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Avatar 3 way 15/6/tweet part 2

#341
That would be a killer rig, but the 153 is more comparable to a 410 than an 810 in terms of volume. Those cabs are pretty narrow from front to back and may not be sturdy as a stack. If you are pushing the 810 hard, better off getting a pair of 410s or a fEarful 1515-6 (which will outperform the 810). If you are not puashing the 810, then m,aybe the 153 will do.
 
#345
First gig with my TB153 .

Very small stage so I ended up standing next to my cab most of the night and locking in with our drummer Richie . It was weird , I usually stand out front quite a ways from my amp to dial my tone in and hear the other guys but last night I could hear my bass just fine standing next to my cab ! The low end was tight , not the booming up close I've had with all my other cabinets , so I could tell just what note I was playing . I couldn't hear the mids or highs much but I didn't miss them .

It was also my first night using my VT bass pedal as a preamp at a gig . I dialed it in at practice Wednsday and it just sounds great , sort of like my SVT back in the 70's . I run it into the front end of my RBI preamp with the RBIs effect turned of and then into a Crown Drivecore1000 bridged . Plenty of power , it was a small room but I can tell it's all I'm going to need .

I talked to the sound guy at the start of the gig and asked him to let me know if I got too loud , it's hard to tell with the clean low end I get with this cabinet . He gave me a thumbs up after the first song and at our first break he told me that my bass sounded really good , very clear tone and deep "That bass sounds Fat" I'm very happy with the cabinet .
 
#346
Nice! Glad to hear that worked for you. You can also consider a 2x10 on top of the TB as a sort of monitor if you decide you would like that. The VT is very cool, it sounds good and it brings a lot of flexibility for different equipment setups and situations.
 
#347
I got a good deal on a used TB153 4 ohm from a local player with two. When I tested the cab at home with my Jazz with TI flats, it literally vibrated the cab across the floor.

My first gig was this weekend playing reggae on a patio at a local bar. I was running a Crown xls1000 bridged mono into 4 ohms with a channel strip preamp.

I wasn't getting the kind of clean headroom I wanted from this setup and I am wondering how many watts can I run into this cab without danger?
 
#348
HotelX said:
I got a good deal on a used TB153 4 ohm from a local player with two. When I tested the cab at home with my Jazz with TI flats, it literally vibrated the cab across the floor.

My first gig was this weekend playing reggae on a patio at a local bar. I was running a Crown xls1000 bridged mono into 4 ohms with a channel strip preamp.

I wasn't getting the kind of clean headroom I wanted from this setup and I am wondering how many watts can I run into this cab without danger?
Click to expand...

Where and how was it breaking up?
 
#350
I just took delivery of my TB153, 4 Ohm about an hour ago. I'm running a Crown XLS1000, unbridged, 'cause I just don't need that kind of juice in my basement. I use a Tech 21 Para Driver as a pre-amp, and a Supercollider Beast for distortion.

Holy crap! I read in one of the Avatar threads that doom/stoner players would prefer the Avatar 412. Not so sure about that. This cab is capable of some pretty good skull-crushing noise, with the tweeter dialed in at about 9:00 (so far).

The clean signal with my Carvin SB4000 with Chromes is truly sweet, smooth and deceptively loud. I can detect no audible distortion or coloration, which for me translates to playing louder than I need to at first until I get used to the sound.

As far as my Para Driver is concerned, NOW i can hear what the mid-sweep really does...

Anyway, an hour into it and I'm digging it. First impressions don't mean that much to me. But I do have a feeling I'm going to enjoy exploring.

Kudos to Dave and Avatar for selling such a quality product. I actually bought mine off of Ebay from Avatar. It had a ding in the tolex, and they offered without a reserve, so I got a pretty good deal while most people were vacationing over Labor Day.
 
#351
BurningSkies said:
Where and how was it breaking up?
Click to expand...

It wasn't so much breaking up as just not quite loud enough. I had the power amp all the way up which was 1100 watts.

From all reports it was loud and clear out front, but I could hear a tiny bit of distortion which I would prefer not to have. Not sure if it was the preamp or what.

Can I run more watts into this thing? Would that really help? I can't really fit another cab into my car.
 
#354
HotelX said:
It wasn't so much breaking up as just not quite loud enough. I had the power amp all the way up which was 1100 watts.

From all reports it was loud and clear out front, but I could hear a tiny bit of distortion which I would prefer not to have. Not sure if it was the preamp or what.

Can I run more watts into this thing? Would that really help? I can't really fit another cab into my car.
Click to expand...

1,100 watts is probably too much for that cab, or nearly any other stand-alone cab for that matter.

