AudioKinesis 1x12 Cab Part Two

[Mystic Michael]

I'll tell you what, when I posted the other day about how impressed I was with the amount of clean power this cab will take without distorting, and all that big, sweet low end that comes flowing so effortlessly out of it, I had completely forgotten to take the plugs out of the ports. I had been operating it in sealed mode!

Today I took out the port plugs, then fired up the MB500 again: gain @ 12:00, master volume (clean channel) @ about 9:00, volume on my four-string fretless @ only about half-way up. Then I softly played a few notes and lines, mostly on the E & A strings, light to moderate touch.

It was still too much. After initial attack, those notes just kept blossoming...and blossoming. I could feel the vibrations coming up from the floor into my bare feet. And I knew that if I kept it up, my neighbors would soon be pounding on my front door. (My neighbors are all cool, but the low frequencies will carry throughout this entire section of our apartment building - it's happened before.)

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! The amount of sheer "oomph" this overgrown toaster oven will deliver is simply wild. I think I'm in love!

MM

 

[Derek Kiernan]

I apologize if all this was covered earlier. Persons familiar with Duke's high-end audio speakers will not be too surprised at TC's unique excellence in the music/pro sound field. I estimate he spent a good year considering the bass parameters mentioned above, then a good year longer achieving his mid-range goals, which were obviously much higher than any prior music-pro sound standards.

I had been talking with Duke back and forth since May 2009 about a variety of musical instrument speakers, and it sounded like he had been meditating over how to do this right for a while already. Duke was kind enough to contact me after reading a post I made looking for a speaker that could reproduce a wide range of acoustic instruments as well as electric guitar, and two years later, I'm absolutely thrilled with what he has cooked up.

 

[primeVibe]

I'll tell you what, when I posted the other day about how impressed I was with the amount of clean power this cab will take without distorting, and all that big, sweet low end that comes flowing so effortlessly out of it, I had completely forgotten to take the plugs out of the ports. I had been operating it in sealed mode!

Today I took out the port plugs, then fired up the MB500 again: gain @ 12:00, master volume (clean channel) @ about 9:00, volume on my four-string fretless @ only about half-way up. Then I softly played a few notes and lines, mostly on the E & A strings, light to moderate touch.

It was still too much. After initial attack, those notes just kept blossoming...and blossoming. I could feel the vibrations coming up from the floor into my bare feet. And I knew that if I kept it up, my neighbors would soon be pounding on my front door. (My neighbors are all cool, but the low frequencies will carry throughout this entire section of our apartment building - it's happened before.)

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! The amount of sheer "oomph" this overgrown toaster oven will deliver is simply wild. I think I'm in love!

MM

Michael
I feel your joy.

The following is not to diminish the fine, razor-edge balancing act Duke performed in determining the many interrelated parameters related to TC's performance in the bass range...I'm only estimating the following based on your own words, and as anyone knows who has been doing this for many years, it's difficult to put to words (left brain) experiences that generally occur in the right-brain cortex such as pleasure, art, the ethereal...

I'd bet dollars to donuts the term "blossoming" used above relates as much to TCs mid and treble performance as much as it does the bass range. TCs unique, exemplary radiation pattern and overall purity/transparency in the mid/treble range is easily interpreted by the brain as improved bass performance. This may sound contradictory at first. But bass overtones extend well up to the treble range. String instruments are exceptionally rich in overtone content. The mid/treble exhibits the finest nuance of different playing and fingering techniques, and the range associated with the "bloosom" term used above. This is the prime area where TC just ate popular "brand X" combo cabinet's lunch (will mention upon request after he sells it). Yes, brand X reproduced changes in playing style, but TC displays them with multiples greater intensity. Turning up the presence and brilliance controls on brand X does not get you there. Conversely, if for any reason you want less of TC's contrast, you can always turn down the presence and/or brilliance controls. You can not generate musical nuance that the speaker is incapable of reproducing. You can always filter out or minimize nuance whenever you feel it is too excessive (I don't know of any time this might be the case, BTW).

As I've recently witnessed in several member video demos, you guys seem to each own multiple basses, and in some cases many multiples. If filter boxes could generate all the fine nuance of all these different instruments, you'd be tripping over a lot less guitars in your stable.

As far as output in the bass range, TC lands at or near the mid-point between the best 112 and 212 cabinets. A designer can break some new ground, but even Duke can not change physics. But TCs unique qualities in the mid/treble range allow it to cut through and create real musical power and pleasure for persons in the audience even beyond its capability in the bass range.

Not to intentionally go in circles, and sorry to follow so many rabbit trails, but we come back to that electrostatic like mid-range quality mentioned earlier, that largely contributes to TCs success.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...well, for now anyway. Contradictory opinions welcome as always!

 

[John D Harris]

...

As far as output in the bass range, TC lands at or near the mid-point between the best 112 and 212 cabinets. A designer can break some new ground, but even Duke can not change physics. But TCs unique qualities in the mid/treble range allow it to cut through and create real musical power and pleasure for persons in the audience even beyond its capability in the bass range.

