AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...

[ajn]

I finally got a chance to try out my new C112T at a gig this last weekend. For context, this was with a 5-piece cover band (focus on mid 60s rock and early psychedelia) in a small club that’s probably 2.5 to 3K square feet in size, with around 150 people in attendance. The band probably played with a bit more volume than necessary for the space, but was not over-the-top loud.

The Changeling (powered by a Mesa D-800+) was very easy for me (and for the drummer right next to me) to hear in the tight stage space. Also, the band leader from another, originals project I’m involved in attended this gig and his report from out in the house was that the cab sounded clear, articulate and had good bottom end without being overpowering or boomy. (He is also a recording engineer and I trust his feedback implicitly.) Based on my experience so far, this cab is everything I hoped it would be—a simple and small, great sounding, one-cab solution for smaller venues.

Over the last decade, my 1 x 12 experience has been with Aguilar, Epifani and GK. And they were all perfectly nice cabs. But what I have discovered about this particular cab (and was actually kind of surprised by) is that, in the isolation of my practice space at home, each of the 6 basses that I keep in my space (and which are all inherently quite different sounding basses) all sounded even “more different” from each other when played through this AK cab. (I did, in fact, try the same experiment through another cab just to compare.) I guess that’s a testament to how clean and relatively uncolored Duke’s designs are, and how more of the inherent sound of the bass can really come through.

Anyway, the point is, I love this cab, and Duke has been one of the nicest, straight-up people I’ve ever had the pleasure to deal with. I couldn’t be happier.

And, since no pic means no cab—here it is:

 

[Frank77]

I finally got a chance to try out my new C112T at a gig this last weekend. For context, this was with a 5-piece cover band (focus on mid 60s rock and early psychedelia) in a small club that’s probably 2.5 to 3K square feet in size, with around 150 people in attendance. The band probably played with a bit more volume than necessary for the space, but was not over-the-top loud.

The Changeling (powered by a Mesa D-800+) was very easy for me (and for the drummer right next to me) to hear in the tight stage space. Also, the band leader from another, originals project I’m involved in attended this gig and his report from out in the house was that the cab sounded clear, articulate and had good bottom end without being overpowering or boomy. (He is also a recording engineer and I trust his feedback implicitly.) Based on my experience so far, this cab is everything I hoped it would be—a simple and small, great sounding, one-cab solution for smaller venues.

Over the last decade, my 1 x 12 experience has been with Aguilar, Epifani and GK. And they were all perfectly nice cabs. But what I have discovered about this particular cab (and was actually kind of surprised by) is that, in the isolation of my practice space at home, each of the 6 basses that I keep in my space (and which are all inherently quite different sounding basses) all sounded even “more different” from each other when played through this AK cab. (I did, in fact, try the same experiment through another cab just to compare.) I guess that’s a testament to how clean and relatively uncolored Duke’s designs are, and how more of the inherent sound of the bass can really come through.

Anyway, the point is, I love this cab, and Duke has been one of the nicest, straight-up people I’ve ever had the pleasure to deal with. I couldn’t be happier.

And, since no pic means no cab—here it is:

View attachment 2925869

I'm waiting on my own C112T, and this post isn't helping at all.

drool

 

[noahw1]

I'm waiting on my own C112T, and this post isn't helping at all.

drool

I got an email from Duke today saying my Hathor 1203 should be shipping out tomorrow. The boxes he uses to ship were ruined by rain seeping into his shed so he should be getting new boxes tomorrow. Super stoked!

 

[DukeLeJeune]

I got an email from Duke today saying my Hathor 1203 should be shipping out tomorrow. The boxes he uses to ship were ruined by rain seeping into his shed so he should be getting new boxes tomorrow. Super stoked!

Thought I was in the clear after I fixed the leaky roof, but this time the water just came up too high and I didn't see it coming. Well now I know!

 

[svtb15]

Im right down the road from you in McKinney. The rain has been horrendous.
I was passing the park near my house yesterday.. Town Lake. You can see the Two Cars that are nearly submerged under water in what was the parking lot..
The Stream ( 50 ft behind the treeline) Overflows every few years into the park and that fills the entire parking lot with water making the lake and parking lot as one. The Ducks seem to like it though
I took this photo..

Thought I was in the clear after I fixed the leaky roof, but this time the water just came up too high and I didn't see it coming. Well now I know!

