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Bergantino AE212; Part 2!!
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
Yip, glad I didn't get rid of my all time favorite AE410. Still have the AE212 and looking to add an AE112 soon.
Well, at least a great liklihood. I mean, the drivers are not being discontinued, and Jim can always make more. The concern is the resulting product pricing will be beyond what the market will bear.
Only the future will tell for sure, but at this point, the forecast is not good. We have all our eggs in one basket with China, they're exploiting that vulnerability, and they'll continue to do so unless we call them on it. Meanwhile product lines will eventually suffer.
This is taken from an email I got from Mark Stickley at Bass Direct Ltd:
Cost of Neodymium
This week the cost of Neodymium sky rocketed by 100% - this is due to the Chinese, who are the sole producer of Neodymium at present having a huge tax imposed on mining by the government in China. This may have serious repercussions across the MI industry with large increases in Neodymium loaded cabinets inevitable. We shall see how this plays out over the next few weeks and months, but Eminence, who are one of the largest speaker producing companies in the world, shelving many Neodymium speakers projects and the possibility of ceasing try to sell Neodymium design speakers.
It is because of this situation that Bergantino Audio have taken the decision to withdrawn the whole AE range of cabinets with immediate effect. Once the current stocks of AE speakers and cabinets have gone there will be no more for the foreseeable future.
Cost of Neodymium
This week the cost of Neodymium sky rocketed by 100% - this is due to the Chinese, who are the sole producer of Neodymium at present having a huge tax imposed on mining by the government in China. This may have serious repercussions across the MI industry with large increases in Neodymium loaded cabinets inevitable. We shall see how this plays out over the next few weeks and months, but Eminence, who are one of the largest speaker producing companies in the world, shelving many Neodymium speakers projects and the possibility of ceasing try to sell Neodymium design speakers.
It is because of this situation that Bergantino Audio have taken the decision to withdrawn the whole AE range of cabinets with immediate effect. Once the current stocks of AE speakers and cabinets have gone there will be no more for the foreseeable future.
My question to you is, and maybe I missed it, but why would you ever want to do that?
Not that I could say you'd get a great sound- but AFAIK you can seal up virtually any cab without hurting the drivers.
But you would be completely changing the tuning of the cab. Why would anyone want to do that without understanding (and more importantly desiring) the results?
My guess is the cab would sound worse.
My question stands. Why?
My answer is that I've already tried it and prefer the sound. It sounds quicker and punchier. In a boomy room it would really help. I just wanted jim to tell me if it would damage the drivers. Some drivers will be fine, others will not. His drivers are an OEM so only he knows for sure I guess. I don't post questions on here that I can answer myself and I usually do as much of the detective work as I can on my own. Alot of it is just curiousity and because I like to know.
My AE112 has arrived. Very nice cab, and I can see why so many love them. But its totally not what I'm looking for. I was hoping to get more mids compared to the AE212 as many said it had, but it seems to be the opposite to me. More open bottom, less true mids, and a sharper upper mid. Nice, but just not i want. I took a shot though, so no problem.
This one is going on the block tonight. Not even an hour old in my hands.
This one is going on the block tonight. Not even an hour old in my hands.
If it works for you, who can fault that right? Cool. I simply wonder aloud when anyone plugs a port of a cabinet that was tuned and ported by design ....did they get the right cabinet for their needs? ...
But as I said ...if it works for you and sounds good and no harm is done to the drivers, ....use your ears!
Fair enough. Then all it really boils down to is a question of if you can do any damage to the drivers in doing so, and I agree with the answer already provided - no.
Enjoy!
I would agree. While the 2 x AE112 is a really nice rig, to my ear, it isn't in the same universe as the AE212. Not sure what Jim did... some sort of magic... I assume the drivers are the same, but something about the box tuning and crossover just makes the AE212 a whole 'nother thing... deeper than the 2 x AE112 but yet more meat and punch and a much more 'natural' upper mid response to my ear, and a LOT more maximum volume before compression.
Can't quite figure it out, but there it is!
- Jun 24, 2006
- 2,560
- 90
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: MTD basses and strings; Bergantino Amps & Cabs
2 drivers in a great big box as opposed to 2x1 driver in a much smaller box...huge volume of air behind the speakers, twice the porting, probably...
Cameron
To me, it would seem that having each driver in it's own privately tuned space, would always be ideal from an engineering standpoint. But that's not why I went dual 112. I did it because I actually like the sound better and I also like the better portability. I paid a premium for that, but I'm ok with it.
WAIT! Hold on a minute...or 90 minutes to be exact. Is this a brand new cabinet? If so the tone changes. In my case it was "I'm sending this box back, it isn't even in the same ballpark as my ae410." I even plugged in my ae410 to confirm it. Then I thought well it will take me a day or so to pack it up and send it back so I continued playing through it. I noticed a very distinct change in the blaance of the highs-mid-lows. So I plugged in my old DOD Meatbox for some 35Hz lows. And darn if it didn't take on a whole new character. Everything seemed so balanced and full. If it is new give it a bit more time...really!
Jerry J said:
It might break in and get a deeper tone I suppose. That would be a step in the wrong direction for me. I was hoping to get more chewy mids out of this. They aren't there at all. I just need to pickup some db112's and forget about all this. No biggie. I figured with the neo market it would be worth it if I liked it, and easy to sell if I don't. I literally played through the cab for 5 minutes, and put it back in the box. I also bought the cover cause I always buy covers. I'll sell it for what I paid for it, and lose the shipping cost. It was worth the shot to me.
Just to throw my 2 cents in, more upper mids than most 112 cabs is the way I remember the AE112, and quite frankly, what I liked about them. They have more of a 210 cut but with extra depth, and they take bass EQ fantastically well if you wanna' make'm sound bigger. Different from the AE212 tho. Mine arrive tomorrow. I'll see if my memory serves.
Want an AE212 bad but.....still want to keep my RH450..
Reading earlier threads don't point to these being a good match
Mmmmmmm -will read on methinks.....
Reading earlier threads don't point to these being a good match
Mmmmmmm -will read on methinks.....
