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Avatar Cabs???? Just looked at the website...

#41
I'm also using one now... B210. When I moved from guitar to bass, I needed a bass rig (without a lot of expense), and someone recommended avatar. I had all the other pieces-parts so ordered the B210 with - I believe the Neo's -- it's light.
Jump forward to today - and I'm still using it. The band is mostly IEM, so I really only need the cab on stage until the guitar moves back to IEM's. I DON'T need a cab for backline as I'm always DI to the PA (ours or House) off the Ampeg, but that B210 gets plenty darn loud if I need it to.

Of the 75+ gigs I did with it this year, only one was backline with the Avatar. It manged just fine - as you can hear from the vid below - recorded on phone cam (surprising bass levels on the recording!). Only vocals went thru the PA at this one.. Impromptu (weird and unrehearsed!) version of Freebird, starting at 0:40

PS: I'd buy another Avatar in a heartbeat.. can't beat the price point!

 
#42
s0c9 said:
Same here... gigged with mine for about 3 yrs now.. LOVE IT ! Think I paid $349?

PS: And Dave @ avatar is awesome to work with !!

EDIT: but I am sorta jonesing for a change... everything else in my rig has changed over the last 2 yrs, but the cab. I'm considering the 12" Barefaced BB2 (gen 3) 'cus I'm old and all about lightweight cabs. If it's over 50 pounds.. not happening.
I'm not overly concerned about which brand, mostly about weight as I'm DI to PA (from Ampeg SVT7-pro) and use IEM's. Cab is ONLY there for guitar player to monitor on stage as we run subs.
Backup is an Ampeg SCR-DI.
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Check out my recent poll on 112 cabs right here on TB.
 
#43
love my neo b212. great customer service from dave

b212.jpg
 
#45
I had a Neo 212 from about 2008 or 2009. It was "ok light" (meaning that before a gig it felt light, after, not so much ;)). It had a sound I'd describe as "ok" as well. It wasn't a cab that could produce a full sounding low-b without some help from an EQ, the box sides and back vibrated pretty bad compared to some better cabs. I will say the box was built extremely well as far as ruggedness though.

When I got rid of mine it was too far gone and worth almost nothing (hundreds or even thousands of high-SPL hours on it with an extremely bass-heavy EQ). I would have a hard time with myself if I tried to sell it to anyone. So I took the parts I could salvage off and decided to try and "break down" the box to make it easier to dispose of. I threw it around, literally picking it up and giving it a toss as high and far as I could about 10 times and it didn't do much but smoosh in the corners a bit. The cab was structurally still sound (i.e. no wobbly or feeling like anything came loose). So I tried dropping it from an 18' retaining wall, onto asphalt, on a back corner. It landed just how I planned and a crack finally appeared between the back and opposite top and side from the dropped corner. It definitely didn't feel tight after that but I had my destructive fun and ended up taking a Stihl MS311 chainsaw to it to finish off the breaking down part of the task :). I highly doubt the speakers would have survived the first bit of tossing around but I was definitely stunned the cab took that beating.

The power handling of a cab is probably the least important spec if you care about how good you sound though (or even how loud you sound)... If you can wait and save up more, I'd skip the Avatar and pick up something a little more higher quality.
 
#49
Roughfully 6-1/2 years ago I replaced high-dollar Eden cabinets (a 210XLT and a 212XLT), and Ampeg cabinets ( a 410 HLF a 115 Classic and a old SVT 810) with two Avatar Neo 210 cabinets that I stack as a vertical 410.

Haven't regretted the switch even once.
 
#50
What drew me to look into looking at avatar cabs was its price point and sound. With that in mind, when I called to get a price quote for shipping out to Hawaii, it put it right at the same price range as higher end stuff available from local dealers. If it were available for cheaper in hawaii, I'd be playing through avatar cabs instead of the mesa cabs I had to settle on.
 
#51
MrFred said:
What drew me to look into looking at avatar cabs was its price point and sound. With that in mind, when I called to get a price quote for shipping out to Hawaii, it put it right at the same price range as higher end stuff available from local dealers. If it were available for cheaper in hawaii, I'd be playing through avatar cabs instead of the mesa cabs I had to settle on.
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LOVE Mesa products!!!!!

Right now I'm driving my two Avatar 210 Neo cabinets with a recently acquired Mesa M6 bass head.

In the past 6-1/2 years I've ran the Avatars with, a G.K. 800RB, G.K. MB2-500 (lasted alittle over a year before it went down), two Ampeg PF-500's (both burnt out), Hartke LH1000 (still have the Hartke), a G.K. MB-800 (still have the MB-800) and as of a few weeks ago, a Mesa M6.

To my ears, the M6 absolutely "smokes" all the others and makes the Avatars sound HUGE.....
 