 

[mexicanyella]

I was grumbling about getting the northern version of what you're getting--steady mist/light rain, just below the freezing point, crusting everything in ice.

That seems like pretty small potatoes compared to water getting into dwelIings, cars stranded in flooded parking lots, etc. I wish you guys the best in "riding the storm out," and am hereby shutting my pie-hole about weather issues.

Unrelated question: Duke, have you (or anyone reading this) had experience with stacking two Birdhaus cabinets? Are there acoustic issues that arise from combining two cabinets that each radiate in three directions?

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Im right down the road from you in McKinney. The rain has been horrendous.
I was passing the park near my house yesterday.. Town Lake. You can see the Two Cars that are nearly submerged under water in what was the parking lot..
The Stream ( 50 ft behind the treeline) Overflows every few years into the park and that fills the entire parking lot with water making the lake and parking lot as one. The Ducks seem to like it though
I took this photo..
View attachment 2926350

My yard looks kinda like that, except on a smaller scale. No submerged cars... yet. Two more days of rain forecast, so it'll probably get worse before it gets better.

It's been chilly too. Overnight last night I had to get up several times to chip sheets of ice off our heat pump (combination central heater/central air conditioner), so that it could have the airflow it needs.

The combination of rain and cold has derailed parts of my production line. If the temperature is too low and/or the humidity too high, Duratex won't dry properly. Well I found out the hard way the same thing applies to wood glue - I glued up a couple of cabinets but the glue dried light-colored and almost powdery, so those are going in the landfill. Fortunately tomorrow it should be warm enough for me to run my tablesaw - when it gets too cold, the grease that lubricates the electric motors in power tools becomes too thick to do its job and the motors burn up. In some ways the cold was actually less of an issue when I lived in Idaho - I had a warm enough room to work in. Here in Texas, my "workshop" where I cut plywood is an open-air carport (which hasn't flooded yet).

Fortunately I have a couple of cabinets far enough along to keep me busy during the weather thing, and I have crossovers to build, so I'm still moving ahead, just not on as many fronts as I'd like.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Unrelated question: Duke, have you (or anyone reading this) had experience with stacking two Birdhaus cabinets? Are there acoustic issues that arise from combining two cabinets that each radiate in three directions?

I've never done it, but it should work just fine.

 

[John D Harris]

I was grumbling about getting the northern version of what you're getting--steady mist/light rain, just below the freezing point, crusting everything in ice.

That seems like pretty small potatoes compared to water getting into dwelIings, cars stranded in flooded parking lots, etc. I wish you guys the best in "riding the storm out," and am hereby shutting my pie-hole about weather issues.

Unrelated question: Duke, have you (or anyone reading this) had experience with stacking two Birdhaus cabinets? Are there acoustic issues that arise from combining two cabinets that each radiate in three directions?

You might try having the top cab flipped upside-down (not sure if the corners will match up correctly, if not you might put some sort of padding material between the cabs).
Try it both ways, of course.
With the top cab flipped the side firing drivers will be closer together.
That MIGHT be a good thing or not OR maybe no discernable difference.

 

[mexicanyella]

Thanks; I wondered about whether having the side drivers a cabinet's height apart would present a problem. Arriving at a stackable corner combination shouldn't be hard, and the recessed handles should make flip-over-ability pretty easy if it turned out that closer side-driver positioning was the way forward.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Thanks; I wondered about whether having the side drivers a cabinet's height apart would present a problem. Arriving at a stackable corner combination shouldn't be hard, and the recessed handles should make flip-over-ability pretty easy if it turned out that closer side-driver positioning was the way forward.

The obviously correct answer is "try it both ways", but my inner geek won't let me get away with something so simple.

Several years ago in a fit of curiosity I listened to a pair of Thunderchild cabs stacked with both upright, and then with the upper cabinet inverted (head-to-head, so that the tweeters were close together). I listened from near the cab where a bass player might stand. I could definitely hear the upper mids and highs much better when the top cab's tweeter was on top, despite the theoretically narrowed vertical dispersion. So in that one instance, imo proximity mattered more than radiation pattern. Head-to-head stacking should theoretically work a bit better out in the audience area, but listening across the open-floorplan rooms from as far away as I could reasonably stand and still have line-of-sight, imo the difference was negligible.