...

Regarding the bass response, I would just say that the Eminence Kappalite drivers are a step-above all (or most all) competing drivers in bassland (or more generally, audioland).
Duke got some specific enhancements to various parameters for his design purpose to hit a different functional goal from the current crop of designs that use the stock kappalite drivers.
He traded off some lower bass extension for a bit more efficiency and they built him a more micro-amp-friendly 4ohm unit.

This together with his awesome crossovers and HF system makes for a product that fills a niche that a lot of bass players are interested in -- one of the best-sounding, lightest, most compact bass speaker systems in the world that can be driven to good sound pressure levels with a micro amp.

...I'm just saying...

 

[Mystic Michael]

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...well, for now anyway. Contradictory opinions welcome as always!

It all sounds plausible to me, James. Not being a trained audio expert, I'll have to defer to your informed technical explanation. But no doubt the clarity in the mids & highs is allowing those all-important overtones to come through, contributing much to the richness of the sound.

Being a noobie to the world of high-excursion woofers, I'm certainly reacting to the improved clarity of the fundamentals as well. For a bassist, that's almost a transcendent experience!

MM

 

[Stephen]

I'll tell you what, when I posted the other day about how impressed I was with the amount of clean power this cab will take without distorting, and all that big, sweet low end that comes flowing so effortlessly out of it, I had completely forgotten to take the plugs out of the ports. I had been operating it in sealed mode!

Today I took out the port plugs, then fired up the MB500 again: gain @ 12:00, master volume (clean channel) @ about 9:00, volume on my four-string fretless @ only about half-way up. Then I softly played a few notes and lines, mostly on the E & A strings, light to moderate touch.

It was still too much. After initial attack, those notes just kept blossoming...and blossoming. I could feel the vibrations coming up from the floor into my bare feet. And I knew that if I kept it up, my neighbors would soon be pounding on my front door. (My neighbors are all cool, but the low frequencies will carry throughout this entire section of our apartment building - it's happened before.)

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! The amount of sheer "oomph" this overgrown toaster oven will deliver is simply wild. I think I'm in love!

MM

STOP IT !! JUST STOP IT!

YOU ARE KILLING ME

This disparity between the haves and the have nots.

These descriptions of " blossoming " and the even more blossoming. And then the "oomph" on top of that.

I know that this speaker will FINALLY complete my sound !

It is just to much to take !!!

12 weeks in on the wait list. What's a guy to do ??


Throws cold water on his face

Life is good !!!!!


Carry on..........

 

[Derek Kiernan]

I just got on the wait list, because I'm a greedy guy I plan on using the pair for a home stereo setup.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

I just got on the wait list, because I'm a greedy guy I plan on using the pair for a home stereo setup.

That's tentatively phase 2 of my plan. If the dispersion of my acoustic version TC112 is good enough to replace my Bose rig, I hope to use the proceeds from selling my L1 to fund a second TC and a power amp.

Those additions will form the basis of my "big gig" rig, and my music room monitoring system.

 

[thudfromafar]

Just got mine after FedEx gave me the runaround. Pics and review to come.

What is the easiest way to remove the port plugs, btw?? I'm having a lil trouble there.
edit: just pull really really hard

 

[Passinwind]

Just got mine after FedEx gave me the runaround. Pics and review to come.

What is the easiest way to remove the port plugs, btw?? I'm having a lil trouble there.
edit: just pull really really hard

The center section is threaded and the rubber part expands and contracts depending on how far it's screwed in.

 

[Derek Kiernan]

Just got mine after FedEx gave me the runaround. Pics and review to come.

Nice! Don't be surprised if the speaker sounds a little bit different after some break in, as that's the experience at least a couple of us have had.

 

[thudfromafar]

First impressions

I just received the TCAC-12. My very first impression was that this cab is smaller and lighter than I expected. It is quite noticably lighter than my avatar 12" cab, and I'm pretty sure it's smaller too (I don't have it here to compare directly). It is also strikingly good looking. Call me simple, but I really like plain black, and the finish is done very well, as is the hardware, cutouts, and whatnot.


*Disclaimer: I do not have the ears/mind of a trained, experienced audio engineer. But I do have better "ears" than the average listener.*

The first thing I did was hook up my laptop and play music thru my LDS "nEarful" 15/6/1 cab, which is close to the fEArful design and may or may not have the greenboy crossover. I do know that this cab sounds great with bass, and I have even been satisfied with running "program music" through it. I'm familiar with it by now.

Then I switched the preamp output to the other channel which was already connected to the TCAC12. Btw, I'm using an ART pro channel, and crown XLS drivecore poweramp.
I will be able to compare more later, but, somewhat surprised, I actually noticed that the fEarful cab and the TCAC cab sound more alike than different. I noticed TCAC had very similar bass response (which is excellent, considering it is around half the size), and a slighty stronger top end. I also notice the midrange is slightly different, but I am not equipped with the experience or vocabulary to specify how the midrange is different. All I know is that it is somewhat similar, but slightly different in the midrange.