#52
bordinco90 said:
Turn's out I can get a 2x12 Avatar cab with 1000watts of power handling for $450! Has anyone ever heard of or played Avatar cabs? If so how does it sound and how is the quality compared to say a GKNEO 212? Thanks. I am buying soon so any reviews will help. Thanks!
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I had a Avatar four ten for a couple of years until I got a Schroeder 1212L. It is a quality cab and for the money you won't do better.
 
#53
MrFred said:
What drew me to look into looking at avatar cabs was its price point and sound. With that in mind, when I called to get a price quote for shipping out to Hawaii, it put it right at the same price range as higher end stuff available from local dealers. If it were available for cheaper in hawaii, I'd be playing through avatar cabs instead of the mesa cabs I had to settle on.
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of all the things I'd call that, settling is not among them.
 
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#55
B-string said:
The fact that so many different drivers can be loaded into the same cab should be a clue. Stuffing speakers into a hole is not the best engineering practice.
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This is a common practice with most commercial bass cabinet manufacturers, not just Avatar.

Example:
Bergantino, (highly thought of manufacturer here at T.B.), their NV412, NV610, NV610T, and NV215, same box, different drivers.
Both of their 410 and 210 HD and AE series of cabinets, same box, different drivers.
Ampeg 410 Classic cabinet, Ampeg 212AV cabinet, same box, different drivers. Ampeg PF-115, PF-210, same box, different drivers, Ampeg SVT 810E, Hertiage 810 and "many" other versions of the Ampeg 810, same box, different drivers.
Epi does this, Fender does this, Carvin does this, Mesa does this, Hartke does this.....Ect., ect., ect.

I can't say for all of Avatar's driver offerings, but it did say on the Avatar web-site that Avatar's cabinets were designed and spec'ed for Eminence drivers by Eminence's own design engineers.
 
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#56
shoot-r said:
This is a common practice with most commercial bass cabinet manufacturers, not just Avatar.

Example:
Bergantino, (highly thought of manufacturer here at T.B.), their NV412, NV610, NV610T, and NV215, same box, different drivers.
Both of their 410 and 210 HD and AE series of cabinets, same box, different drivers.
Ampeg 410 Classic cabinet, Ampeg 212AV cabinet, same box, different drivers. Ampeg PF-115, PF-210, same box, different drivers, Ampeg SVT 810E, Hertiage 810 and "many" other versions of the Ampeg 810, same box, different drivers.
Epi does this, Fender does this, Carvin does this, Mesa does this, Hartke does this.....Ect., ect., ect.

I can't say for all of Avatar's driver offerings, but it did say on the Avatar web-site that Avatar's cabinets were designed and spec'ed for Eminence drivers by Eminence's own design engineers.
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The vast majority of the cabs on your list are sealed. So the cab makes less of a difference. In reference to the ported Berg cabs, it wouldnt surprise me if the porting was different even if the outer dimensions are the same.
 
#57
CL400Peavey said:
The vast majority of the cabs on your list are sealed. So the cab makes less of a difference. In reference to the ported Berg cabs, it wouldnt surprise me if the porting was different even if the outer dimensions are the same.
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True.
But, check out various manufacturer's web-sites and catalogs.
It's surprising how many sealed and ported cabinets are made with the same size cabinets for cosmetics and or for stacking rather than what is optimal for the drivers used.
I'm just wanting to point out that ALL commercial manufacturers sometimes cut corners by using the same boxes, different drivers, not just the manufacturers whose products are inexpensive.
 
#58
shoot-r said:
True.
But, check out various manufacturer's web-sites and catalogs.
It's surprising how many sealed and ported cabinets are made with the same size cabinets for cosmetics and or for stacking rather than what is optimal for the drivers used.
I'm just wanting to point out that ALL commercial manufacturers cut corners here and there, not just the manufacturers whose products are inexpensive.
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True. Commonality does not equate to quality though.
 
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#59
shoot-r said:
True.
But, check out various manufacturer's web-sites and catalogs.
It's surprising how many sealed and ported cabinets are made with the same size cabinets for cosmetics and or for stacking rather than what is optimal for the drivers used.
I'm just wanting to point out that ALL commercial manufacturers sometimes cut corners by using the same boxes, different drivers, not just the manufacturers whose products are inexpensive.
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Maybe you skipped over my post #7?

B-string said:
Avatar are great cabs. The 212 on a level with the G-K cab, not quite. Would I play one you bet, I'd even buy one. Would I sell my G-K NEO212 II to purchase one, not even close.
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Many OE's also special order their drivers, not "off the shelf" units. With that kind of control over parameters it is apples and oranges.
 
#60
B-string said:
Maybe you skipped over my post #7?
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Yes sir, and no offense was meant.

I'm just wanting other possible Avatar buyers to know that using the same box, different drivers is a all to common practice in commercially built bass cabinets no matter whether their high-dollar cabinets or inexpensive cabinets.....


Avatar also uses custom spec'ed drivers, "not off the shelf", for their cabinets, (their Eminence driver offerings atleast).
 
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