I would not push any more watts into it.

If you need more volume, another cab would be the best approach. Preferably one of the same as what you have.
 
#355
HotelX said:
It wasn't so much breaking up as just not quite loud enough. I had the power amp all the way up which was 1100 watts.

From all reports it was loud and clear out front, but I could hear a tiny bit of distortion which I would prefer not to have. Not sure if it was the preamp or what.

Can I run more watts into this thing? Would that really help? I can't really fit another cab into my car.
Click to expand...

If you’re running 1100w into the single cab, you’re probably lucky that you don’t have more than a ‘little distortion’. The 3015LF is displacement limited to about 800w, with a thermal rating at about 500w (give or take). My 2-way 3015LF cabs are each screamin’ loud, and unless I need to get REALLY loud (like outdoors, where I run a 3kw amp bridged) I’m running about 500w per cab. If it was very loud and clear out in the crowd but you’re not getting it to your ears, consider several things. First, if you can tilt the cab back to get it pointed closer to your ears, you may be surprised. Second, raise the cab. The Avatar is a pretty low box, so if you’re standing near the cab it’s your knees getting the brunt of the damage. Because the 3015LF based cabs have such a nice low end response, raising the cab doesn’t have to mean less bass, you’ve got EQ leeway. And…thirdly…check your EQ. If you’re not including a lot of mids, or you’re pushing your lows unnecessarily hard, you could be limiting your hearability. Also remember that sometimes you’re louder than you think. It took me a while to get used to the fact that I was playing way louder than I normally did because the sound was so clean and clear, that my ears/brain didn’t get any of the telltale signs of distortion that we often get with loud sounds.
 
#357
HotelX said:
This was a sort of outdoor gig on a patio with only one wall. My amp was up on a bench with only low walls around.
Click to expand...

That's probably half the trouble right there. Have you tried this amp wherever you normally play/practice? The minute you're in an outdoor space without any boundaries reinforcement, you really need more speakers and more wattage.

Inside and in a 'normal' space how does the cab perform?
 
#358
HotelX said:
It wasn't so much breaking up as just not quite loud enough. I had the power amp all the way up which was 1100 watts.

From all reports it was loud and clear out front, but I could hear a tiny bit of distortion which I would prefer not to have. Not sure if it was the preamp or what.

Can I run more watts into this thing? Would that really help? I can't really fit another cab into my car.
Click to expand...

I once thought mine was distorting but it was just vibration from my rack, my other cabs don't move the kind of low end to do it.

Not to jump to conclusions, but to me it sounds like the crossover... When this thing works it's a beast with less than 500 watts.... if you have a bad crossover it not the same cab at all. Mine had a bad crossover pretty much out of the box, they sent me a replacement and it was amazing for a hand full of gigs.

However, one night on a relatively low volume gig my amp went into speaker protection mode and it's not been the same since. I have been thinking I was crazy for about a month and a half, it didn't sound blown, on it's own it seemed loud but lacking. In a band setting the low end sounds like a thin jazz bridge pickup soloed, really growly, not much lowend and I would say I perceive it as distortion (not so much without the band). Also the sound pressure this thing usually puts out is tremendous... ear plug worth, even at low volumes it just moves air. Right now you can crank it up but it just doesn't move the low end the same.

Called Avatar today and they had an updated crossover and said that some of the old ones would blown with about 350 watts... so they are sending me a new Eminence made one.

Don't know how many bad ones are out there but with my luck if a company make 5k products and two of them were bad it would be the two I bought.... just my kinda luck... I'm learning to deal with it a keep a cool head as I get older because this stuff happens to me all the time...:crying:
 
#359
BurningSkies said:
That's probably half the trouble right there. Have you tried this amp wherever you normally play/practice? The minute you're in an outdoor space without any boundaries reinforcement, you really need more speakers and more wattage.

Inside and in a 'normal' space how does the cab perform?
Click to expand...

Seemingly fine at practice but that was my first gig with the TB153.
 
#360
BurningSkies said:
And…thirdly…check your EQ. If you’re not including a lot of mids, or you’re pushing your lows unnecessarily hard, you could be limiting your hearability. Also remember that sometimes you’re louder than you think. It took me a while to get used to the fact that I was playing way louder than I normally did because the sound was so clean and clear, that my ears/brain didn’t get any of the telltale signs of distortion that we often get with loud sounds.
Click to expand...

I usually don't use much eq except rolling off the highs. I generally do little or no boosting of the lows. Should I bump the mids a bit on the pre you think?

Perhaps I was louder than I think. I was told that the bass was loud enough across the street for a local dread to hear we were doing a Marley tune and come see what was happening.
 

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