AudioKinesis 112 Cab

[kringle77]

You are very lucky there. Drummers whipping the piss out of their snare and hi hat is the bane of my musical existence. Also guitarists who don't know how to use their gear or who want to dominate every frequencey in the audible spectrum, leaving nothing for the bass and vocals. Also, drummers who want to get that awsome metal click (my preference) but insist on using a felt beater. It makes my head explode sometimes.

 

[bassjam]

Pretty amazing that you can have all that low end and volume in a one hander. Of course, at 34 pounds, I would never carry it more than a few hundred feet, but it is nice to know you can do it easily.

VERY impressive little box.

Have you had a chance to put compare it to your Schroeder 115??I'm really interested in this little cab!

 

[fish slapper]

I just came from the GTG at Mal's where Lee Barker was gracious enough to bring his spankin' new Thunderchild for us to tinker with.

My impressions with my Rob Allen Mouse and AI Clarus. At first run, I didn't really care for it. It seemed a little shrill to my ears. But we tinkered with the switches on the back and at first with the horn turned off, I was loving it some more. By the end of the afternoon and some help from Koobie with some EQ, I was loving it with the horn on but the -3db switch engaged. I found it very focused and defined. We also noted that the best place to listen to the cab was from about 15 feet out. There was also a strong inclination to tilt the cab up. Most of the demo was with the plugs out of the ports. I assume the plugs in would have been a little less bass which to my ears, the cab did not have to give.

Overall, very favorable. Of course, this was a demo in a small room with no other instruments. The acid test is at gig in the band mix.

 

[JimmyM]

Overall, very favorable. Of course, this was a demo in a small room with no other instruments. The acid test is at gig in the band mix.

hearing it on a gig is a whole different ballgame with these cabs than hearing it in a demo room by itself imho. you can't really appreciate what they can do without having a band to mix yourself into. that's when you find that the sum is greater than the value of the parts. i don't think you can really feel how much air these cabs can move without hearing them in a band context. i completely flipped the first time i heard duke's prototype onstage.

 

[IntrepidCellist]

I've definitely taken to tilting my Thunderchild back on an amp stand during rehearsals if I can't put it on top of anything else, and it soundly beats my old Eden 2x10 at half the weight.

 

[KJung]

Have you had a chance to put compare it to your Schroeder 115??I'm really interested in this little cab!

I have. Both are great and are at the opposite end of the design spectrum. The Schroeder is super high SPL, rolled off quite high (no deep low end), VERY bright, and it can get quite aggressive and grindy up top. The Thunder Child is voiced for true, relatively deep bass response, and has a very clean, balanced mid response, and a much more organic top end than the Schroeder. It is also MUCH lower SPL, so you have to turn the master volume up much more to reach the same volume.

The Schroeder sounds like a VERY loud small cab. The Thunder Child sounds like a full size cab that happens to be small and is also louder than one would expect for its size. Max SPL seems similar for both of them, but again, the Thunder Child takes more power and also produces much more true low end through its entire volume range.

 

[KJung]

You are very lucky there. Drummers whipping the piss out of their snare and hi hat is the bane of my musical existence. Also guitarists who don't know how to use their gear or who want to dominate every frequencey in the audible spectrum, leaving nothing for the bass and vocals. Also, drummers who want to get that awsome metal click (my preference) but insist on using a felt beater. It makes my head explode sometimes.

I am lucky, although part of my 'luck' was a personal choice (and a lot of hard work) to make sure I always played with relatively topline freelancers and not chuckleheads

 

[KJung]

I just came from the GTG at Mal's where Lee Barker was gracious enough to bring his spankin' new Thunderchild for us to tinker with.

My impressions with my Rob Allen Mouse and AI Clarus. At first run, I didn't really care for it. It seemed a little shrill to my ears. But we tinkered with the switches on the back and at first with the horn turned off, I was loving it some more. By the end of the afternoon and some help from Koobie with some EQ, I was loving it with the horn on but the -3db switch engaged. I found it very focused and defined. We also noted that the best place to listen to the cab was from about 15 feet out. There was also a strong inclination to tilt the cab up. Most of the demo was with the plugs out of the ports. I assume the plugs in would have been a little less bass which to my ears, the cab did not have to give.

Overall, very favorable. Of course, this was a demo in a small room with no other instruments. The acid test is at gig in the band mix.

