Another lightweight head thread

For a nice warm tubey tone the Eden WT400 is great
For a crisp and clean tone the EA iAmp350 is the bomb

Both heads are great, and you can't go wrong with either. But, finding them for around $500 is a challenge, but possible.

 

WT-330 is the best choice of those listed. PB-250 = not quite enought power, Mesa = will never find under $500.

Shameless as it is, I have a WT-330 that I'll let go of for $495 + SHIPPING.... If you're interested...

 

I just called Alan at C-city. He said the Ampeg PB 250 list for $899 and only makes 250 watts @ 4 ohms. It weighs 14 lbs.

The Eden TT list for $999 makes 330 watts @ 4 ohms and weighs 13lbs.

Tallboybass, you want the Eden TT. The above offer is fair, and is in line with the ebay going rate. If you are going used, don't for get the WT 300, 400, 500 and 550.

He told me what he would sell a new one for. So I will PM you so I don't get accused of spaming or offending the other Eden dealers/contracts.

I wanted to know for myself because somebody wants to by my combo and cab and I may give the Eden/Whizzy a shot. But I may just keep the ext. cab and only sell the combo. That would give me options I did not have before. Eden/Eden or Eden/Whizzy or Both(@ 2.33 ohms-will lower the heating bill!).

 

SWR ST-220 - 220 watts @ 4 ohms (won't do 2), 14 lbs. super duper EQ on it. I see them around occasionally for $250 or so.

Also Acoustic Image Clarus. 6 pounds, 300 watts. about the size of a notebook computer. I've seen them for under 5 bills, but it's pretty unusual to find one used.

 

Hey Tallboy,
I played through a Clarus this past weekend ( NJ Guitar and Bass Center), and the tone was AWESOME! It's 200 watts @4ohms/300 [email protected] I'm not sure of the price (sorry), but the tone...very clear and full,not artificial or hyped. It weighs 5 or 6 pounds.

 

gk 400rb-iv

 

I'll second the tt330 eden. It's a nice sounding little amp for people who don't like twiddling with knobs. Can give you some warmth if need be, but does get a wide array of sounds. I like mine. I hade the chance of getting a wt400 but didn't. I prefered the sound of the wt400, but for me anyway, it wasn't worth the extra money. And I figured that I could find the sounds in the tt330.

 

The MB150 is 150 watts at 4 ohms, and weighs 10 pounds. HOWEVER, The 400RB-IV is 280 watts at 4 ohms and weighs 16 pounds. List Price of $649. Lower street price. 17.5"x3.5"x8" for a total of 490 cubic inches. The Ampeg Portabass is 12.5"x3.75"x10.5" for a total of 493 cubic inches. GK has been making compact, lightweight, high powered bass heads for over 20 years.

 

Ahh! the Class D switching power amp. lighter and cooler but the tradeoff is increased harmonic distortion. On a scope it bassically looks like a jagged line.

 

Well, the AI is...fabulous!
Tonewise. No such thing as distorsion, hum, buzz or other disturbing things. Great, simple EQ. The revers could be or not, it's OK, but for what??
Weight-and-size-wise, it unique.

 

Go GK

 

I wonder if the EA, Stewart and other switching amps are jagged lines on the scope. I never heard that. Usually the traditionalist say that the power supply is not meaty enough.

I like the MB 150 but you have to admit its technolgy is kind of dated compared to the AI or EA. About "20 years" dated.

I do not own AI or EA amps but I know that those engineers have hi-fi backgrounds. Hi-fi geeks read obscure audio journals were they argue in 10 page articles what the sound of an interconnect cable sounds like. They hear things we don't. So I doubt these amps are harsh. Sterile, maybe. Harsh, I doubt it.

On the contrary, I have heard many people complain GK is harsh. But I really think it is the voicing they do not like on the GK heads, not harshness.

 

The EA iAmp has a regular power supply, it's one of the features that differentiates it from the AI, Stewart and Woods amps.
LM

 

I used an incorrect term. It's not harmonic distortion and it has to do with a switching power amp, not the switching power supply. GK has experimented and used to have products that used a switching power supply. In our case, we felt that they were not nearly as realiable as a toroidal transformer and they don't sound as good.

 

I wanted to get some clarification from our techno geeks squad before I posted anything else, so this is what I learned today. The current MB150 head is a Class H power supply. It's a dual rail system where it uses a low voltage rail at low power and switches to a high voltage rail for higher power output. This also allows the amp to run cooler and more efficiently. A Class D POWER AMP might run a little cooler, but would not be lighter, but an amp with a switching POWER SUPPLY would be much lighter. The disadvantage there is the potential for more reliability issues, simply because there are more parts involved that could potentially fail. Tonally, amps with a switching power supply tend to lack punch.

Bob pointed out that while a class D power amp will show up on a scope as a jagged line, it would not necessarily be something that you could hear audibly. Then he started on about some other techno jargon and my mind wandered off to what I was going to have for lunch. We had mexican.

 

Whats a few extra pounds? Get the Almighty - Ampeg SVT3PRO and relax, for your journey is over............