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Acme Users Unite!!!

#81
tombowlus said:
Well, I just received my two Low B-1's (yea!), and I own two T-112's and multiple Accugroove cabs (but not the Tri 112L). What exactly are you looking for in a cab (other than portability)?
Click to expand...

Fair question.

I'm looking for a cabinet that:

1. accurately reproduces my bass' natural tone
2. who's tone sits well in a small ensemble (duo or trio)
3. does not emphasize any frequencies

Right now I don't need a lot of voulme but if I do in the future, I'd like a cab that'd work well with other cabs in a larger configuration.

LeonD
 
#82
LeonD said:
Fair question.

I'm looking for a cabinet that:

1. accurately reproduces my bass' natural tone
2. who's tone sits well in a small ensemble (duo or trio)
3. does not emphasize any frequencies

Right now I don't need a lot of voulme but if I do in the future, I'd like a cab that'd work well with other cabs in a larger configuration.

LeonD
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Based upon that, I might take the T-112 out of the equation. Of the three, it has what I would call somewhat pronounced low end (particularly around a low E), somewhat scooped upper mids (not across the board, but I hear one or more dips in the midrange), and slightly "more sparkley than real life" highs. All in all, it is a phenomenal cab, and one of the few smaller, singler driver (& tweet) cabs that can reproduce a 5-string to satisfying levels. But, looking at your criteria, it might not be the best option.

I think both the Low B-1 and the Tri 112L have the potential to make you very happy. The ACME would be cheaper, smaller, and lighter. The Accugroove is more efficient, and will move more air. I do find, though, that for the most part, ACME and Accugroove cabs sound like they are from the same general tonal family (full, neutral, smooth, accurate).

At the risk of getting too off-topic, some other cabs that you might want to consider would be the EA Wizzy, Hevos Midget, Bergantino HT112, EA VL-110, Low Down Sound 3-way 1x8 or 1x10.

The Wizzy is a 4 ohm 1x12, and it reigns supreme in the tone per pound category. While not a neo cab, it is extremely light. It is full sounding, and manages to be warm, yet articulate at the same time. EA admits to designing-in some midrange emphasis, but the overall tonal impression is very well balanced, and it certainly would sit well in a small ensemble.

The Hevos Midget gets incredibly loud for a 1x10, and goes very deep. It will do a low B at high volume nearly as well as the T-112. It is very well balanced, and very articulate. It is not warm, though, but is exceptionally clear. May be hard to find on this side of The Pond.

The Bergantino HT112 is a very well-rounded cab. Sweet, musical upper midrange, and one of the best tweeters in the business are its strong point. If a hint of "old school" vibe, with modern clarity, is your cup of tea, the Berg delivers nicely. Very competitive in this group. A single HT112 might not be the best for a loud low B, though.

The EA VL-110 is no longer in production, but it is still worth mentioning. Very accurate, and very well balanced. The midrange is not quite as focused as in the VL-208, but it's still quite good. Deep, tight lows, and smooth highs. Very good cab. It is fairly compact, but somewhat heavy for its size. Slightly inefficient, but not too bad, really.

Don Oats up at Low Down Sound in Ferndale, Michigan (near Detroit), builds some excellent cabs. Two, in particular, that might fit your bill are his 3-way 1x8 and 1x10 cabs. Check out this thread for more insight. I have also posted on numerous other threads regarding LDS.

Hope this helps, Tom.
 
#83
Thanks Tom, this has been a big help.

Funny you mention the EA cabs. When I picked up my new bass (MTD 635), I stopped by Mike Tobias' shop. He had a few EA cabinets there. There was one that looked like a Wizzy which I didn't care for in the least. The other was a pair of smaller cabinets; they might have been the VL-110 (I've e-mailed Mike to see what model they are). They sounded amazing!

Based on your comparison of the Acme to AccuGroove, I'd go with the Acme. It looks like the only advantage of the AccuGroove is that it moves more air. I could do that with the B-1 by adding a second cab. It would still be more portable and cheaper.

Regarding all the other cabs, that just makes my head hurt. :rolleyes: More cabs that I feel that I have to try. If I could just quit my day job. ;)

Thanks for your help,
LeonD
 
#86
LeonD said:
TBased on your comparison of the Acme to AccuGroove, I'd go with the Acme. It looks like the only advantage of the AccuGroove is that it moves more air. I could do that with the B-1 by adding a second cab. It would still be more portable and cheaper.
Click to expand...

