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Any low cost full range bass cabs?

#41
seconding the acme low B2 2x10. I have one and I got it for less than $200 , but only because it's super old and quite beat up looking. It requires a lot of watts to power it and a lot of muscle to move it though.

Edit: I've never tried electric guitar through it like the OP wants to do. I would think that would require a severe High Pass Filter!
 
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#44
leavetheconnoli said:
Why is that? They are great cabs, full lows, flatly voiced and a switchable tweeter.
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A full range speaker cabinet would be something like a PA speaker that has to reproduce vocal nuances, keyboards, horns and the like and will strive to reproduce frequencies up to 20khz. Bass and guitar cabinets are usually designed to reproduce frequencies between 50 hz and 10khz and are almost never designed to have a flat response. Depending on the manufacturer, they will augment 60 hz, 120hz, 1khz, etc. In an effort to make their product sound "sweet" without extraneous equalization.
 
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#45
darwin-bass said:
The PA is a full range system and that is what carries the bass. I want to have my stage monitor be an accurate reflection of the PA so that I have a good reference for setting the tone of my instrument be it bass or e-guitar.
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Not a bad idea for bass. I'd be weary for guitars, as without the built in LPF must guitar amps have, OD might be A little harsh. A former guitarist I worked with used Tech21's PSA-1 preamp. It recommended using full range speakers, so it isn't unheard of.
 
#46
FugaziBomb said:
A full range speaker cabinet would be something like a PA speaker that has to reproduce vocal nuances, keyboards, horns and the like and will strive to reproduce frequencies up to 20khz. Bass and guitar cabinets are usually designed to reproduce frequencies between 50 hz and 10khz and are almost never designed to have a flat response. Depending on the manufacturer, they will augment 60 hz, 120hz, 1khz, etc. In an effort to make their product sound "sweet" without extraneous equalization.
Click to expand...

OP was inquiring about a cab for bass? Rumbles are pretty flat for a bass cab in his price range
 
#48
darwin-bass said:
1. The PA is a full range system and that is what carries the bass. I want to have my stage monitor be an accurate reflection of the PA so that I have a good reference for setting the tone of my instrument be it bass or e-guitar.
2. I would use the system at home for practice. It would be playing full-range music from the iPhone plus my bass or guitar.
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Your goals make sense to me, but a "full range flat response" system that also has enough low-end power handling and output for electric bass is usually not cheap. In my (definitely not all-encompassing) experience it takes fairly expensive drivers and/or fairly expensive crossovers to do that.

darwin-bass said:
Well, I get a bit skittish at cabs that cost over about $350. Yes, I am cheap. And I'm not in dire need.

Though the system I've considered is the JBL EON ONE so perhaps my budget is closer to $800 for speaker and amp.
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If this is for home use + stage monitor use, maybe you don't need real high SPL after all. If you can get by with a relatively low-cost amp, that will allow you to put more money into the cab, which is imo the more critical of the two for this application.

Unfortunately I don't have any specific cab recommendations beyond what has already been posted, but would lean towards Acme/fEARful/Carvin 1503/other PA cabs rather than towards a traditional bass cab.
 
#50
darwin-bass said:
What's out there that is
  • Full range, flat response
  • Loud enough for live use
  • Affordable
I'd like to use it for home practice both with bass and e-gtr (sound from sans amp pedals). Also use it for live stage monitoring for low to medium volume gigs.
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I'd suggest you take a look at the Eden E-series cabs - specifically the EX210 (available both 4 and 8ohms) and the EX410-sc4 (4 ohm only). Power handling is less, but they sound surprisingly similar to Eden's D-series cabs which are more than twice as expensive. The EX210 (300-watts power-handling) has a street price of $449 and the EX410SC-4 is $349 at Amazon.

The EX210 uses the typical horn tweeter but the EX410sc uses whizzer cones (smaller cone nested inside a woofer cone) for the high frequencies and at 65-lbs is much lighter than the older version of the EX410. It's also smaller than the older EX410. The older EX410 can still be found and street price is $549. The older version has the typical horn tweeter, higher power handling of 600-watts, and weighs 90-lbs. All of these feature a rear-facing round port.