Both of these cabs sound great. I will give more thorough review after I play bass through the cab. I also plan to run this cab for recordings, with other instruments, and as the speaker for when I watch movies. Just the fact that this cab sounds relatively close to my nEarful cab makes me happy, because it really seems about half the size and maybe even half the weight.

 

[JxBass]

When I compared my LDS 12/6 to my TC112 I also found that they sounded very similar. The LDS was a bit fuller down low, as I've previously reported, but not enough to prevent me from jettisoning the LDS for the smaller, lighter TC112.

 

[Jazzdogg]

First impressions

I just received the TCAC-12. My very first impression was that this cab is smaller and lighter than I expected. It is quite noticably lighter than my avatar 12" cab, and I'm pretty sure it's smaller too (I don't have it here to compare directly). It is also strikingly good looking. Call me simple, but I really like plain black, and the finish is done very well, as is the hardware, cutouts, and whatnot.


*Disclaimer: I do not have the ears/mind of a trained, experienced audio engineer. But I do have better "ears" than the average listener.*

The first thing I did was hook up my laptop and play music thru my LDS "nEarful" 15/6/1 cab, which is close to the fEArful design and may or may not have the greenboy crossover. I do know that this cab sounds great with bass, and I have even been satisfied with running "program music" through it. I'm familiar with it by now.

Then I switched the preamp output to the other channel which was already connected to the TCAC12. Btw, I'm using an ART pro channel, and crown XLS drivecore poweramp.
I will be able to compare more later, but, somewhat surprised, I actually noticed that the fEarful cab and the TCAC cab sound more alike than different. I noticed TCAC had very similar bass response (which is excellent, considering it is around half the size), and a slighty stronger top end. I also notice the midrange is slightly different, but I am not equipped with the experience or vocabulary to specify how the midrange is different. All I know is that it is somewhat similar, but slightly different in the midrange.

Both of these cabs sound great. I will give more thorough review after I play bass through the cab. I also plan to run this cab for recordings, with other instruments, and as the speaker for when I watch movies. Just the fact that this cab sounds relatively close to my nEarful cab makes me happy, because it really seems about half the size and maybe even half the weight.

If you're comfortable using EQ, it would be interesting to EQ one cab to sound like the other, and note the frequencies that were adjusted and their amplitude.

 

[Derek Kiernan]

If you're comfortable using EQ, it would be interesting to EQ one cab to sound like the other, and note the frequencies that were adjusted and their amplitude.

It's too bad we don't know what crossover is in the nEARful, because this type of finer comparison would probably not useful for other people.

It is also strikingly good looking. Call me simple, but I really like plain black, and the finish is done very well, as is the hardware, cutouts, and whatnot.

I really dig the "plainness" as well. Before I got mine, I wished Duke would include some sort of badge so someone would be able to easily identify it if they wanted to look into the speaker, but the unbranded approach has led to a lot of discussions with interested people I feel might not have asked about it if they didn't have to Definitely looking forward to your thoughts playing through it! I'm in love with the rolloff filter in lieu of a tweeter level control, which wouldn't have worked with Duke's tight implementation between the woofer and compression driver.

 

[JxBass]

If you're comfortable using EQ, it would be interesting to EQ one cab to sound like the other, and note the frequencies that were adjusted and their amplitude.

FWIW, I never touched the EQ when doing my LDS 12/6 and TC112 comparison, and they sounded extremely similar to me.

I really dig the "plainness" as well. Before I got mine, I wished Duke would include some sort of badge so someone would be able to easily identify it if they wanted to look into the speaker, but the unbranded approach has led to a lot of discussions with interested people I feel might not have asked about it if they didn't have to

+1. That's exactly why I didn't want a badge or label on the front of my TC112 from Day 1. A number of people have commented "what the heck is that !?!?!" ... and in a good way

 

[thudfromafar]

I have always disliked badges/logos in general. Glad it doesn't have one.

 

[JimmyM]

I have always disliked badges/logos in general. Glad it doesn't have one.

I like classy looking badges. I don't like big giant ones. On the first thread, there were some Photoshop experiments with Duke's logo and I thought they looked pretty snazzy.

 

[thudfromafar]

I must say, this sounds excellent with my GB shuttle 3.0.
Going to try it with the double bass tomorrow. I'm sure this will be used for all my jazz gigs. This thing smokes the small shuttle combo cab, not surprisingly.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

I am sorry to report that there will be a delay of about four weeks before I can ship Thunderchild cabinets again; my woodworker does not have CNC time available for three weeks, and then after I get the boards it takes me about a week to do a run of cabinets.

On the Thunderchild 15, I made a mistake on the port and handle locations on the boards and so replacement boards are being run at the same time as the Thunderchild 12 cabs.

This doesn't affect your Tots, Loopee, but it affects everyone else with bass cab orders in place.

Duke