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Another amp quest (replacement for Eden WT550)

#21
I'll be able to comment on the iAmp soon. I should have my 800 back from EA and gig with it in a couple weeks. I just got it used and they're giving it a once-over and making sure all applicable updates are applied.

I also have a TFB, but at times, I need to run a third 8ohm cab (as a stage right monitor for the keyboardist), so the iAmp's support for down to 2 ohms is of value to me as well.
 
#22
I had an iAMP 800. Sold it and getting a Thunderfunk 550B today. Although the iamp is a nice sounding head it sounded a little too digital to me. Well it is digital Doh! But if you like tubes which what i see you are using mostly tube equipment I would say you may not like it. It has usable tones and many love it. And it does have its own character. But warmthness of tubes it does not have even with the deep switch IMHO. But again its my own opinion and you may like it and I am not knocking digital just saying I have not heard a digital amp sound like a tube amp as of yet.
But for the price it is a nice head if you like that sound. Now the Thunderfunk isn't tube also but not digital either.
 
#23
mikoespanol said:
Forgot to mention that the Carvin B1500 is also a very good option for you. This amp is lound and I like the EQ section - very straight-forward. I don't think you will be sacrificing a lot in terms of tone quality.
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Yes, with all the great reviews I don't think I will sacrifice much tone quality with any of these heads, but what I'm looking for is to, if possible, gain rather than lose quality. Now I know that "tone quality" is way too subjective, what I mean is a fuller sound with richer harmonic content and detail - if that makes any sense...
 
#24
Bassist30 said:
I had an iAMP 800. Sold it and getting a Thunderfunk 550B today. Although the iamp is a nice sounding head it sounded a little too digital to me. Well it is digital Doh! But if you like tubes which what i see you are using mostly tube equipment I would say you may not like it. It has usable tones and many love it. And it does have its own character. But warmthness of tubes it does not have even with the deep switch IMHO. But again its my own opinion and you may like it and I am not knocking digital just saying I have not heard a digital amp sound like a tube amp as of yet.
But for the price it is a nice head if you like that sound. Now the Thunderfunk isn't tube also but not digital either.
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Weeeell, I used to love a tubey sound, I come from an ampeg past so the Eden was my first choice a year ago, as it gave me that little warmth from the preamp tube. Now, as I've started becoming more conscious about my tone, I still like the warmth but I've started to dislike the slightly softer attack and somewhat "muffled" sound. Given that with my band I play a lot of fast, staccato riffs, all I want is a clear (but not sterile) sound with lightning fast response. These are the basic requirements, and after these come: headroom, punch and a full, rich sound. I'll soon buy a Dingwall, and I want to be able to hear all of the wonderful harmonic content of these basses and the huge low B.
 
#26
Go with the Eden 405.
It has a warm tone and is 'faster' then the 550. Can run in same config that your running the 550 in too...

I own both the Eden 550 and 330 (same as 405, lower power spec) and its exactly what your describing. All SS, but warm and not sterile. Faster or 'quicker' then the 550. Perhaps not as 'round' for 'fat' as the 550, but if that's what your trying to get away from, that's your head man.
 
#29
Well, I just want to move on from tubes. A tube is a tube, and a good all-SS amp will still feel quicker. I like the tone I get from plugging straight into the Eden's power section, so I won't miss the tube. It would be an option of course if I couldn't afford to change my amp... but really, I could probably sell the Eden for the same or even more than it would cost me to have a used iAmp shipped to me from the US - so no need to compromise...
 
#30
Dragonlord said:
OK, I am officially on an amp quest again. I play an Eden WT550 through a Schro 1210 & Mini12 mini stack. I'm pretty happy with the sound, much better than the ampegs I used in the past, but still I think I could be happier with no big financial cost.
I find that the Eden's preamp (most probably because of the tube) rounds out the notes and softens the attack a bit. So, at the last couple of rehearsals I plugged my bass (through a fulltone bassdrive) into the effects return, bypassing the preamp, and I was happier with the sound - the response was a bit quicker and the sound was a bit clearer. But this way I lose all the eq capabilities, so I think it's a little stupid to continue using the amp like this. I'd also like to have a little more headroom, as I've clipped the amp a few times.

