Avatar 3 way 15/6/tweet part 2

[amos]

Sigh... after looking at the Avatar website the kappalite version is now $589 + 55 shipping. I want two of these. That's $1288 shipped. Ouch.

 

[HotelX]

Sigh... after looking at the Avatar website the kappalite version is now $589 + 55 shipping. I want two of these. That's $1288 shipped. Ouch.

Yes they are getting crazy expensive. I feel pretty lucky I found a used one for $475. For $1288 you could build a nice fEarful.

 

[Ol'Bass'ead]

... For $1288 you could build a nice fEarful.

Or two...

 

[rpsands]

C'mon people. Look at what a midrange 4x10 costs these days. This cab replaces any 4x10 on the market

 

[NWB]

C'mon people. Look at what a midrange 4x10 costs these days. This cab replaces any 4x10 on the market

Yeah, probably a few 6x10s too.

 

[5StringPocket]

If ordering two, make sure one has the baffle reversed so they stack properly (mids and hf aligned).
5StringPocket - TalkBass Wiki

 

[Blues Bass 2]

C'mon people. Look at what a midrange 4x10 costs these days. This cab replaces any 4x10 on the market

Well I know I like the sound of the TB153 a bunch better on stage than the Avatar B410 neo I had a few years ago . Much easier to hear and has pretty close to the same volume but with deeper , tighter lows and the B410 is a very good cab , no slouch . To me the TB153 is a much better cabinet .

 

[swspiers]

C'mon people. Look at what a midrange 4x10 costs these days. This cab replaces any 4x10 on the market

+1

this cab put my two Carvin BRX2.10 neos, which I stacked vetically, to shame. Not even close...

 

[lokikallas]

Finally got to jam out on mine last night! That 6 " driver really makes this cab. I don't think a tweeter was really needed. I would like to hear what the 6" would sound like if it handled all the mids and highs. I think I would be fine with it's natural rolloff. The tweet is really overkillbut i suppose it might have its uses for some people. The 15 is the first I've ever liked as it isn't asked to do more than it's designated freq range. The cab is extremely transparent, and I found myself re-centering all my eq on my amp. I will post another update when I pair the 2nd cab tomorrow and rock out at a gig. If it sounds this good now, I can't imagine what it will sound like broken in.

 

[lomo]

I agree. IME the tweeter is superfluous in this cab, unless perhaps you are a slapster. The mid goes very high, and for my taste is fine even for slap. Avatar might consider offering a cheaper and lighter version without the tweet.

 

[rpsands]

With Avatar, their goal is to be generic and have as few models as possible. The fewer options, the better their margins I'd imagine.

 

[rmars]

I agree. IME the tweeter is superfluous in this cab, unless perhaps you are a slapster. The mid goes very high, and for my taste is fine even for slap. Avatar might consider offering a cheaper and lighter version without the tweet.

I will say that something about the tweeter is more musical and useable in this cab compared to the same tweeter in my B210 Neos. It sounds WAY harsh in the 210's but even with it turned up a fair amount it on the TB153 is seems mellow in comparison. I don't slap and I generally roll my tone way back on my J-basses except for a few RATM tunes my band does...... Still, I roll it off most the way and would happily to live without it especially if it saved a bit of weight and $........

 

[BigGuns]

You are right but I was hoping that this one cab would be enough for outdoors."

I hesitate to use my single TB153, 4 ohm at my larger club or outdoor gigs. I take my pre/Crown CD XLS1500 bridged @ 8 ohms into a UL410-II for those gigs, no PA support for me. Just not secure enough to run the Avatar cab with that kinda power at those volumes, yet.

I was driving my TB cab fairly hard at a club gig recently w/STM-900. I sorta heard some distortion that did not sound like the tube breakup I can get from this amp. I was diggin in real hard on a particular tune where guiturd really cranks for his solo and I drive hard to keep up with him.

I had the bass knob up around 2:00 at that time. I keep the tweet @ 9:00. So was wondering if maybe that was the 6" mid that was breaking up like that. Wonder when those TB153's with possible bad X-overs mentioned here earlier were discovered to be such. Like the very early released cabs, even recent cabs or what?

