Horn/tweeter - Necessary?

[Vakmere]

Personally I dont think a horn in a bass cab is necessary. Unless you're 5 feet from it you wont hear it. Also it seems bass frequencys will damage the horn depending on how it is driven. Avatars have an adjustable knob for it, Behringer has a switch (on/off), SWR has a DB +/- control, Mesa similar to SWR, and so on and the quality varies from maker to maker. Is there an advantage or are they an add on with little or no audible advantage to your overall sound? Bear in mind 6 string players who use the upper registers frequently for soloing/chording may benefit to a degree but if you play pretty much downstairs it doesnt seem likely the horn is then usefull.

[bassforce]

Is tweeter in bass cab necessary? ABSOLUTELY .... not!

[SwamiRob]

There might not be any/many harmonics and probably no fundamentals depending on just how high your bass goes and how you play, but plenty of people like the bright fret/string noises you get from tweeters. Dunno where that 5 foot away thing has come from either, I can easily hear a cabs tweeter when I use one.

Bear in mind alot of tweeters you'll come across on most cabs (especially manufacturers like Behringer...) will be cheap as ****, even with cheap horns though they will be crossed over so no low end content will damage them, the only thing which will cause a tweeter to be damaged in most cases will be a nasty cheap design or a users ignorance, although if your putting out enough uber high end to damage even a cheap tweeter at high volume your probably gonna destroy your ears before you really hurt it.

For most a tweeter goes higher then necessary, and a mid driver would be much better to put out the higher frequencies alot of woofers don't put out with ease for people that like some higher frequency content without getting too bright.

[seamonkey]

When you're modeling different basses, amps, cabinets, and rooms - you bet a full range cabinet is needed.
It's not a tweeter problem - it's a flat full range cabinet problem.
Given a bass guitar style woofer and tweeter, most "made for bass" cabinets have a big hole in the mid range - right were most the definition and characteristics of what separates one model from the next is situated.
If you use modeling check the frequency response of the cabinet - not just that it has a tweeter or not.

[Charling]

Originally Posted by Vakmere

Personally I dont think a horn in a bass cab is necessary. Unless you're 5 feet from it you wont hear it. Also it seems bass frequencys will damage the horn depending on how it is driven. Avatars have an adjustable knob for it, Behringer has a switch (on/off), SWR has a DB +/- control, Mesa similar to SWR, and so on and the quality varies from maker to maker. Is there an advantage or are they an add on with little or no audible advantage to your overall sound? Bear in mind 6 string players who use the upper registers frequently for soloing/chording may benefit to a degree but if you play pretty much downstairs it doesnt seem likely the horn is then usefull.

of course its necessary, if thats the sound you are going for! the speaker cab will have a crossover in it, only the tops will get to the horn, so no bass frequencies will be there to damage it. if they are then it is a mistake of the company.

I mic up the horn regularly when recording, beats having to dial in highs on the eq to get a bright sound if you need it, record the sound of the amp, don't bother artificially effecting an already flat sound!

your point about 6 string players doesn't work either, the fundamentals of a 6 stringers top strings will still be dealt with by the main speakers, the horn adds the top tops!

the upper harmonics of a bass note is what defines the character of the sound and sometimes the note itself (when the fundamental is very low) and the horn will deal with a lot of that.

if you have a cab with a horn and then the horn goes you will soon know about it!

even low register players need the tops if they are playing anything where string grunt is necessary, there a reason the best bass amp designers for decades have added a horn to some models, they are not silly! you just have to be careful of the ones who add a cheap one just to be able to put something else on the feature list!

[Darkstrike]

I switched off the tweeter in my rig recently, and rolled up my treble more than the 1/4 it was up, now I love my rig!

[Vakmere]

Originally Posted by Charling

of course its necessary, if thats the sound you are going for! the speaker cab will have a crossover in it, only the tops will get to the horn, so no bass frequencies will be there to damage it. if they are then it is a mistake of the company.

I mic up the horn regularly when recording, beats having to dial in highs on the eq to get a bright sound if you need it, record the sound of the amp, don't bother artificially effecting an already flat sound!

your point about 6 string players doesn't work either, the fundamentals of a 6 stringers top strings will still be dealt with by the main speakers, the horn adds the top tops!

the upper harmonics of a bass note is what defines the character of the sound and sometimes the note itself (when the fundamental is very low) and the horn will deal with a lot of that.

if you have a cab with a horn and then the horn goes you will soon know about it!

even low register players need the tops if they are playing anything where string grunt is necessary, there a reason the best bass amp designers for decades have added a horn to some models, they are not silly! you just have to be careful of the ones who add a cheap one just to be able to put something else on the feature list!

Good points, perhaps I'm not utilizing this feature correctly. What would be a good quality horn to use in this instance?

[SwamiRob]

It seems when you get to mid range drivers and tweeters there isn't really anything in the way of specifically bass voiced stuff, all the high quality tweeters and mid drivers seem to come from decent pro audio companies.

Only problem really is is that you'd need a new crossover to go with your new horn, crossovers are very tightly matched to the drivers they are being used with. What cab are you having the problem with the naff sounding tweeter with?

[Charling]

Originally Posted by SwamiRob

It seems when you get to mid range drivers and tweeters there isn't really anything in the way of specifically bass voiced stuff, all the high quality tweeters and mid drivers seem to come from decent pro audio companies.

Only problem really is is that you'd need a new crossover to go with your new horn, crossovers are very tightly matched to the drivers they are being used with. What cab are you having the problem with the naff sounding tweeter with?

yeah, I wouldn't recommend getting into changing a tweeter, I'd look more into replacing the whole cab. They are made as one unit and it takes a bit of know how to integrate a new one.

If you are not happy with the sound of the cab, it is likely the design of the whole cab not just the tweeter!