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AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...

#10,445
TomB said:
Agreed! Most of my playing recently through AK cabs has been using various GK’s, all of which feature strong mids. If I think back far enough (10 years) I too was surprised at first by the smoothness of the horn and its (crossover) match to the woofer - not like a tweeter control at all. …and I do love it!
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I bought mine for upright use primarily. On electric bass, I found that the "zig where the guitar cabs zag" approach really didn't work for me. At the time, I was often playing in situations without a guitarist (or with a tasteful player aware of bass), and being able to fill that sonic space with a little grind was desirable.

I was one of the people using it for other instruments as well. My spouse played flute through it at a few rock gigs and we used it for electric drums at practice volume. I was also messing with guitar synthesizers and the TC really shone there.

Not sure I could resist a Hathor if/when they become available again.
 
#10,446
Wild Rice Chris said:
I bought mine for upright use primarily. On electric bass, I found that the "zig where the guitar cabs zag" approach really didn't work for me. At the time, I was often playing in situations without a guitarist (or with a tasteful player aware of bass), and being able to fill that sonic space with a little grind was desirable.

I was one of the people using it for other instruments as well. My spouse played flute through it at a few rock gigs and we used it for electric drums at practice volume. I was also messing with guitar synthesizers and the TC really shone there.

Not sure I could resist a Hathor if/when they become available again.
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Could you explain “zig where the guitar cabs zag” a bit? …not sure what that means.
 
#10,447
Here's one of Duke's zig-zag explanations, from post 7249 of this thread:

"Good question! The thing the Hathor 1505 probably does better than any of my other cabs, when in "grindy" mode, is to ZIG where guitar cabs typically ZAG. Here's the graph of an Eminence guitar speaker, it's a fairly representative sample of what guitar speakers do:

JS_1250.png


The most obvious feature is a broad screaming peak that starts at about 2 kHz and continues up to about 5 kHz. Imo we DO NOT want a peak in this region - it belongs to the electric guitars, and if we try to be loud there for the sake of "cutting through", we risk instigating a volume war. And THEY can buy volume much cheaper than we can. The 2-4 kHz octave is where the ear is most sensitive, which is one of the reasons why little dinky guitar cabs with low power amps are so darn loud... another reason being, the guitar speaker's ballpark 105 dB efficiency in this region (and yet another reason being, guitars amps driven into distortion have a lot higher AVERAGE SPL than the same wattage not driven into distortion). Anyway we don't necessarily need to have dippage in this region, but imo we DEFINITELY do not want any significant peakage there.

Okay, the next important feature of that response curve, not as obvious but arguably more important, is that fairly narrow but fairly deep dip centered on about 1.6 kHz. Most guitar speakers have this sort of dip, to some extent. This dip is our WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY: We can be LOUD here, and it sounds good and slots well in the mix, WITHOUT stepping on anyone's sonic toes!

This zig-zag voicing doesn't sound as good solo, so you might want to engage the "smoother" switch for practice at home.

The Eminence Pro5 MRN-8 is still my favorite midrange driver. Its curve has the zigs and zags in exactly the right places for what I want. Here's a link to the spec sheet:

https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/290-4004--eminence-pro-5mrn-8-spec-sheet.pdf

Its 1.6 kHz bumpage is minor, but overlapped with my custom 15" woofer's peak in that region, it works well. And notice how its top-end rises right about where the guitar speaker starts falling off. The 5" cone of course has much better dispersion than the big woofer. According to my measurements, the Faital 5" mid has a small dip in that 1.6 kHz ballpark, which does not show up in the factory curves. So yes it sounds smoother when in "growly" mode, and would be preferred by someone looking for that, but smooth is not really what this cab is designed for.

For those who want the 115 with some growly and a bit more "hi-fi" top end, imo the twin 3" Faital cones do a better job than the single 5" Faital cone.

For those who want a more aggressive 115 in when growly mode, the Eminence is imo superior to the 5" Faital, which just happens to have a small dip right where I want it to peak.

Imo the Hathor 1505 comes the closest of my cabs to embodying the "zig where the guitars zag" paradigm, when in "growly" mode, which may or may not be what someone is looking for."
 
