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Anyone Disappointed with a Fearful

#42
lomo said:
Some have posted that they are too neutral sounding, and like the color that a paper woofer reaching it's frequency limits imparts to bass tone. Greenboy has newer designs (like the Bassic) that have a more colored tone as well. I love my LDS 15-6, and count me among those who'd rather shape tone with the amp and bass than the cab. Different strokes.
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Same for me - LDS 15/6/1. I'm really, really happy with it. There are some gigs I'd rather do with my BFM Omni (the voicing of the mids on that cab works really well for my ear for melodic fretless playing), but then, there are a lot of gigs I'd rather do with my 15/6/1. And if my Omni vaporized, I'd have no qualms about doing all my gigs with the fEarful.
 
#43
jlepre said:
From what I've read about these cabs, isn't the big selling point that they cover a room without the need of FOH? Maybe I'm wrong...
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They can, but that's not the selling point to me.

Selling point number 1: since they are a fairly flat cabinet, the EQ I choose for my stage sound ends up translating to the PA via the DI.
Selling point number 2: The low end it produces doesn't interfere with the house, like cabinets with lots of upper bass or low mids leaking to everything.
Selling point 4: excellent dispersion characteristics means that everyone on the stage hears me equally well.
Selling point 5: handles a metric you-know-what-load ton of power. I'm using what is essentially a QSC PL236 with 700 watts of real power (full bandwidth at 8 ohms with .05%THD) and a 15/6/1 doesn't complain in the least. The dancing cones are startling at first, but you get used to it. The xmax is fantastic.
Selling point 6: is way lighter than it has any right to be.

That's off the top of my head. There's probably more. That list is not in any particular order, they are all equally well implemented.
 
#44
edwinhurwitz said:
They can, but that's not the selling point to me.

Selling point number 1: since they are a fairly flat cabinet, the EQ I choose for my stage sound ends up translating to the PA via the DI.
Selling point number 2: The low end it produces doesn't interfere with the house, like cabinets with lots of upper bass or low mids leaking to everything.
Selling point 4: excellent dispersion characteristics means that everyone on the stage hears me equally well.
Selling point 5: handles a metric you-know-what-load ton of power. I'm using what is essentially a QSC PL236 with 700 watts of real power (full bandwidth at 8 ohms with .05%THD) and a 15/6/1 doesn't complain in the least. The dancing cones are startling at first, but you get used to it. The xmax is fantastic.
Selling point 6: is way lighter than it has any right to be.

That's off the top of my head. There's probably more. That list is not in any particular order, they are all equally well implemented.
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Just to offer an alternative view point ...

1. I don't hear my 1212/6/1 as "flat." It has more upper-midrange energy, but it's not flat. Just stick your CD Player in front of it and you'll see what I mean. OTOH, Acme's really are flat. My fEARful is "PA-voiced." (but that's not bad ...)

2. My 1212/6/1 interferes with the house. Mostly because the broad low end doesn't play well with my typical venues.

+1 for 4-6 (and maybe even 3, whatever that is.)

Greg
 
#46
If you want to tame the mids but still have great dispersion, a fat bottom end and fearful style excursion limited approach, use the same box volume but extend it upwards more. you will need to also change the porting arrangement to suit.

Then use two Alpha mids in a vertical array above the 3015LF connected in series (don't forget to adjust the crossover to cope with 16 Ohms). The higher impedance will attenuate slightly but teh larger cone area will project better. As they are vertical, it will tend to spread the midrange further sideways and less "forward".

A similar effect would be stacking the second fearful on top upside down as suggested by greenboy creating that vertical mid effect. This will change the dispersion characteristic slightly so it may be a preferred option!

I would suspect we will see a number of "wide dispersion" cabs on the market over the next few years....
 
#47
The fact that I sometimes get more of a certain frequency than I need, is a very good thing to me...I tour a lot and play different rooms every night. I LOVE the sound of my fEARfuls and would rather subtract what I don't need then try to add what isn't really there :)
 
#48
I love how my fEARful 15/6/1 sounds when I use it for bass.

It is light, loud, clean and responds really well to EQ tweaks.

HOWEVER, the response is not as flat as some may have you believe. To get it truly flat you need to EQ a little. There is a peak around 2k, a dip from 2.5k to 3.5k and another peak at 4k caused by cone breakup. With the old tweeter highpass there was another dip at 5.5k.

If you want a really "flat" response cabinet, I think the 12/6/1 cube with Alpha mid and Eighteensound XD125 will get very close.

A big advantage of having a flat response is that if you DI your signal post-EQ it will sound the same through the PA as it does through your cab.
 