I think it's time for me to chime in with my TB153 experience. I initially received my cabinet in April, and had it running beautifully for a while. I played 3 gigs with it, included a good friend's wedding in a large room, and it just cranked. With other rigs I always have the band leader hollering at me to give MORE BASS..TURN UP...etc. But no issues this time, just clear fat lowness. I am very lucky that the cab didn't blow during the wedding. Then at a rehearsal I was playing along and PFFERUW! something blew! It was a distinct popping, and then as I played it was just a really bad crackling sound. I pulled out the mid driver, and the cabinet sounded fine without it. So for a while I played it (in rehearsal only) without the wire for the mid just hanging out of the hole. I assumed the mid was the issue, but then I called Avatar and spoke to Trevor. He said the issue was probably the crossover, and sent me a new one. I got it all hooked up, mid driver back in, and beautiful! Good as new. Many rehearsals later it's still rockin. THEN, in the first 5 minutes of the next gig - PRRERUW!! Damn. Went again. When this happened it lost all low end, I couldn't barely touch the strings on my bass, I had to turn WAY down to keep the godawful crackling at bay. The guitar player stands right in front of my cab (with his amp on top) and said the cab was pumping air at the backs of his legs, and when it went, the air stopped. So I struggled through the next few songs, and when we took a break I took enough screws out of the grill to peel it back and pull out the mid driver (thank you Leatherman). I was able to play the cab without the mid for the rest of the evening, but it definitely lacks a lot.

So that's TWO crossovers I've blown. I am going to give them a call today and see what I can find out, and what they'll do for me, but I'm a little disenchanted with the whole thing now. It's very frustrating, especially because it doesn't exactly take three seconds to dismantle the cab.

I am going to ask them about the eminence crossover thing when I call.

This whole thing has got me thinking about true fEarfuls now. I'm thinking what I'd love to do is return this cab and get a 12/6/1 from Speakerhardware.

 

[BurningSkies]

I think it's time for me to chime in with my TB153 experience. I initially received my cabinet in April, and had it running beautifully for a while. I played 3 gigs with it, included a good friend's wedding in a large room, and it just cranked. With other rigs I always have the band leader hollering at me to give MORE BASS..TURN UP...etc. But no issues this time, just clear fat lowness. I am very lucky that the cab didn't blow during the wedding. Then at a rehearsal I was playing along and PFFERUW! something blew! It was a distinct popping, and then as I played it was just a really bad crackling sound. I pulled out the mid driver, and the cabinet sounded fine without it. So for a while I played it (in rehearsal only) without the wire for the mid just hanging out of the hole. I assumed the mid was the issue, but then I called Avatar and spoke to Trevor. He said the issue was probably the crossover, and sent me a new one. I got it all hooked up, mid driver back in, and beautiful! Good as new. Many rehearsals later it's still rockin. THEN, in the first 5 minutes of the next gig - PRRERUW!! Damn. Went again. When this happened it lost all low end, I couldn't barely touch the strings on my bass, I had to turn WAY down to keep the godawful crackling at bay. The guitar player stands right in front of my cab (with his amp on top) and said the cab was pumping air at the backs of his legs, and when it went, the air stopped. So I struggled through the next few songs, and when we took a break I took enough screws out of the grill to peel it back and pull out the mid driver (thank you Leatherman). I was able to play the cab without the mid for the rest of the evening, but it definitely lacks a lot.

So that's TWO crossovers I've blown. I am going to give them a call today and see what I can find out, and what they'll do for me, but I'm a little disenchanted with the whole thing now. It's very frustrating, especially because it doesn't exactly take three seconds to dismantle the cab.

I am going to ask them about the eminence crossover thing when I call.

This whole thing has got me thinking about true fEarfuls now. I'm thinking what I'd love to do is return this cab and get a 12/6/1 from Speakerhardware.

Hey BigGuns, You're from my ol' stomping grounds...grew up on the North Shore...

What are you powering your rig with? How much wattage are you hitting it with?

