as of this evening another H1506 now in the pipeline.
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AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...
- Thread starter Thor
- Start date
Lowendtech
Happily trending in my own peculiar direction.
Congrats! I can't wait to get mine.
I was going back and forth between the 1506 and 1533. Out of curiosity, did it come down to those two cabs for you?
I'd gladly volunteer to become a beta-tester for one of your 18" Hathor cab designs Duke; but just be forewarned, that I'll probably end up purchasing & absolutely refuse to return it to you... again
no. i already have a pair of 1203 ( the " obsolete " 1 port variety, which i treasure, ) so a 1533 would be redundant. the very last thing i need is another cab, but won't be happy until i get the 1506 out of my system.
Here's a real-world gig recording of the mighty H1505:
I want to share an awesome experience I had with Duke recently. He went waaaaay out of his way to help me resolve an issue I had with a used TC12 I picked up here in the classifieds. After getting blown off by the seller, I contacted Duke who promptly responded, sent out parts and extensive instructions, twice no less, at no cost to me. I know he was really busy with life stuffs at the time and cannot say enough about his compassion, support and of course his amazing cabs. Thanks so much for being a great guy Duke!!!! Once I save up a bit more cheddar I will be ordering something to go with the TC12.
- Apr 3, 2003
- 35,516
- 19,950
- Disclosures
- Editor-in-Chief, Bass Gear Magazine
I have to plus one this. Without giving too many details he's really helping me out also
I'm weighing in with plus two through plus three thousand. Duke has been a veritable firehose of assistance to me. Waaaay above and beyond expectations, in bending over backward to help out and supplying lots of useful and logically explained info. Most recently, I had questions about the effect of the non-switchable "cheater" mid/high-boosting circuit on my Birdhaus cab, and he described what frequency range it boosted and how much, how it worked, and which components to disconnect to disable it. And offered telephone assistance if I got confused and needed it.
If you're lucky, you might meet a guy like that once or twice in a lifetime.
Hope to try the cheater disable at tomorrow night's band practice and will report back on the results.
Thanks, Duke!
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,069
- 46,012
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Good to hear, and not surprising at all.
Duke put a cheater switch on my B46 when I got it. I like it and use it. Don't think he even charged for it.
There will be a special place somewhere for Duke a long time from now.
There will be a special place somewhere for Duke a long time from now.
You can baaarely see the tiny little Hathor as it sits underneath the mixer, but it carried the whole area by itself all night. Lots of compliments on the bass sound and very easy to hear onstage, even with the top ports covered.
Thanks Duke.
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jdthebassman
play to live live to play
great video shrigg like the sound of your cab and playing.
Hey Fourstr00 - thanks for the report. The H1203 has great cut-through clarity. What kind of speaker cable is that with the purple ends? Thanks, DM
I wonder if anyone captured any video of Fourstr00's live gig, which we could view here? Looks like an interesting lineup. Also, thanks to Shrigg for posting his gig video. It's cool to see what various AK/TBers are doing, musically.
After using my old Peavey TKO combo at band practice for awhile, and getting accustomed to the sound of it cranked pretty hard and liking its sort of gnarly almost-distorted compressed feel when used that way, I brought my Zoom preamp/Peavey power amp/AK Birdhaus back over to our practice space last night. I did not have time to try disabling the "cheater circuit" yet, but I did do some Zoom preamp tweakin' while my ears were still calibrated to cranked Peavey grunt, and that was useful. I was able to make some subtle changes in a few EQ bands to better feature the mids-forward slight dirtiness that I like, and I backed off the over-the-top-no-matter-what-you-do Zoom compressor module to "barely on" since I've come to realize that the compressing/limiting effect of hitting Peavey's DDT speaker protection circuit sounds more natural to me, and that's not too hard to do since my power amp delivers only 210 watts into the 4-ohm Birdhaus.
Running with both ports open, the Birdhaus came across with more clarity and punch...not too surprising, I guess, after using an 80-watt combo with a Scorpion 15 in it. I was able to re-create enough of what I like about the Scorpion 15's character to be happy and benefit from the extra muscle. I still plan to disable the cheater circuit, at least temporarily, to assess what effect it has--maybe without it I will be able to achieve the sound I like with even less EQing at the preamp--but as it is, it seemed like the summer of using the Peavey for practice gave me a better frame of reference on what tweaks I needed to make.
Both the guitarist and drummer told me they liked the sound and couldn't believe, even having heard it before, that the Birdhaus was as loud and full-sounding as it was given its small size. The drummer even said that it seemed like the bass could come down in level now, since he could hear it more clearly, and that was after me asking a couple times if I was too loud while we were playing.
