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Amp heads ranked, $ per Watt

#41
robert_stuart said:
Yep. Personally, I've made the leap into using a multi-effects processor (Darkglass Anagram). So I'm looking for clean & reliable power. Good tone would be a nice extra, but wattage has risen in importance. I bet there are a lot of bassists in my situation.
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There are several different reasons why someone may want / demand more watts than what has sort of become the standard answer for "How many watts does a gigging bass player need?" - which is around 500WRms @ 4 Ohms.

Some speakers are less efficient and require more watts to get them to gigging SPL.
Some bassists use a lighter touch when playing which means the beginning level is lower, thus requiring more watts to get them to gigging SPL.
Some bassists believe that more headroom from certain higher quality amps gives the notes more substance or heft even though the SPL is not higher than what a lower powered amp would provide.
Some bassists play larger venues &/or outdoors gigs without PA support and their on stage rig has to provide a level that works in almost any situation.

There may be other reasons, but I think this is a good start (all four of these have been my personal experience).
 
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#42
Lowbrow said:
This is actually the first time I've seen how much they want for a new Katana head! I paid like $425 on Reverb.
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Do you use the Cab resonance calibration feature? When I tried it in the store with an Ampeg 4x10 cabinet, the P-bass I plugged in sounded excellent right away - with all EQ flat. That wasn't the case with a Genz Magellan and Markbass tube head I compared it too. I didn't get a usable tone (in my opinion) with those until I played with their EQ for a while.

That's why I'm heading back; to try it with other cabs and see if this experience holds up. If it does, that's amazing, and I'll probably buy it just for that alone.
 
#46
robert_stuart said:
Do you use the Cab resonance calibration feature? When I tried it in the store with an Ampeg 4x10 cabinet, the P-bass I plugged in sounded excellent right away - with all EQ flat. That wasn't the case with a Genz Magellan and Markbass tube head I compared it too. I didn't get a usable tone (in my opinion) with those until I played with their EQ for a while.

That's why I'm heading back; to try it with other cabs and see if this experience holds up. If it does, that's amazing, and I'll probably buy it just for that alone.
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I’ve used it but for whatever reason not as you describe and I am a homebody now so untested live. I don’t bother with it. I have a subway 115 and it sounds great.
Edit - it’s a fun head and there’s lots of tone tools in the associated software. Semi parametric mid freq control, etc.
 
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#47
robert_stuart said:
because $/Watt seems to go down as the wattage goes up, across all brands..
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This should be expected, because the power amp is only a part of the amplifier, and preamp, certification costs etc are liable to be much the same for any amp. I should guess, though, that there would be a tendency for preamp sophitication and complexity to increase with higher cost amplifiers, so perhaps one should add cost per panel item, control or socket, as an exceedingly crude measure of preamp complexity.
I suggest this with my tongue in my cheek to an extent, since simplicity is usually a virtue, and a design that, through talent and extended development, produces better sound with fewer knobs is clearly superior.
 
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#48
JimChjones said:
This should be expected, because the power amp is only a part of the amplifier, and preamp, certification costs etc are liable to be much the same for any amp. I should guess, though, that there would be a tendency for preamp sophitication and complexity to increase with higher cost amplifiers, so perhaps one should add cost per panel item, control or socket, as an exceedingly crude measure of preamp complexity.
I suggest this with my tongue in my cheek to an extent, since simplicity is usually a virtue, and a design that, through talent and extended development, produces better sound with fewer knobs is clearly superior.
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Totally agree. I would have preferred a simple Subway head over the super-tweaky Boss but $ outlay was a consideration.
 
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