I've had the suspicion from both the rate of crossover failure and the pictures I've seen of both the original and the re-mix crossover that they're probably fine with most standard bass heads, but if you're pushing extreme volumes (that the 3015LF is capable of handling) the crossover is under-spec'ed.

If you've got an extra 50 bucks (or 75, for the upgraded version), you might try your hand at the crossover design that goes into the fEARful cabs. Since it's a different design it may not be 100% perfect, but I bet it'll be closer than what the 153 comes with...and you sure as hell aren't going to burn it out.

 

[BigGuns]

Hey BurningSkies - Burlington isn't the North Shore, is it? Lol...people always think I live WAAAYY up there, but really, it's right on the 95 belt. I do love this area.

Anyway, sorry for the omission. I'm running the TB153 with a GK MB500. I'm using a presonus headphone amp for the time being to get both my bass and K-station into the head (using it as a mixer, I guess). I like a very thick bottom EQ, but with some high end so that the upper registers are audible (think modern R&B or gospel kind of EQ). The bass knob on the head is almost all the way up, to be honest. Well, it's at 3 o'clock. I keep the gain knob at less than half because I don't want to introduce any distortion, and the main volume knob at ooh...1 or 2 o'clock. Then I just play with the mids and highs depending on the room. I have found that boosting one of the mids (can't remember without it in front of my if its the low-mid or high-mid) gives some tone and definition that I really like on this amp.

 

[greenboy]

If you've got an extra 50 bucks (or 75, for the upgraded version), you might try your hand at the crossover design that goes into the fEARful cabs. Since it's a different design it may not be 100% perfect, but I bet it'll be closer than what the 153 comes with...and you sure as hell aren't going to burn it out.

Probably a piss-poor match. Closed back mid driver is entirely different than what fEARfuls use. I'm not talking specifically about superior blending and imaging and FR on-and off-axis - or appropriate padding values either. I'm talking about the incredibly different impedance sweep you see with the closed-back mid compared to the impedance sweep of what the fEARful uses in when in its stuffed mid chamber.

Radically different.

 

[BurningSkies]

Probably a piss-poor match. Closed back mid driver is entirely different than what fEARfuls use. I'm not talking specifically about superior blending and imaging and FR on-and off-axis - or appropriate padding values either. I'm talking about the incredibly different impedance sweep you see with the closed-back mid compared to the impedance sweep of what the fEARful uses in when in its stuffed mid chamber.

Radically different.

Thanks for the correction.

The crossover in these cabs seem to be the weakest point of the unit. I'm also surprised that the MB500 produced enough power at 8ohms to stress a crossover on a cab with a woofer with a 500w thermal max.

 

[BurningSkies]

Hey BurningSkies - Burlington isn't the North Shore, is it? Lol...people always think I live WAAAYY up there, but really, it's right on the 95 belt. I do love this area.

Anyway, sorry for the omission. I'm running the TB153 with a GK MB500. I'm using a presonus headphone amp for the time being to get both my bass and K-station into the head (using it as a mixer, I guess). I like a very thick bottom EQ, but with some high end so that the upper registers are audible (think modern R&B or gospel kind of EQ). The bass knob on the head is almost all the way up, to be honest. Well, it's at 3 o'clock. I keep the gain knob at less than half because I don't want to introduce any distortion, and the main volume knob at ooh...1 or 2 o'clock. Then I just play with the mids and highs depending on the room. I have found that boosting one of the mids (can't remember without it in front of my if its the low-mid or high-mid) gives some tone and definition that I really like on this amp.

Anything on 128/95 before you hit the Pike is my stomping grounds, and anything in within it's curve.

 

[rpsands]

I have a hard time imagining that coming up with a better crossover than is in the Avatar would be all that hard. Heck, if you just took what was in there and upgraded all the components you'd probably stop melting them.

That said, if you have a 4 ohm 3015LF, and the proprietary Alpha 6 CBMR, getting the required info to model a new crossover might be hard.

 

[BigGuns]

Thanks for the correction.

The crossover in these cabs seem to be the weakest point of the unit. I'm also surprised that the MB500 produced enough power at 8ohms to stress a crossover on a cab with a woofer with a 500w thermal max.

I have the 4ohm version though.