I can't see how trying a Low B-1 would be a bad thing! Even if you don't like it (which I doubt), the initial cost is quite reasonable, and the used market is quite strong. I think two Low B-1's would probably serve you quite well.
 
#87
My thoughts exactly. Which is why I just got off the phone with Andy from Acme. With the reasonable price of the B-1 plus a two week trial period, I just bought one.

I figure once it gets here, I'll take it out and compare it to all the other cabs. It sound like it'll be a winner though.

The hard part now is waiting. He says it won't ship till the second week of April.

LeonD
 
#88
LeonD said:
My thoughts exactly. Which is why I just got off the phone with Andy from Acme. With the reasonable price of the B-1 plus a two week trial period, I just bought one.

I figure once it gets here, I'll take it out and compare it to all the other cabs. It sound like it'll be a winner though.

The hard part now is waiting. He says it won't ship till the second week of April.

LeonD
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ARRRGGGHHH!! The wait begins...

I bet it'll be well worth the wait for ya bro...i'd bet my roscoe on it!
 
#90
okay. I know some peeps here are using a similar setup to mine it is:

Yamaha PB1 preamp >
QSC PLX 2402 > using one side of the amp (750 watts @ 4ohm) > speakon out >
1st Low B2 series II 8ohm (speakon input) > 1/4" cable >
2nd Low B2 series II 8ohm (1/4" input)

So I'm just using 1 side of the amp, limiter on. chaining 2 lowBs together.

The problem is: I've blown 1 cabinet to (melted the coils on both 10's) from this setup. I could tell it was loading back and making the amp clip when I tried to play loud. This makes me think its an OHM thing. Has anybody tried wiring the 2 low B's together in series?? This would make it a 16ohm load...

Just wondering if anybody has had similar issues. I play funky rocknroll, not THAT loud, But I feel I've never really has these babies setup right with my rig. They sound good, but I can't get the volume without clipping the amp. Any help would be appreciated.

Evan
 
#91
gatekeeper said:
okay. I know some peeps here are using a similar setup to mine it is:

Yamaha PB1 preamp >
QSC PLX 2402 > using one side of the amp (750 watts @ 4ohm) > speakon out >
1st Low B2 series II 8ohm (speakon input) > 1/4" cable >
2nd Low B2 series II 8ohm (1/4" input)

So I'm just using 1 side of the amp, limiter on. chaining 2 lowBs together.

The problem is: I've blown 1 cabinet to (melted the coils on both 10's) from this setup. I could tell it was loading back and making the amp clip when I tried to play loud. This makes me think its an OHM thing. Has anybody tried wiring the 2 low B's together in series?? This would make it a 16ohm load...

Just wondering if anybody has had similar issues. I play funky rocknroll, not THAT loud, But I feel I've never really has these babies setup right with my rig. They sound good, but I can't get the volume without clipping the amp. Any help would be appreciated.

Evan
Click to expand...

Not to be harsh, but the cabs are not making the amp clip. *You* are, by turning it up too high. That's not a flame, so please don't take it that way, but that's just how it is.

If you tried to wire the Acmes together for a 16 ohm load, that would give you much less volume and would exacerbate your problem--unless you bridged the amp into that load, which would give you about 850 W. But for that, you might as well run one Acme off each side of the amp, for 425 W/side. Same difference. Having another 100 W available probably won't make much of a difference, but perhaps the amp may run a tad smoother at 8 ohms/side than at 4 ohms on one side. (Or not.) It's worth a try.

How is your EQ set up? Boosting the bass will eat up your watts like nobody's business.

Without hearing your band or how you play, it's impossible to really say--since what's not really loud to you might be quite loud to somebody else--but you may be trying to get more output from the cabs than they want to give. It happens; cabs do have limits. Andy Lewis even complains in the manual about people trying to feed his cabs too much power and get them to do more than they're capable of. There are trade-offs: we don't get to have cabs that are simultaneously efficient, small, capable of extended low bass, and capable of major maximum volume.