The 210 is probably all you need for your purposes, but the price of the EX410sc is less with both more power handling and twice the speaker coverage...worth a look I think.
 
#51
FugaziBomb said:
Not a bad idea for bass. I'd be weary for guitars, as without the built in LPF must guitar amps have, OD might be A little harsh. A former guitarist I worked with used Tech21's PSA-1 preamp. It recommended using full range speakers, so it isn't unheard of.
Click to expand...

Right. For guitar I run through a Tech21 FlyRig and then split the output between the PA and my full range stage monitor. All my guitar tone comes from the amp / speaker emulation (and LPF) in the FlyRig.
 
#52
DukeLeJeune said:
Your goals make sense to me, but a "full range flat response" system that also has enough low-end power handling and output for electric bass is usually not cheap. In my (definitely not all-encompassing) experience it takes fairly expensive drivers and/or fairly expensive crossovers to do that.
Click to expand...

Yes, I believe this to be true. I build my near perfect speaker for home use and it sounded great. Not loud enough for live use for bass though. NAD - Top notch practice rig - Pics

I realize to have the same performance in a higher output cab means I need better drivers and more cost.


If this is for home use + stage monitor use, maybe you don't need real high SPL after all. ....
Unfortunately I don't have any specific cab recommendations beyond what has already been posted, but would lean towards Acme/fEARful/Carvin 1503/other PA cabs rather than towards a traditional bass cab.
Click to expand...

Yes, which is why I was eyeing the JBL EON ONE. It would sit nicely in my practice room sound great with recorded music and maybe be loud enough for low to medium volume gigs. Maybe. But I'm not going to spend any money just yet so I'll continue kicking tires...
 
#53
darwin-bass said:
Yes, I believe this to be true. I build my near perfect speaker for home use and it sounded great. Not loud enough for live use for bass though. NAD - Top notch practice rig - Pics

I realize to have the same performance in a higher output cab means I need better drivers and more cost...
Click to expand...

Very nice! Thanks for the link, and the context it provides.

Hate to say this but, imo, your goal posts for sound quality + SPL capability + cost may have to be moved, unless something really sweet shows up used.
 
#54
Have you tried the JBL Eon One with your Flyrig? I tried some array+sub solutions and don't really like them with guitar modelers (Avid Eleven Rack, Fractal AxeFX), even my bass (direct/with 11R) sounded artificial which is not the case with 12" top + sub. Maybe it's the crossover point or the small array speakers, I don't know.
For reference I didn't used a bass amp+cab for the last 6-7 years, always ampless (tube preamp or modeler) thru PA (with subs). Same for guitar (Avid Eleven Rack).
 
#55
Your insistence on using it to listen along to music is going to filter out all your best options (and still sound like crap in the end). Just get some $15 computer speakers to use for that.

Anyway, I second the SWR Triad as probably the closest to your goal in your price range. It's probably not going to be perfectly flat, but that's clearly the design direction they were going in. Carvin LS1503 is supposed to be a decent choice too, especially with some minor upgrades.
 
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#56
DukeLeJeune said:
Very nice! Thanks for the link, and the context it provides.

Hate to say this but, imo, your goal posts for sound quality + SPL capability + cost may have to be moved, unless something really sweet shows up used.
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Sigh - yea, I know. Price will be the one to compromise on. Fortunately, the question is mostly theory at this point. I don't have a gig that needs the new cab - but if things work out over the next 6 months I well might. Wanted to be be informed and prepared.
 
#57
DonaldR said:
Have you tried the JBL Eon One with your Flyrig? I tried some array+sub solutions and don't really like them with guitar modelers (Avid Eleven Rack, Fractal AxeFX), even my bass (direct/with 11R) sounded artificial which is not the case with 12" top + sub. Maybe it's the crossover point or the small array speakers, I don't know.
For reference I didn't used a bass amp+cab for the last 6-7 years, always ampless (tube preamp or modeler) thru PA (with subs). Same for guitar (Avid Eleven Rack).
Click to expand...
Nope, I haven't tried any of these systems. I've played bass through the Roland CM-30 and liked the sound but it was quiet. The CM-30 seems to work pretty well for e-guitar with the floor modeler.
 

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