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#10,448
staccatogrowl said:
Here's one of Duke's zig-zag explanations, from post 7249 of this thread:

"Good question! The thing the Hathor 1505 probably does better than any of my other cabs, when in "grindy" mode, is to ZIG where guitar cabs typically ZAG. Here's the graph of an Eminence guitar speaker, it's a fairly representative sample of what guitar speakers do:

View attachment 5043633

The most obvious feature is a broad screaming peak that starts at about 2 kHz and continues up to about 5 kHz. Imo we DO NOT want a peak in this region - it belongs to the electric guitars, and if we try to be loud there for the sake of "cutting through", we risk instigating a volume war. And THEY can buy volume much cheaper than we can. The 2-4 kHz octave is where the ear is most sensitive, which is one of the reasons why little dinky guitar cabs with low power amps are so darn loud... another reason being, the guitar speaker's ballpark 105 dB efficiency in this region (and yet another reason being, guitars amps driven into distortion have a lot higher AVERAGE SPL than the same wattage not driven into distortion). Anyway we don't necessarily need to have dippage in this region, but imo we DEFINITELY do not want any significant peakage there.

Okay, the next important feature of that response curve, not as obvious but arguably more important, is that fairly narrow but fairly deep dip centered on about 1.6 kHz. Most guitar speakers have this sort of dip, to some extent. This dip is our WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY: We can be LOUD here, and it sounds good and slots well in the mix, WITHOUT stepping on anyone's sonic toes!

This zig-zag voicing doesn't sound as good solo, so you might want to engage the "smoother" switch for practice at home.

The Eminence Pro5 MRN-8 is still my favorite midrange driver. Its curve has the zigs and zags in exactly the right places for what I want. Here's a link to the spec sheet:

https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/290-4004--eminence-pro-5mrn-8-spec-sheet.pdf

Its 1.6 kHz bumpage is minor, but overlapped with my custom 15" woofer's peak in that region, it works well. And notice how its top-end rises right about where the guitar speaker starts falling off. The 5" cone of course has much better dispersion than the big woofer. According to my measurements, the Faital 5" mid has a small dip in that 1.6 kHz ballpark, which does not show up in the factory curves. So yes it sounds smoother when in "growly" mode, and would be preferred by someone looking for that, but smooth is not really what this cab is designed for.

For those who want the 115 with some growly and a bit more "hi-fi" top end, imo the twin 3" Faital cones do a better job than the single 5" Faital cone.

For those who want a more aggressive 115 in when growly mode, the Eminence is imo superior to the 5" Faital, which just happens to have a small dip right where I want it to peak.

Imo the Hathor 1505 comes the closest of my cabs to embodying the "zig where the guitars zag" paradigm, when in "growly" mode, which may or may not be what someone is looking for."
Click to expand...
I wish Eminence still made that Pro5 driver.
 
#10,449
smeet said:
I have 12” and 15” AK cabinets, and the 15” models put out a huge amount of low end. My 12” Hathors are more balanced, but the 15” models will sound nice and articulate with some low end rolloff.
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+1 my TC115AF "wide" is simply huge sounding. The TC112AF does sound more balanced (and is plenty "big" sounding), but the TC115 is actually very controllable. The same goes for the Hathor 1855. I haven't compared the two in a while, but I recall the 1855 being actually a bit more balanced (for my style and preferences) than the TC115.
 
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#10,452
Still have my H1203 and C1203T. The H1203 lives in the Jeep and gets gigged a couple times a month with a D800 and Rob Allen fretless, always sounds spectacular. Quit looking at and trying cabs years ago. Nothing plays better with both the Fodera and the RA, and I can run dobro or archtop or acoustic guitar through it and it still sounds great.
 
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#10,453
nostatic said:
Still have my H1203 and C1203T. The H1203 lives in the Jeep and gets gigged a couple times a month with a D800 and Rob Allen fretless, always sounds spectacular. Quit looking at and trying cabs years ago. Nothing plays better with both the Fodera and the RA, and I can run dobro or archtop or acoustic guitar through it and it still sounds great.
Click to expand...

jeep?
 
#10,457
steubig said:
you’d have to know the cars that nostatic used when he lived in l.a.
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Man, that’s a cliffhanger. Sounds like some fun anecdotes to be had there. At least for car anecdote appreciators like me.

I’m not sure whether to imagine the earlier pre-Jeep nostatic driving around LA with a SVT 8 x 10 hanging out of a restored BMW 2002, or a Porsche 356, or an International Harvester Travelall with bald snow tires on all four corners and a glass pack.

Citroen 2CV?
 
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#10,458
I'm thinking of putting up a "For Trade" thread: looking to trade my 1505 Hathor (2019 build in excellent shape, with cover, 8/4 ohm switch) for a TC115 (any version, I suppose, though I have a v1).

Figured I would start by asking here. Any takers?
 
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