On the other hand, it may be that having some more power available would help. Or running two more 8 ohm B-2s or a 4 ohm B-4 off the other side of the amp. It's hard to be sure what would work best for you over the Web.
 
#92
Fretless5verfan said:
Yea i'd be REAL interested in seeing how they compared to ACMEs and Wayne Jones...es... :eyebrow: :D
Click to expand...

yea, me too. ;)

and GateK,

why run just one side? you've got tons of wattage at your disposal, might as well give the Acmes what they crave. FYI, 600 watts is the average of what i'd send into one B-2 for the maximum Low B effect.

i say bridge that sucker and send two separate outs from the power amp itself? you'll be guaranteed sending the most clean power @ 4 ohm impedence.

also, if you're gonna start cranking them hard, i think the 50Hz limiter might be a good thing to have on. sure, it'll limit the Low B response, but you'll need to sacrifice something with the volumes you're hunting for.

but like rich said, you might be making the poor Acmes do more than they're intended. in your situation, you seem to need massive volume,and i think a pair of B-4's would be more appropriate. with that 2402, you'd be SERIOUSLY rockin' the house. not to mention the foundations... :eyebrow: :D
 
#93
I had a brief chance to play through my two new (to me) Low B-1's last night. First off, I must say that a stack of two B-1's is pretty darn tough looking! (Photos to follow, of course!). Powered with my WWU, the tone was unbelievably deep and full (moreso than I expected, to be honest). I did not have one of my Low B-2's handy to compare, but I'd think they must be similar in this regard. At any rate, I was very happy with them, and they certainly met or exceeded my expectations!

Tom.
 
#94
When I spoke with Andy (of Acme) yesterday, I asked him to compare two B-1's to one B-2. His feeling was they should sound very similar.

How much power does your WWU put out?

LeonD

tombowlus said:
I had a brief chance to play through my two new (to me) Low B-1's last night. First off, I must say that a stack of two B-1's is pretty darn tough looking! (Photos to follow, of course!). Powered with my WWU, the tone was unbelievably deep and full (moreso than I expected, to be honest). I did not have one of my Low B-2's handy to compare, but I'd think they must be similar in this regard. At any rate, I was very happy with them, and they certainly met or exceeded my expectations!

Tom.
Click to expand...
 
#96
I'm assuming then that the B-1 cabinets are 8 ohms each?


tombowlus said:
1,200 watts into 4 ohm.
Click to expand...


This leads me to another question. Let's say that I have two B-1 cabinets at 4 ohms and a power amp that is rated at either 350W x 2 @ 4 ohms or 1200W x 1 @ 4 ohms bridged. Would it be better to run one cabinet into each seprate channel of the power amp or bridge the amp and daisy chain the two cabinets together?

LeonD
 
#97
LeonD said:
I'm assuming then that the B-1 cabinets are 8 ohms each?





This leads me to another question. Let's say that I have two B-1 cabinets at 4 ohms and a power amp that is rated at either 350W x 2 @ 4 ohms or 1200W x 1 @ 4 ohms bridged. Would it be better to run one cabinet into each seprate channel of the power amp or bridge the amp and daisy chain the two cabinets together?

LeonD
Click to expand...

If your B-1s are 4 ohms each, you *can't* daisy chain them and bridge the amp into them, because you would be giving the amp a total load of 2 ohms, which it's not rated for in bridge mode (since it would be the equivalent of a 1 ohm load per side).
 
#98
LeonD said:
I'm assuming then that the B-1 cabinets are 8 ohms each?

This leads me to another question. Let's say that I have two B-1 cabinets at 4 ohms and a power amp that is rated at either 350W x 2 @ 4 ohms or 1200W x 1 @ 4 ohms bridged. Would it be better to run one cabinet into each seprate channel of the power amp or bridge the amp and daisy chain the two cabinets together?

LeonD
Click to expand...

My Low B-1's are 8 ohm cabs, but you can get them as 4 ohm cabs. In your scenario above, if I had two 8 ohm cabs, I would run them bridged mono (for a total 4 ohm load). If the cabs were 4 ohm each, then I would run one on each channel. Two 4 ohm cabs on your bridged channel would give a 2 ohm load, which would be very, very bad (unless you own an iAMP!).
 

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