• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Best sounding 15" cab

George Mann

George Mann

Inactive
May 27, 2012
1,022
56
Colorado
#1
I decided to take a break from my current cab project to seek out the best examples of 15" bass cabs past or present.

What I am looking for is specific. When I say best sounding, I mean good tone, not how loud it plays per watt (although important), and certainly not how much it shakes the stage! Whether vintage tone or modern, its all good when its good.

That's it, so have at it.
 
#3
Good Tone is quite subjective but here are some that I have owned in the past that I felt had great tone for my needs, at those particular points in time.

Sunn Sorado with Eminence Delta 15 drivers.
Sunn 2000S with JBL D140 drivers.
Traynor YT-15 (sealed) with EVM15L drivers.
Traynor YS-15 (sealed) with Eminence Delta Pro 15 driver.
Custom made (by me) front loaded folded horn with JBL 2225 driver (amazing tone, I never should have sold this one).
Custom made (by my brother) ported cabinet with Altec 421A driver.
Bag End S-15D with BE branded Eminence driver.
 
#10
mbelue said:
Peavey TVX115 bw 4 ohm.
Good solid thump, not allot of sub-bass, not allot upper treble.
Just muscular mids where you need them.
And cheap to boot.
Click to expand...

Also big and heavy. Killer though.

I'll add to the list of those just naming their own gear as is the norm in such threads. Boogie Scout. If nothing else, it's unique given the passive radiator.

Those new Fender Rumble neos are great too.
 
#12
George Mann said:
Is this cab really any better than the Rumble version?
Click to expand...
MUCH I happen to love the sound of Eminence Neo woofers. The Bassman Pro cab is a more expensive design. The Rumble 115 and it's ceramic Eminence woof were designed for each other and they are very good together especially at the $300 price point. To me the neo magnets are very reminiscent, tonewise, of the old AlNiCo magnets only much more powerful. Of course the Bassman 115 cab and Eminence neo driver were also designed for one another. More than just a few owners of the Bassman 115 have commented on how open; airy, and natual sounding they are. Others have flat out stated that it is the very best sounding 115 that they have ever heard. I concur.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SonicMaximus, jmansourdumas and rodl2005
#15
15" bass speaker. In the mid-1970s, I built my own rig with 4 Altec 421 8H bass speakers. It was a stereo bass project but Altec had discontinued production of the cabinet design.
I therefore, designed my own but not too different from their design. the Altecs still work today a good 40 years later!!! To view the cabinets, they can be seen on the Home page
of my main website www.escutcheonmedia.com I had a stereo bass amplifier built by a graduate of Melbourne University Australia who lived in Oxford, U.K. That still works
40 years later. I built it for the Rickenbacker Stereo Bass guitar. (1973). The rig came in handy for other uses including P.A. with a mixer. It was a challenge to build though.
 
#17
If weight is not an issue, then an appropriate cab with a JBL K140 driver in it. Sweetest 15 I have ever heard, tonewise, but heavy ( 15 lbs or so ). My next choice would be a Greenboy Bassic 15, with the Faital PR400, a very full range sounding 15, stand alone driver, and very lightweight cab.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DanGR and CL400Peavey
#18
jnewmark said:
If weight is not an issue, then an appropriate cab with a JBL K140 driver in it. Sweetest 15 I have ever heard, tonewise, but heavy ( 15 lbs or so ). My next choice would be a Greenboy Bassic 15, with the Faital PR400, a very full range sounding 15, stand alone driver, and very lightweight cab.
Click to expand...

I have the 215 version of the Bassic. The Dually loaded with 15PR400's is crazy good. Amazing tone, loud, weighs a hair over 60 pounds. I bet a Bassic can come in close to 30 pounds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TAZ
#19
Arthur Strand said:
15" bass speaker. In the mid-1970s, I built my own rig with 4 Altec 421 8H bass speakers. It was a stereo bass project but Altec had discontinued production of the cabinet design.
I therefore, designed my own but not too different from their design. the Altecs still work today a good 40 years later!!! To view the cabinets, they can be seen on the Home page
of my main website www.escutcheonmedia.com I had a stereo bass amplifier built by a graduate of Melbourne University Australia who lived in Oxford, U.K. That still works
40 years later. I built it for the Rickenbacker Stereo Bass guitar. (1973). The rig came in handy for other uses including P.A. with a mixer. It was a challenge to build though.
Click to expand...
+1 While in studio I still use the Stepped alnico magnet Altec 418H series two version of that venerable speaker,
I did also have an old Ampeg V4B with 421's in it back in the 70's, I can imagine that if loaded in a big enough infinite baffle design like yours, a 421 would be a very efficient and make a hell of a good sound with a decent all tube amp. they are best used in studio due to their weight, and survive forever if un assaulted by kilowatts of class d awesomeness.
I loves me Altec's and me JBL's oh and then there is EVL's which don't suck either.
I hear that the Faital PR400 is quite agile for a modern higher power handling 15" driver, that can in my experience, be a little dull or dead sounding, due no doubt to the physical reality that, longer higher X-Max/power voice coils and longer travel suspensions are unavoidably adding to the equivalent of vehicular unsprung weight and therefore loose a little something in agility. There is no free lunch.:-)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isotonic

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back