(And now for the obligatory and in this case parenthetical seque back to sanity...)

That being said, try it both ways.

 

[mexicanyella]

Far be it for me to try to stifle or discourage your inner geek; he of the interesting data presented in easy-to-follow and fun anecdotal fashion. Proximity vs. radiation pattern is interesting to ponder. When you conduct a listening test like that, do you have a bassist playing through the cabs, or do you play tones or prerecorded music through the cabs? Just out of curiosity, if it's prerecorded music, what works for you in that capacity?

Some budgetary hurdles stand between me and a second Birdhaus, but proper GAS protocol demands some heavy advance thinking and question-asking. Thank you for indulging that!

 

[ahc]

Duke, I hope you weather the storm OK! It'd be a shame if you had to use up your wood stash to build an ark.

While we're on the subject of stacking, how do you think a Hathor 1203 or Changeling would work on top of my TC115 v1 narrow cab? Because curiosity.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

...proper GAS protocol...

GAS protocols enabled.

Duke, I hope you weather the storm OK! It'd be a shame if you had to use up your wood stash to build an ark.

While we're on the subject of stacking, how do you think a Hathor 1203 or Changeling would work on top of my TC115 v1 narrow cab? Because curiosity.

Unfortunately the narrow TC115V1 is only 17" wide and a Hathor 1203 or Changeling 112 is 18" wide when laying on its side. So there is that aesthetic blight of lateral overhang thing, unless you stand the smaller cab upright atop the larger one. Otherwise, assuming your amp is happy with the 4 + 8 = 2.7 ohm load, and you recognize that the 4 ohm cab is gonna cook first, it should work fine.

 

[ahc]

Unfortunately the narrow TC115V1 is only 17" wide and a Hathor 1203 or Changeling 112 is 18" wide when laying on its side. So there is that aesthetic blight of lateral overhang thing, unless you stand the smaller cab upright atop the larger one. Otherwise, assuming your amp is happy with the 4 + 8 = 2.7 ohm load, and you recognize that the 4 ohm cab is gonna cook first, it should work fine.

Thanks! I was thinking both cabs upright and more about the "sound effects". I've got 2.7 ohms covered. I've also got plenty of personal overhang so I'm not too worried about my cab's appearance. Hmmm... might be a match.

 

[PDGood]

I'm getting a Mesa D800 plus which will go down to 2ohms. I have the TC115 and TC112 both in 4ohm version. My questions are - is the 4ohms an approximate and do I need to worry about running both into the D800?

 

[Al Kraft]

I'm getting a Mesa D800 plus which will go down to 2ohms. I have the TC115 and TC112 both in 4ohm version. My questions are - is the 4ohms an approximate and do I need to worry about running both into the D800?

Agedhorse is is the guy I'd want an answer from if hearing from the designer is important, but I'd personally be comfortable switching the impedance selector on the rear of the head to 2 Ohms and playing all day long. IME all speaker impedance ratings are always approximate/nominal to some degree given that impedance varies with frequency. That said, a nominal 4 Ohm cab, or two of them in parallel should not present any problem for a well designed amp that is rated for 4 or 2 Ohm operation.

 

[PDGood]

Thanks, Al. I've heard that the Mesa can run at 2 all day (which was part of the selling point), just thought I'd see what Duke says about the cabs. Seems like I remember him saying one time that they are a smidge over 4 which would ease my worries, but thought I should verify.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

I'm getting a Mesa D800 plus which will go down to 2ohms. I have the TC115 and TC112 both in 4ohm version. My questions are - is the 4ohms an approximate and do I need to worry about running both into the D800?

My 4-ohm Thunderchild cabs are "high 4 ohm cabs", with the impedance curve actually only dipping below 4 ohms close to 2 kHz as I recall (lost those files to a hard drive crash years ago), and then by not very much. Nor are there any nasty phase angles in the impedance curve down low where power demands are high. So the load will be on the mild side for a "2 ohm" load.

To give you an idea of what would NOT be a mild 2 ohm load, imagine four Basslite 10's in parallel. The actual minimum impedance of that speaker is ballpark 5.2 ohms probably around 250 Hz, and 5.2/4 = 1.3 ohms. That's the sort of real-world situation amp designers have to take into account, and I'm sure agedhorse did so.

 

[PDGood]

Thanks so much, Duke.