Over the summer, the Peavey was situated leaned back against the wall for some up-angle so that both the drummer and I were hearing it on-axis. The Birdhaus was pretty much in the same place in the room, but not leaned back. The Peavey's wattage deficiency was at least partly made up for by the fact that the Scorpion is a couple dB more efficient, at least at some frequencies, than the overall efficiency of the Birdhaus...so I think overall this speaks pretty highly of Duke's mids-dispersal concept with the orientation of the Birdhaus' four drivers.
So along with cheaterless experiments, I plan to gradually back off the volume during the next few practices and concentrate on finding the sweet spot where all the distorted guitar tones and textures come across in detail while still hearing enough bass for everyone.
Thanks again, Duke! Maybe one of these days I'll get a chance to gig with this thing!
After using my old Peavey TKO combo at band practice for awhile, and getting accustomed to the sound of it cranked pretty hard and liking its sort of gnarly almost-distorted compressed feel when used that way, I brought my Zoom preamp/Peavey power amp/AK Birdhaus back over to our practice space last night. I did not have time to try disabling the "cheater circuit" yet, but I did do some Zoom preamp tweakin' while my ears were still calibrated to cranked Peavey grunt, and that was useful. I was able to make some subtle changes in a few EQ bands to better feature the mids-forward slight dirtiness that I like, and I backed off the over-the-top-no-matter-what-you-do Zoom compressor module to "barely on" since I've come to realize that the compressing/limiting effect of hitting Peavey's DDT speaker protection circuit sounds more natural to me, and that's not too hard to do since my power amp delivers only 210 watts into the 4-ohm Birdhaus.
Running with both ports open, the Birdhaus came across with more clarity and punch...not too surprising, I guess, after using an 80-watt combo with a Scorpion 15 in it. I was able to re-create enough of what I like about the Scorpion 15's character to be happy and benefit from the extra muscle. I still plan to disable the cheater circuit, at least temporarily, to assess what effect it has--maybe without it I will be able to achieve the sound I like with even less EQing at the preamp--but as it is, it seemed like the summer of using the Peavey for practice gave me a better frame of reference on what tweaks I needed to make.
Both the guitarist and drummer told me they liked the sound and couldn't believe, even having heard it before, that the Birdhaus was as loud and full-sounding as it was given its small size. The drummer even said that it seemed like the bass could come down in level now, since he could hear it more clearly, and that was after me asking a couple times if I was too loud while we were playing.
Over the summer, the Peavey was situated leaned back against the wall for some up-angle so that both the drummer and I were hearing it on-axis. The Birdhaus was pretty much in the same place in the room, but not leaned back. The Peavey's wattage deficiency was at least partly made up for by the fact that the Scorpion is a couple dB more efficient, at least at some frequencies, than the overall efficiency of the Birdhaus...so I think overall this speaks pretty highly of Duke's mids-dispersal concept with the orientation of the Birdhaus' four drivers.
So along with cheaterless experiments, I plan to gradually back off the volume during the next few practices and concentrate on finding the sweet spot where all the distorted guitar tones and textures come across in detail while still hearing enough bass for everyone.
Thanks again, Duke! Maybe one of these days I'll get a chance to gig with this thing!
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I, a nobody in particular, remember Duke spending his better spent time private messaging me over an idea I had at the time for a dual driver cab with a 15 and 10 in it. He lived in Idaho at the time, and ultimately decided the concept, which he was already considering wouldn't work. Maybe the 1506 is the ultimate outcome. I never forgot his genuine warmth and humility. Still loving my Thunderchild composite 115, but would love to hear one live someday.
Duke is the best, he ranks up there with Sheldon Dingwall and Roger Sadowsky IMHO.
Duke is the best, he ranks up there with Sheldon Dingwall and Roger Sadowsky IMHO.
I agree; he spent a lot of time discussing and explaining with me in response to questions I had about whether one of his cabinets was full-range enough to amplify bass, guitar and lap steel. I had been reading about the mids/highs capabilities of the Thunderchild cabs after stumbling across the AK forum and got thinking about one rig that could handle all three instruments I play. Not only did he not dismiss me or shoot my idea down, he explained why he didn't think the Thunderchild would work well for that (voiced to complement guitar by, as he said, "zigging where the guitar would zag in frequency response), but he suggested instead that I try the Birdhaus.
I don't know how many off-the-wall requests and ideas he fields but he sure took the time to help me, and convey a genuine willingness to share what he knows. He's a rare find, that's for sure.
Al Kraft
Supporting Member
- May 2, 2016
- 10,771
- 40,450
- Disclosures
- Mesa Boogie beta product tester and player support
The man is definitely a humble genius (and fine craftsman) who shares his knowledge willingly. I'm just glad he gravitated to the bass cab business and is willing to put up with all of us! 
