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Double Bass Acoustic Image Series III

#83
Thanks agian Bob. I'm glad the Claris/Focus III Heads have a metal housing. IMHO a plastic head would have been a bad idea.
I supose that it could have worked, but now we don't have to worry about it. Are you ever actually going to take a holiday? By my accounts, you have now worked all weekend and monday.


Ric
 
#84
A. H. B. now has info about series III now as well as something I think someone said they wished for: More head room for the down firing 10...... A SUPER Contra



Special Focus-equipped Contras are available while they last. Acoustic Image has taken the last of their Contra cabinets and installed Focus heads into them! As a result, it's a Contra or Coda with a 300 watt output, and up to 600 watts when another speacker cabinet is added
 
#85
univac jr. said:
A. H. B. now has info about series III now as well as something I think someone said they wished for: More head room for the down firing 10...... A SUPER Contra



Special Focus-equipped Contras are available while they last. Acoustic Image has taken the last of their Contra cabinets and installed Focus heads into them! As a result, it's a Contra or Coda with a 300 watt output, and up to 600 watts when another speacker cabinet is added
Click to expand...

That's actually typo that's been corrected, the Link Removed Focus-Contra/Coda are 600 watts as they stand alone, without an additional cab.
 
#86
Bob,
Provided you don't overdrive this combination, because the wattage is double the original specifications, will the cabinet in this unit handle the increase in power. After all we wouldn't want the Focus to become Kryptonite for the Super Contra.

Ric

PS I guess Ric Jones and Acoustic Image know what they are doing since they designed the Contra in the first place.
 
#87
My impression during the time when I used a Contra (steadily for a little over a year) was that even the Clarus head slightly overpowered the stock cabinet.

I think, though, that if you wanted to hook up an extension cab to the Contra, having the extra power would be a great thing! But other than that... I don't think the extra couple hundred watts would do you much good.
 
#88
Tbeers said:
My impression during the time when I used a Contra (steadily for a little over a year) was that even the Clarus head slightly overpowered the stock cabinet.

I think, though, that if you wanted to hook up an extension cab to the Contra, having the extra power would be a great thing! But other than that... I don't think the extra couple hundred watts would do you much good.
Click to expand...

I tested the cab with other heads over the past couple years, and actually, it's the onboard head that gives up before the speaker does. It took me a long time (too long, perhaps) to realize that over the years I'd been bitching too often that my speaker was farting out when it actually was lack of headroom.

In some very loud electric bass days about 4-5 years ago (thankfully in the past, never again) I was gigging a Kern preamp over a bridged QSC2402-- that was 2400 watts into a pair of Euphonic Audio VL-210 cabinets. While I obviously seldom hit the wall with that much power, I actually can recall three outdoor gigs where I came close to or was running wide open. I never heard the speakers whimper. And I never ran out of gas.

After a moment of dramatic silence, will everyone please join me in a Tim the Toolman Taylor POWER grunt??

Seriously, Headroom Rules. Having those extra watts to keep the signal from getting squashed during peaks makes for a much cleaner and more solid sound IME.
 
#89
Bob Gollihur said:
After a moment of dramatic silence, will everyone please join me in a Tim the Toolman Taylor POWER grunt??

Seriously, Headroom Rules. Having those extra watts to keep the signal from getting squashed during peaks makes for a much cleaner and more solid sound IME.
Click to expand...


Well, you're certainly not going to hear me dispute that, since you're talking to a guy who runs a Walter Woods Ultra into one EA VL110.

POWER
 
#90
Bob Gollihur said:
In some very loud electric bass days about 4-5 years ago (thankfully in the past, never again) I was gigging a Kern preamp over a bridged QSC2402-- that was 2400 watts into a pair of Euphonic Audio VL-210 cabinets. While I obviously seldom hit the wall with that much power, I actually can recall three outdoor gigs where I came close to or was running wide open. I never heard the speakers whimper. And I never ran out of gas.
Click to expand...

Not to drift too far off topic, but I am so amazed at the ability of two VL-210's to take whatever I can throw at them and beg for more! Those cabs really like to be driven hard!

Tom.
 
#92
Just a reminder that going from 300 to 600 watts buys you only 3 dB. Assuming the circuit topology is similar on the two amps you will only get 3 dB power in the peaks as well.
 
#93
DRURB said:
Just a reminder that going from 300 to 600 watts buys you only 3 dB. Assuming the circuit topology is similar on the two amps you will only get 3 dB power in the peaks as well.
Click to expand...

OK, this brings me to what's a concrete issue for me. I'm thinking of buying a series III amp. The Clarus or Focus. As far as I can tell, they're identical except for the power section. Here's the specs from Bob's site:

Clarus:
160w/8ohms
300w/4ohms
450w/2ohms
$919

Focus:
450 watts/8ohms
800 watts/4ohms
1000W/2ohms
$1399

Am I right that based on what you and macmrkt are saying, I shouldn't expect the Focus to be much louder than the Clarus? That I would be better to spend the $480 difference on a very efficient cabinet for occasions when I want more volume?

Thanks,
Brent
 
#94
I had 2 different Focus and several Clarus amps, including the slightly more powerful SL whcih I still have. I had a hard time finding the difference in perceived loudness when used in similar situations. Series 2's had the Clarus SL at 250w/4ohm and Focus 600w/4ohm. Sometimes I even thought the SL even sounded a bit 'better' too, but I've been known to make wild accusations in the past.
 
#95
I was under the impression (correct me if I'm wrong) that the wattage required to produce a reasonable volume on the E string is much higher than what it takes to do the same thing on the G string. Once agian, I am not a acoustician, or a engineer, but since we are only gaining a 3DB increase by upping the power out 300 watts, is it perhaps the fact that the lower frequencies are better served by the higher powered amplifiers.

Ric Vice

PS: I guess I just hijacked my own thread.
 
#96
Hey Ric - right you are (I always wondered why guitarists can use a 50 watt amp and overpower my 650 watt bass rig.) But this Clarus/Focus difference of less than 3db is still small. I'm sure you'll hear/feel a difference by getting the bigger amp but don't be surprised if it's small. You may find it easier to get a cabinet whose efficiency betters 3db for the same money. Caution: spec rating comparisons across different manufacturers are not to be relied on. Unless you can set up a lab and do this type of testing in a controlled manner, use your ears.
 
#98
Actually, I agree with both of you.
When I had two Walter Woods MI 100-MI 400 the 400 just plain sounded better. So, from Chris's perspective I agree that you can never have enough headroom. Unfortunately, since I'm always using a one of the EA cabinets, that kind of rules out the effiecncy part of the equasion since the Transmission Line "sucks power". So technically it may only be 3 DB but I'll take it. IMHO the wattage, ohmage, spl are all dependant on the frequcncies you're trying to reproduce.

Ric
 
#99
I'll agree with Chris too as he's bigger than me.:smug: Played DB in what's become a loud acoustic band last night in a room that was about 25' x 125' and we were playing into the 'long' side. All the time I've been on talkbass I've been playing in small spaces where I didn't need the extra juice. I bet if I had to do the Focus/Clarus comparison in this situation I'd want the Focus amp's 3dBs.
 

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