Therefore I'm looking at an all-SS amp. Specifically, I'm thinking of the Carvin B-1500 and EA iAmp800. I was also thinking of the Glockenklang Heart Rock, but I decided that it is out of my price range for the time being. I will A/B the Eden with the iAmp next Friday, so I'll get a good idea of this one, but I can't try the Carvin in Greece, the dealer doesn't have any in stock. And anyway, it's always nice to get others' opinions when considering new pieces of gear... :)
If none of these two seems to do the job, I'll check out what Dave Funk has to say about the TFB-550B with a 2.67 ohm load... and maybe go this way, as it seems to be close to what I want, just at a similar wattage.

Anyway, the things I want, compared to the Eden, are:
- Quicker response
- A clean but musical tone, not "sterile"
- Punch.
- A detailed sound with rich harmonics. This is very important, I don't want to go to a "lower quality" sound just to get a quicker response and more headroom. I want to have an at least as detailed and rich sound as the Eden's.
- A *bigger* sound. Not much of a problem there, and I guess that using the smaller Schroeder boxes is more of the cause of this than the amp, but my sound is a little compressed. I'd like a fuller (but not wide, if you know what I mean - still "concentrated" and defined) sound.

I'm leaning towards the Carvin, as it has all the power I could ever need, I don't really mind the weight, it's probably the cheapest solution and Smash's comments are very encouraging, but I'm afraid I might be sacrificing tone quality for power. This comes because it's a lot cheaper than the Eden and, well, it's Carvin, which I know is a little silly to think this way but if I end up finding the tone of lesser quality than the Eden's I'll be losing quite an amount of money (I need to sell the Eden before I buy anything else, so going back to the WT550 won't be an option by then). The EA seems like a good choice as well, but it shouldn't be much more powerful than the Eden - it will be powerful enough, but some extra headroom never hurt anyone... and also it's supposed to be very flat, some people find it sterile, so I'm thinking that the Carvin might be a little more "musical". Another question about the Carvin: as I doubt I'll ever crank it, do you find that it really blooms when turned up? Is there any possibility that I might have better results with a B800 at moderate-to-loud volumes?

OK, so, if anyone has read all of this mess, I'd love to hear your opinions/experiences! Thanks.
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I haven't owned exactly the gear you're asking about, but I've been kind of close, so maybe my experience will help a little.

First off, I haven't played an Eden 550, but I did own a WT400 for several years. I also don't own an iAmp800, but I've played one, and I currently own an iAmp500, which, though not identical, seems to me pretty similar to the 800 in terms of tone. And I also own a Carvin B1500.

In terms of Eden vs. Carvin--again, keeping in mind that the comparison is not exact--I found that I preferred the Carvin by a substantial margin. I basically sold the Eden to get the B1500. The Eden had a pretty cool vibe in its way, and I certainly never regretted owning it, but for my tastes the B1500 has it beat in all the areas that matter to me (except portability, where the Eden rules). The Carvin seems to me to have a more extended frequency response, with better, more detailed highs that are sweet rather than sterile or harsh. (Provided that you don't have a harsh-sounding tweeter in your cab! A bad sounding cab can making any amp with a lot of high-end frequency response sound bad.) I have never heard harmonics come out of an amp as easily and well as with the B1500. (Of course, I haven't had the pleasure of playing a Glockenklang yet, so who knows....) The B1500 also feels subjectively as if it responds more quickly. Whether that's really what's happening, I don't know, but it feels that way. The Eden I had, like most Edens I've played, seemed to have a characteristic "zing" in its sound when I turned up the treble a bit; this was cool in its way, but it started to wear on me a little over the years. The Carvin doesn't have this zing. Also, the B1500 has tighter, better controlled, yet still bigger lows IMO, and at gigging volumes it seems to convey a greater subjective sense of "weight" (that could be mostly the extra watts, though, so maybe an equally powerful Eden rig would sound nearly as weighty). The build quality of the Carvin, if anything, seems to me superior to the Eden's; it's certainly sturdier. At worst, the two amps might be equally well built. Certainly, no one can tell me the Eden is built better than the B1500.

