Best power amp for pre/power rig

[rockstarbassist]

Word. My PLX 3402 pwns. With the Eden Nav in front of it? Forget about it.

I EQ waaayyyy too much to ever really notice if this amp or that amp makes this -.0024th difference in sound quality.

Bottom line, all quality gear is going to sound good. But I guaran-damn-tee that guy in the back of the bar isn't going "Well hell, I was hopin' that bass player would've bought the Stewart instead of the PLX! Oh well. His tone sucks now."

I'm learning (finally) just to buy the least amount of quality gear that sounds good to me and is workable and useable and useful.

 

[zombywoof5050]

Here's a thought that I don't think has been brought up..

Does anyone think that having more weight on top of a speaker cabinet will cause it sound different than if there were considerably less weight sitting on it?

For you guys that run these comparisons..do you always have the speaker off to the side with nothing on top, or do you set the amps on top? It would be an interesting test to compare the amps both ways. Put only the power amp and preamp to be tested on top of the speaker and do the comparison, then do the same comparison with nothing sitting on top of the speaker.

I would think that having more weight on top of the speakers might alter the sound coming out, somewhat. For better or worse, I wouldn't know.

This is just an idea that popped into my mind. Does it make any sense to anyone, or does it just sound like BS? What do you think?

 

[cosmicevan]

sounds like BS to me.

 

[barthanatos]

sounds like BS to me.

I've heard much less reasonable notions that ended up being true.

 

[paulraphael]

Bottom line, all quality gear is going to sound good. But I guaran-damn-tee that guy in the back of the bar isn't going "Well hell, I was hopin' that bass player would've bought the Stewart instead of the PLX! Oh well. His tone sucks now."

Always a good point to remember.

I often dispute statements along the lines of "X makes no difference, ever!"

But whether X makes a difference that matters, when you're sharing the stage with a pair of hearing-impaired guitarists with 6 foot tall amps, playing for a room packed with drunk audience members, is a different conversation entirely.

There's only one reason I ever sweat the small stuff with bass gear-- when I hear a sound that I like coming out of it, I'm more motivated to practice and to enjoy practicing. On a gig, I'm just happy to hear a sound coming out of it at all.

 

[John D Harris]

Here's a thought that I don't think has been brought up..

Does anyone think that having more weight on top of a speaker cabinet will cause it sound different than if there were considerably less weight sitting on it?

For you guys that run these comparisons..do you always have the speaker off to the side with nothing on top, or do you set the amps on top? It would be an interesting test to compare the amps both ways. Put only the power amp and preamp to be tested on top of the speaker and do the comparison, then do the same comparison with nothing sitting on top of the speaker.

I would think that having more weight on top of the speakers might alter the sound coming out, somewhat. For better or worse, I wouldn't know.

This is just an idea that popped into my mind. Does it make any sense to anyone, or does it just sound like BS? What do you think?

The fact that a speaker cabinet vibrates in itself is not an ideal situation (now what is audible at a gig is another story).

Some of these lighter weight cabinets with neo drivers and lighter wood would cause me some concern if they didn't have something to keep them from excessive movement.
If the drivers are moving a lot of air and you have a 40 lb. cabinet, conceiveably it could start walking around the stage.
That would have to blur the notes to some degree.

The HiFi audiophiles can be obsessive about reducing spurious vibrations from everything except the drivers in the cabs themselves.

Practically speaking in a normal rock club environment, I doubt you could hear the difference.