Just FYI, that switch doesn't lower the horn volume, but rather gently rolls off the upper treble (gentle roll-off starting at aroiund 3.5K). Very nice for DB and more acoustic instruments like the Rob Allen. It makes the cab sound a bit more like a really good one way system.

I was again totally pleased with the 'on the gig' performance of this cab... round, fat, warm, deep, and no compression at even moderate/high volumes with plenty of real low end pumping out. It is again a great option for those who feel they don't have quite enough with a 210, are disappointed with the other 112 solutions they've tried, and/or are using a 2 x 112 stack and feel they aren't pushing that quite all the way volume-wise.

 

[bongomania]

I was also at the PDX GTG, and we had the Thunderchild next to a Genz Neox 115 (or was it a 112?) and a small Acoustic Image cab. The Thunderchild spoke much more clearly, and with more projected "strength"; IOW the other two cabs sounded good, but they didn't reach out and grab me nearly as much as the TChild. It didn't have a huge round low end per se, but the lows were present and accounted for, and were fairly well balanced with the highs. At least given the playing and EQ that I heard tonight, I would peg it as "noticeably better than a typical 210 or 115" for people who play cleanly, and who don't need to fight with the drummer and guitarist.

When we put a 12+6 fEarful next to the TChild, the fEarful stomped on it, with much bigger low end, and more perceived strength. However the fEarful was (at a very rough guess) almost 2x the cubic volume of the TChild. So just based on this limited trial in an "at home" setting, I would prefer the 12+6 fEarful as a standalone cab if I needed more loudness; but I would prefer the TChild if I needed more portability. If my guess about their respective volume is even close to correct, then what I'd really like to hear is a pair of TChilds stacked vertically.

 

[KJung]

I was also at the PDX GTG, and we had the Thunderchild next to a Genz Neox 115 (or was it a 112?) and a small Acoustic Image cab. The Thunderchild spoke much more clearly, and with more projected "strength"; IOW the other two cabs sounded good, but they didn't reach out and grab me nearly as much as the TChild. It didn't have a huge round low end per se, but the lows were present and accounted for, and were fairly well balanced with the highs. At least given the playing and EQ that I heard tonight, I would peg it as "noticeably better than a typical 210 or 115" for people who play cleanly, and who don't need to fight with the drummer and guitarist.

When we put a 12+6 fEarful next to the TChild, the fEarful stomped on it, with much bigger low end, and more perceived strength. However the fEarful was (at a very rough guess) almost 2x the cubic volume of the TChild. So just based on this limited trial in an "at home" setting, I would prefer the 12+6 fEarful as a standalone cab if I needed more loudness; but I would prefer the TChild if I needed more portability. If my guess about their respective volume is even close to correct, then what I'd really like to hear is a pair of TChilds stacked vertically.

Duke also makes an 8ohm larger box with the stock 3012LF and a lower tuning like the 12/6. If you have the power at 8ohms, and want a deeper, wider low end, that would be a good option, as would the 12/6 type build.

You hit the nail on the head, the Thunder Child still has a fuller, deeper, stronger low end than a more typical 112 or 210 (or even some 212's I've played), but is a great combination of a very small box, more low end than most are used to, and a higher max SPL than many larger cabs but a higher SPL than the 12/6 due to the custom 4ohm driver (resulting in the cab being driven to full volume with the typical 500 watt into 4ohm micro head).

If you want max low end, and have the power to drive it, the bigger boxes designed around the stock 8ohm 3012LF with that lower tuning are really something. However, that size and power requirement of the 12/6 kind of 'fell in the crack' for me... too big to really be ultra portable, and still not matching the performance of, for example, my AE212 at 4ohms.

 

[Passinwind]

I was also at the PDX GTG, and we had the Thunderchild next to a Genz Neox 115 (or was it a 112?) and a small Acoustic Image cab. The Thunderchild spoke much more clearly, and with more projected "strength"; IOW the other two cabs sounded good, but they didn't reach out and grab me nearly as much as the TChild. It didn't have a huge round low end per se, but the lows were present and accounted for, and were fairly well balanced with the highs. At least given the playing and EQ that I heard tonight, I would peg it as "noticeably better than a typical 210 or 115" for people who play cleanly, and who don't need to fight with the drummer and guitarist.

When we put a 12+6 fEarful next to the TChild, the fEarful stomped on it, with much bigger low end, and more perceived strength. However the fEarful was (at a very rough guess) almost 2x the cubic volume of the TChild. So just based on this limited trial in an "at home" setting, I would prefer the 12+6 fEarful as a standalone cab if I needed more loudness; but I would prefer the TChild if I needed more portability. If my guess about their respective volume is even close to correct, then what I'd really like to hear is a pair of TChilds stacked vertically.

