O.K.
Having been suitably impressed with AVATAR's B210 NEO (of which reviews abound on this site), I figured it would not cost me much to try out Steelsound's newly designed SSB212 cabinet.
The reviews on this site were fairly mixed; however, most of them were by individuals who seemed to be talking about what they'd read rather than from personal experience. So here goes (everything is only my opinion - YMMV):
Cost:
139 dollars (US). This is obviously much lower than pretty much any other 2x12 out there. The shipping does cost 30 dollars for FEDEX ground; however, for a total of 169 dollars, it's a tough price point to beat.
Construction:
- Steelsound has pretty much switched to making everything out of birch hardwood - nice choice. This cabinet weighs right at 60 pounds - pretty light for a 2x12 from any manufacturer.
- The face grill is now a complete grill vice their older "speaker" grill configuration. This is nicely done with some very nicely placed grill/faceplate spacers that give the grill a very solid feel.
- Speakers are Madison Knight 12's with a frequency response down to 35 Hz. The cab is front ported; however, I prefer Avatars porting construction. The cab's impedence is 4 ohms.
- Piezo tweeter - more about this later.
- Carpet covering - O.K. - not, in my opinion, as high quality as some; however, it is VERY nicely (and tightly) applied. (I really wish EVERYONE would just use tolex).
- Handles/jackplate - this is where the construction breaks down a bit - both of these are hard plastic. The handles seem very sturdy - but I would have much preferred a good metal jackplate.
- On a very nice note, there is NO Steelsound "logo" on the grill - only a tastefull name on one of the Handle plates.
- The dimensions are easily stackable with most cabs out there - 25x24x16
Sound:
- I played both a Dean Fretless 4 and a G&L L2000 through a Peavey Nitrobass with a flat EQ to see how the different preamps would sound through this cab.
- This, obviously, is very subjective, but I'll give it a go...the sound is very big (as one would expect from a 2x12). The amp was very responsive to the entire freq. spectrum of the speakers, and the 12's were very fast while easily handling the lower frequencies.
- O.K., normally I'm not a fan of piezo tweeters, BUT, this one is starting to change my mind. It allows the sound to have a roundness that is very "modern" with (get this) NO noise or hiss. I was actually very impressed - the only thing I would have liked to have seen was some sort of easy way to turn the tweeter off or take it offline. I want a 2x12 to do the 2x12 thing - sound BIG, ROUND, and DEEP. The 2x10 and a nice tweeter can take the other part of the tone load (IMO).
Customer support:
- O.K. - you need to type certain things into the subject line of your emails to get Cindy's attention, but once you do, she's good at getting back to you.
- They did provide tracking information, but overall, shipping is much slower than Dave at AVATAR (for example).
Overall:
- I'm impressed. At this price point (and more IMO) this is a nice sounding, relatively lightweight 2x12 cabinet for 140 dollars.
- The jury is still out on durability. Let me play it for 5 or 10 shows, and I'll get back on how it's holding up.
- Kudos to Steelsound for building it with birch and really sprucing up the grill construction.
- Need to change the jackplate to a metal, more secure one.
- Need to add speakon connections.
- Customer service means well, but is less responsive than it could be - probably because they're doing a ton of business right now.
- Pretty killer cab in the end analysis - I was fairly impressed by the tone...especially the way the cab went through the frequency spectrum so nicely. Big sound all around.
Hope this helps as it seems Steelsound gets a bit "poo-poo'd" right from the start of anyone's query.
Cheers,
Jay
Having been suitably impressed with AVATAR's B210 NEO (of which reviews abound on this site), I figured it would not cost me much to try out Steelsound's newly designed SSB212 cabinet.
The reviews on this site were fairly mixed; however, most of them were by individuals who seemed to be talking about what they'd read rather than from personal experience. So here goes (everything is only my opinion - YMMV):
Cost:
139 dollars (US). This is obviously much lower than pretty much any other 2x12 out there. The shipping does cost 30 dollars for FEDEX ground; however, for a total of 169 dollars, it's a tough price point to beat.
Construction:
- Steelsound has pretty much switched to making everything out of birch hardwood - nice choice. This cabinet weighs right at 60 pounds - pretty light for a 2x12 from any manufacturer.
- The face grill is now a complete grill vice their older "speaker" grill configuration. This is nicely done with some very nicely placed grill/faceplate spacers that give the grill a very solid feel.
- Speakers are Madison Knight 12's with a frequency response down to 35 Hz. The cab is front ported; however, I prefer Avatars porting construction. The cab's impedence is 4 ohms.
- Piezo tweeter - more about this later.
- Carpet covering - O.K. - not, in my opinion, as high quality as some; however, it is VERY nicely (and tightly) applied. (I really wish EVERYONE would just use tolex).
- Handles/jackplate - this is where the construction breaks down a bit - both of these are hard plastic. The handles seem very sturdy - but I would have much preferred a good metal jackplate.
- On a very nice note, there is NO Steelsound "logo" on the grill - only a tastefull name on one of the Handle plates.
- The dimensions are easily stackable with most cabs out there - 25x24x16
Sound:
- I played both a Dean Fretless 4 and a G&L L2000 through a Peavey Nitrobass with a flat EQ to see how the different preamps would sound through this cab.
- This, obviously, is very subjective, but I'll give it a go...the sound is very big (as one would expect from a 2x12). The amp was very responsive to the entire freq. spectrum of the speakers, and the 12's were very fast while easily handling the lower frequencies.
- O.K., normally I'm not a fan of piezo tweeters, BUT, this one is starting to change my mind. It allows the sound to have a roundness that is very "modern" with (get this) NO noise or hiss. I was actually very impressed - the only thing I would have liked to have seen was some sort of easy way to turn the tweeter off or take it offline. I want a 2x12 to do the 2x12 thing - sound BIG, ROUND, and DEEP. The 2x10 and a nice tweeter can take the other part of the tone load (IMO).
Customer support:
- O.K. - you need to type certain things into the subject line of your emails to get Cindy's attention, but once you do, she's good at getting back to you.
- They did provide tracking information, but overall, shipping is much slower than Dave at AVATAR (for example).
Overall:
- I'm impressed. At this price point (and more IMO) this is a nice sounding, relatively lightweight 2x12 cabinet for 140 dollars.
- The jury is still out on durability. Let me play it for 5 or 10 shows, and I'll get back on how it's holding up.
- Kudos to Steelsound for building it with birch and really sprucing up the grill construction.
- Need to change the jackplate to a metal, more secure one.
- Need to add speakon connections.
- Customer service means well, but is less responsive than it could be - probably because they're doing a ton of business right now.
- Pretty killer cab in the end analysis - I was fairly impressed by the tone...especially the way the cab went through the frequency spectrum so nicely. Big sound all around.
Hope this helps as it seems Steelsound gets a bit "poo-poo'd" right from the start of anyone's query.
Cheers,
Jay
