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Affordable head for rehearsals. 200w or + at 8 ohms

#21
ardgedee said:
The TC BAM 200 manual says its power is rated at "Max output power 200 W", without specifying impedance -- we can assume 4 Ohm but we don't really know because they don't say.
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I'm interested in this amp for a practice space use, with a cabinet rated at 200Watts 8OHM that does not belong to me. I want to neither underdrive nor overdrive the cabinet I don't own. What TC Electronic "means" is actually quite important.

The unit says "4 OHM Min. Load". Ok, well that is to be expected as a minimum. But there's a WHOLE BUNCH of 8 OHM cabinets out there. Stopping short of saying an 8 OHM cabinet is "the" industry standard, I would certainly say use with 8 OHM cabinets is "an" industry standard, and the omission of these power ratings for pairing the stand-alone head with 4 OHM and 8 OHM cabinets as most commonly used, in the owners manual (which BTW is NOT on the TC Electronic product page on their own site and must be obtained elsewhere for immediate download), is inexplicable oversight.

Given the assumptions that we must... uh... assume... I'm going to assume this stand-alone head delivers 100 Watts paired with an 8 OHM cabinet. I think I would have already bought one if I could have definitively determined the BAM 200 delivered all 200 Watts paired with 8 OHM cabinet.

I'll continue looking elsewhere for a very inexpensive, small head that delivers 200 Watts with an 8 OHM cabinet. Dang.
 
#22
Thunderthumbs73 said:
HOW does one "find" that, and WHO was it that found that result? WHERE is that result? WHAT was the methodology of the person who found that?
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In reality the wattage questions about the t c RH series of Bass amplifiers are a dead horse on TalkBass that has been beaten far too much. I owned the 450 and I read all the threads about how the wattage wasn't really 450 w and it was blah blah blah watts. The whole thing is the 450 w rating was because the power amp could deliver a burst power of 450 w when pushed. but it was not 450 w continuous power.

All I can say is that I used that head with two TC RS 112 single 12 cabs and it was plenty loud enough for any gig I played when I owned it. It was a great sounding amp and had plenty of power regardless of what the wattage questions were.

I did sell it but not because it was bad or didn't have enough power or didn't sound good I sold it because TC went under for that series of amplifiers and I like to have amps that can be repaired when they break down. Even though I love that amp with the built-in compressor and the built-in tube simulated overdrive circuit I won't buy one just because of the repair Factor.

The little red amps like the ones I recommended earlier in the thread are really good sounding little amplifiers and the price is right. But at that price I consider them honestly to be a throwaway amp. If it pukes under warranty that's okay but if it's out of warranty and pukes.IMO at the price they sold for they're really not meant to be fixed just toss them. Before I bought the bigger TC rig I had the combo with a single 15 that had the 250 w amp in it and then I also had the separate 250 w BH head. That gave me an opportunity to hear both bad head and my rh-450 using the RS single 12 cabinets. Regardless of how much wattage the RH was capable of putting out it was considerably louder and punchier than the bh250 head.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of those BQ Thrust heads. I mean, 500 watts for 180 bucks? That's the best deal out there. great for rehearsals or as a backup amp or to power cabinet for gigs. 500 watts through an efficient cabinet is more than enough power nowadays.
 
#24
60bass said:
In reality the wattage questions about the t c RH series of Bass amplifiers are a dead horse on TalkBass that has been beaten far too much. I owned the 450 and I read all the threads about how the wattage wasn't really 450 w and it was blah blah blah watts. The whole thing is the 450 w rating was because the power amp could deliver a burst power of 450 w when pushed. but it was not 450 w continuous power.

All I can say is that I used that head with two TC RS 112 single 12 cabs and it was plenty loud enough for any gig I played when I owned it. It was a great sounding amp and had plenty of power regardless of what the wattage questions were.

I did sell it but not because it was bad or didn't have enough power or didn't sound good I sold it because TC went under for that series of amplifiers and I like to have amps that can be repaired when they break down. Even though I love that amp with the built-in compressor and the built-in tube simulated overdrive circuit I won't buy one just because of the repair Factor.

The little red amps like the ones I recommended earlier in the thread are really good sounding little amplifiers and the price is right. But at that price I consider them honestly to be a throwaway amp. If it pukes under warranty that's okay but if it's out of warranty and pukes.IMO at the price they sold for they're really not meant to be fixed just toss them. Before I bought the bigger TC rig I had the combo with a single 15 that had the 250 w amp in it and then I also had the separate 250 w BH head. That gave me an opportunity to hear both bad head and my rh-450 using the RS single 12 cabinets. Regardless of how much wattage the RH was capable of putting out it was considerably louder and punchier than the bh250 head.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of those BQ Thrust heads. I mean, 500 watts for 180 bucks? That's the best deal out there. great for rehearsals or as a backup amp or to power cabinet for gigs. 500 watts through an efficient cabinet is more than enough power nowadays.
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First off. Sorry. I've never actually read any thread on TC Electronic amp anything because I haven't been in the market for 1/2 a decade or more. Sorry about the dead horses. I appreciate your info and feedback. The BQ Thrust 500 Watts is nice for $180 bucks, but because of the Speakon connector output and the bass cab at rehearsal space which is 1/4-inch I'll need to buy the right connecting cable, and that puts the BQ Thrust at basically twice the price of BAM200, which has the 1/4 inch output and I already have the right speaker cable for that.

Buying a small head for $120 for just a few rehearsals (like hopefully 4 and no more) this year is something I think I would have done. Probably a no on that when all said and done with the right cable is new price of $220 or more... I think I'll keep an eye out for a used BQ Thrust if I can find them in the right condition for around $120, or just carry my amp to/from practice. I'm being HIGHLY price-conscious only because but for these 4 practices, I have absolutely no other use for any bass amp head now (I use a combo amp exclusively now), and the amp head will otherwise just sit unused.

Thanks!
 
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