#49
makohund said:
So it's not quite as hard to tame as it may seem. I sure as heck never ran my mids all the way up, before or after I got it. :cool:
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I run my 15/6 with a 50W Ampeg B-18 head, set to be basically flat to a slight mid boost. I've never had to really crank the mids.

Also remember - for folks with an amp that has a Fender tonestack - the mids dimed IS FLAT. It's not mid boosted. The Fender tone stack is flat at about

bass - 2
mids - 10
treble - 2
 
#51
What I don't like about my 15/6:

Weight/size - mine came from a speakerhardware kit, and fully assembled its about 60 pounds. Usually 50 is the number thrown around for the weight, and 60 doesn't seem like much more, but after a few flights of stairs it does to me, especially because the cabinet is kinda big and awkward to carry.

Mid range driver is loud - its not as harsh as a tweeter that's for sure, but the mid range driver is still very snappy and reproduces a lot of content that is usually lost in other cabinets (what would be between the speakers and tweeter) and I'm not used to it. For now turning down the high EQ on my MB800 helps deal with it, but eventually I want to add some padding to the crossover.


Once I move some gear I'm gonna look into having a new cabinet built to house the fearful guts, I'd like to have one closer to 40lbs. Possibly with slightly different dimensions to fit in my car better. Failing that, I would also consider one of the lightweight 215s that have been popping up.
 
#52
I've been trying to come with something that I would consider a "negative" about my fEARfuls.

The only thing that can even remotely be considered as negative is the size of the 12/6 cabs. Although a single one is enough for most of my typical playing situations, it just doesn't look right to have a cab that small in a rock band. I often find myself taking both cabs just for the "look".
 
#54
heliotropic said:
What I don't like about my 15/6:

Weight/size - mine came from a speakerhardware kit, and fully assembled its about 60 pounds. Usually 50 is the number thrown around for the weight, and 60 doesn't seem like much more, but after a few flights of stairs it does to me, especially because the cabinet is kinda big and awkward to carry.

Mid range driver is loud - its not as harsh as a tweeter that's for sure, but the mid range driver is still very snappy and reproduces a lot of content that is usually lost in other cabinets (what would be between the speakers and tweeter) and I'm not used to it. For now turning down the high EQ on my MB800 helps deal with it, but eventually I want to add some padding to the crossover.


Once I move some gear I'm gonna look into having a new cabinet built to house the fearful guts, I'd like to have one closer to 40lbs. Possibly with slightly different dimensions to fit in my car better. Failing that, I would also consider one of the lightweight 215s that have been popping up.
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I would say that my non-kit 15/6 is a middle-weight. Somewhere in the mid-50's...which I sometimes think about grousing about until I lift any of my old cabs. My 15sub is considerably and noticeably lighter...easily the low 40's.

For a cab that can out-power most 4x10's, 50-60 doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but I can also understand some dissatisfaction if you were told it would be some 10 or more pounds lighter.
 
#55
BurningSkies said:
For a cab that can out-power most 4x10's, 50-60 doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but I can also understand some dissatisfaction if you were told it would be some 10 or more pounds lighter.
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+1 to it kicking most 410's to the curb.

I think the weight issue stems from people making these cabs from different materials. You have a big spread on weight between Baltic Birch with DuraTex and a steel grill and heavy duty hardware versus a composite build with an aluminum grill and light weight hardware.
 
#58
This a great thread outlining the reasons NOT to get a fearful. Because it is esoteric in the bass world, most people who own one have done their research and pretty much know that they're going to like it before committing the time and/or money to build one. Obviously it is more of a challenge to hear a fearful than a lot of other cabs.

In my observation, the fearful is the perfect cab for lots of folks. For others, especially those who are used to a traditional large woofer full range cab (i.e. 410, 810, 115, etc.), it simply is not worth the time/effort to mess with eq, preamps, fxs, technique, etc. to get the sound you want. For a tinkerer or the techie/scientist type, it is a dream come true. As always, there are exceptions.

Robby
 
#59
mbelue said:
12/6 w/Alpha=2 drivers from same manufacturer, complementary response.
X/6 w/18 sound =2 drivers, 2 manufacturers, 2 response curves which require a pad to complement.

I assume the different manufacturers different design goals might have something to do with it.
Which I hope to learn if I can just finish mine....
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I don't think that's really it, but, the Alpha is a bit mellower, not "in your face" driver. Doesn't have the climbing response in the "gank zone" and obviously isn't as loud as the 18sound. Any of those things could be "fixed" if you even consider them as needing fixing with a little more padding/crossover trickery. Matter of personal taste really.
 

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