) 200W, 8 ohms. I kind of treated it as a crapper and figured I'd blow the speaker one day and toss the cab from the roof...whatever.
But the dang thing has grown on me. It shakes the house like nobody's business, and I barely have the volume on the BX passed 2. The thing just sounds great, and that 200 watt speaker can really take all you can throw at it. It NEVER sounded so good with the SWR amp, that's for sure.
The Setup I have for the SVT is a Goliath II 4x10, into which I installed Eminence Legend BP-102-4 speakers so that it would be a 4-ohm cab. I went with these because of their low end capability and strength. I also have a Goliath II Jr. 2x10 with the same speakers (but 8-ohm) as a 4-ohm total load. These two cabs sound fantastic driven by the SVT. A beast of a setup, sounds plain evil. The 4x10 has as much low end as a 1x15, but much tighter.
So today I wanted to see how the 2x10 sounded alone, stood up vertically like everyone says they should be used when by itself. Plugged in the BX500....and I hated it. It just sounded very hi-fi and with less bottom than the 1x12. Also sounded like the 2x10 couldn't handle the power either. With those 2 speakers, it should handle 400 watts, but it really started to break up then played loud. The 1x12 fairs better.
Is it that those 10" speakers just sound better driven by the SVT? Do 2x10's just sound like crap compared to other cabinets? or is it that I'm really a 12" speaker kind of player and I didn't even know it? Why do I feel like I want to sell off the 10" cabs and get a full 12" speaker stack? a couple of 2x12's...