Yeah, I'd say that's about right, and your take jibes well with what Duke himself has said. The Genz cab was a 112, the smaller cab was actually an EA Wizzy 10. You may have heard my EA CxL-112 at some point as well. I didn't hear Mal's old T series Epifani 112, which is the one Mark mentioned liking so much.

The CxL was closer in voicing to Duke's cab than any of the rest IMO, at least with fish slapper's Mouse and his Clarus, but it has a very expensive BMS tweeter and one of my DIY crossovers in it. Duke's cab definitely makes more low end and overall volume than my CxL, his tweeter and horn sound great, and it weighs about twenty pounds less and is smaller to boot.

It's too bad there was no fEarful 12/6/1 at the GTG (tweeters are pretty much mandatory in my world), but we sure had a lot of nice stuff there, considering there were only a dozen attendees. I'm looking forward to getting my Thunderchild even more after our A/B'ing yesterday. I play many gigs without a drummer, or with "quiet" ones, and with acoustic guitars, ukes, mandos, various horns, etc. The Thunderchild is really in the sweet spot for that sort of situation (warm, organic, loud and low enough, smallish, stylish, light), and the fact that it'll work for something like Ken's recent gig is a huge bonus.

Big thanks to Lee Barker for bringing his Thunderchild and cool basses up from central Oregon. Man, that cat makes me laugh...

 

[JimmyM]

ya, lee's basses are pretty cool looking and a great idea for those with back or shoulder problems. i'm getting there. never had a day of back pain despite an early lifetime of heavy lifting. but my shoulder's a bit of a mess.

 

[greenboy]

It's very easy to compare the dimensions and see that one is not that much larger than the other. Built with the same plywood they end up weighing about the same too.

 

[bongomania]

Not really necessary or constructive to say "get real", man. I was going by eyeball comparison, not looking at spec sheets.

 

[rpsands]

22h x 14w x 14d

vs

24h x 16.5w x 15.25d

The weight difference should be about 4lbs worth of wood or in that ballpark.

I think the fEarful probably looks a lot bigger. I'm not sure why but shelf ports always make things look bigger to me.

 

[JimmyM]

i personally liked the "get real." but then i'm that way...

 

[bongomania]

I think the fEarful probably looks a lot bigger. I'm not sure why but shelf ports always make things look bigger to me.

Yeah, I don't know if it was the ports or what, but it did (obviously) look "enough" bigger to me, to have made that 2x guess.

 

[rpsands]

Well, despite being only a couple inches in each dimension bigger it is almost 50% more volume, so you weren't really that off base

-I think it's a combination of the shelf ports and the extra cone on the baffle and the recessed baffle. All of these things seem to make it look bigger to me. Definitely a forgivable estimate in my opinion.

 

[Lee Barker]

Thanks for the kind words, Charlie. Whenever I'm in a room with you and our gracious host 4Mal, I feel like I'll get the philosophy from you and the shortest linear distance to the solution from Mal. On whatever topic.

The enclosure dimension and perception discussions here fascinate me in a general way, but specific to my x-rays. I did the LWH multiplication and by my math the larger one is 40% greater than the smaller by volume.

This is a consideration in lifting, as well as weight alone. In other words, If you lifted a larger object wisely, and I lifted a smaller, same weight object stupidly, I could hurt myself while you wouldn't.

Those of us who have Titanium On Board think of these things.

Those who saw my Shuttle 6.0 rig yesterday (that's the 112 Shuttle, not the Neox), noted that I attached two handles, parallel, either side of the head. I can pick it up facing it, two handed, which is much wiser than one handed on the center, and that's about as light a rig as you'll find. I want as much in my favor as I can get.

I'm enjoying hearing the perceptions of the sonic comparisons yesterday. There was a whole lot of smart in that room and I was soaking it up. I hope there are more comments.

 

[Chef]

Truly, this is wisdom for the ages.
I wish I'd been there

This is a consideration in lifting, as well as weight alone. In other words, If you lifted a larger object wisely, and I lifted a smaller, same weight object stupidly, I could hurt myself while you wouldn't.

Those of us who have Titanium On Board think of these things.

There was a whole lot of smart in that room and I was soaking it up. I hope there are more comments.