As for EA versus Carvin, again it's not an exact comparison because of the wattage difference. Without EQ, the tones are kind of similar, though I think the EA is noisier. The Carvin seems capable of being every bit as "hi-fi" and flat-response as the EA. (This actually surprised me, because when the amp was first introduced, some of the people on the Carvin board were saying it would be Ampeg-like. IME it really isn't, though you can dial in some subtle drive if you want.) The EA has the advantage in terms of portability, and it has more flexible and powerful EQ. However, the Carvin's EQ is more useful than it might appear at first, especially the two bass controls. When I use the B1500, I never miss the EA's EQ, and honestly, when I use the EA, all I ever do is push in or out one or two of the preset buttons; I hardly ever even use all that EQ. (Your casemight be different.) The EA, like the Eden, doesn't seem to convey the "weight" the B1500 does, even at equivalent volumes--though again, this could be attributable mainly to the wattage difference. The Carvin also has the option, as I mentioned, of adding a little harmonic oomph by way of the drive control; the EA doesn't have this option. It's not really an overdrive so much as a shift in the harmonic spectrum, if that makes any sense. Finally, as far as I can tell, the Carvin is built at least as well as the EA.

One possible disadvantage of the Carvin is that if you decide to sell it, the resale value will probably not be as high, on a percentage basis, as that of Eden or EA.

As for the Thunderfunk, everything I've heard about it has been good, but I've never played one, so I can't comment on it.

Hope this helps, and I hope you find the amp that suits you best.
 
#32
Richard, that's exactly what I was looking for, thanks a lot! I'm leaning towards the Carvin again... I'd also like to hear SMASH's comparison, as he has a Thunderfunk and used to have an iAmp800, but he hasn't posted for more than a week - I guess he'll write a nice post when he returns.

12bass - I know, but IIRC Dave had recently written that he's done some testing with a lower load and it seemed to work fine, although it won't give more watts... I've emailed him to see if there is anything new and more "official" on that subject.
 
#33
Dragonlord said:
12bass - I know, but IIRC Dave had recently written that he's done some testing with a lower load and it seemed to work fine, although it won't give more watts... I've emailed him to see if there is anything new and more "official" on that subject.
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i remember that too... but dont know where... can the TF do 2.6 ohms without problems.. if it can that is a good selling point for me... I like to bring 3 cabs at times just for more speaker surface area...

but i have a B1500 and it is a great dependable amp... Loud, Punchy, Smooth, and does 2 ohms without a problem..
 
#35
Dragonlord said:
On topic, reading past threads made me start thinking I should wait until a Glockenklang Heart Rock shows up on german ebay :hiding:
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By all accounts, that's supposed to be a great amp. Here, they're pretty expensive and somewhat hard to find. In Europe, you might be able to find a more favorable price that might actually compare well to what you would have to pay for imported US gear.
 
#36
Dragonlord said:
Richard, that's exactly what I was looking for, thanks a lot! I'm leaning towards the Carvin again... I'd also like to hear SMASH's comparison, as he has a Thunderfunk and used to have an iAmp800, but he hasn't posted for more than a week - I guess he'll write a nice post when he returns.
Click to expand...

Check out KJung's comments too. He played the B1500 head to head with a Glock, and IIRC he was surprised by how close the Carvin was able to come (though he definitely gave the edge to the Glock).
 
#38
Yep, have read everything... Best prices I've found in Europe are 970 euro shipped for the B1500 versus 1680 shipped for the Glock. Quite a difference, but maaaybe I could get a used one on ebay for a logical price if I waited enough. I've pmed Ken and his opinion is that, at these prices, he'd recommend the Carvin (actually when I had asked him the Carvin price was 850 euro, turns out it was out of stock and the new unit has a higher price).

Actually, I don't know if I would be able to tell the difference in a band, as they are both supposedly "flat" heads... I'm just not sure which is quicker, because Smash had said in one of his posts that the B1500 has a somewhat tubey low end, and I'm waiting for his answer to my pm to see if he meant a rounder, not-so-fast response.
The Carvin also has the small advantage of going down to 2 ohm vs. 2.67 for the Glock... I know I won't *need* this feature, but it's nice to know it's there if I want to try matching 4ohm cabs to get different sonic results.
 

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