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Carvin BX500: Part II

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#503
vinxbass said:
Explain to me why it would be better in an 8ohm cab. Explain.:confused:
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The 210 cab is getting 2/3 of the power. It should be the other way around. It's not that big of a deal until you start really pushing the amp.

If you have a 300 watt amp you'd want 200 watts to go to the 410 and 100watts going to the 210. As it is right now you're getting 200watts going to the 210 (100 watts per speaker) and 100watts going to the 410 (25 watts per speaker) roughly.
 
#505
Liam-that's a great lookin' mini-rig man! Congrats.

liam_g said:
Played the BX500 / BRX10.2 Neo rig with a latin jazz / rock trio tonight. Actually got on tv! Telemundo Nashville was having a soccer party for the games tonight (US vs Honduras and Mexico vs Costa Rica I think), and we played the party. We played Oye Como Va behind a few commercial spots, which was very cool.

Anyway, the rig was just perfect. Punchy and clear, very articulate. I started with the eq set with just a bit of bass cut, but a guitarist friend in the audience asked for more lows, so I set everything to noon with no graphic eq, and just never moved it the whole night. This was an outdoor patio gig. I was not in the PA, but was balancing everything very well (vocals and cajone in the PA, acoustic / electric guitar into a combo amp, and congas unamplified).

Very happy with this combination of gear ...
Link Removed

Cheers,
Liam
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#506
Blues Cat said:
The 210 cab is getting 2/3 of the power. It should be the other way around. It's not that big of a deal until you start really pushing the amp.

If you have a 300 watt amp you'd want 200 watts to go to the 410 and 100watts going to the 210. As it is right now you're getting 200watts going to the 210 (100 watts per speaker) and 100watts going to the 410 (25 watts per speaker) roughly.
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I agree and infact a 4ohm low and an 8 ohm high could be considered a poor mans crossover as well.

Chris P
 
#507
That 410 in the picture with the BRX.2 looks like the BRX.4 that is also 4 ohms so each cab would get half the power. It would be nice if the 210 was 8 ohms like most of you guys have said so each ten inch speaker got the same power but it's not too bad a balance this way. If the 410 cab was an 8 ohm cab then that would be a big mismatch. Back when I had my R1000 stack I had the 8 ohm Redline 410 and the 4 ohm 210. Even with the R1000s dual amps it was hard to get a good balance and the rig worked better just with the 410 and the amp bridged.
 
#510
Thanks to the PayPal Plug-In I should be able to buy my BX500 sometime soon. As soon as I sell some of my pedals I'll be ready to place my order. :)

And to think that I was about to settle on a GK MB2-500; this has turned out just right! I don't mean any disrespect to the MB2-500, of course, I'm only speaking from a features and tone standpoint. I like the feature set of the BX500 a lot more (most notably the 2 ohm operation) and I like what I've read about the sound. I'm sure the MB2-500 would be great as well but the BX500 has earned a special place on my GAS list.
 
#511
Well, had my first disappointment with this head on Friday. We played a bar with weak voltage, and the head started cutting out during sound check, then cut out completely before the first set. I played through the PA all night because I was an idiot and didn't bring my B1500 to back up my still-unproven BX500.

The power was wreaking havoc with the guitarist's pedal board and amp as well.

I guess this is something that could have happened with many of the new lightweight amps, as they are very sensitive to low voltage. It makes me have to consider either getting a small voltage regulator / line conditioner, such as this one: Invalid Link Removed

Or just abandon the idea and go back to heavier heads, since the prospect of having to carry an extra piece of gear "just in case" doesn't really appeal to me. And the added 10 pounds or so for the voltage regulator takes the combination out of the ultralight category.

We'll see ...

Cheers,
Liam
 
#512
liam_g said:
Well, had my first disappointment with this head on Friday. We played a bar with weak voltage, and the head started cutting out during sound check, then cut out completely before the first set. I played through the PA all night because I was an idiot and didn't bring my B1500 to back up my still-unproven BX500.

The power was wreaking havoc with the guitarist's pedal board and amp as well.

I guess this is something that could have happened with many of the new lightweight amps, as they are very sensitive to low voltage. It makes me have to consider either getting a small voltage regulator / line conditioner, such as this one: Invalid Link Removed

Or just abandon the idea and go back to heavier heads, since the prospect of having to carry an extra piece of gear "just in case" doesn't really appeal to me. And the added 10 pounds or so for the voltage regulator takes the combination out of the ultralight category.

We'll see ...

Cheers,
Liam
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Longshot, BUT, are you sure the 2ohm button wasn't pushed in? I had a couple of gigs where the amp cut out and I got a little nervous - power was low, head wasn't acting as it should. I noticed the 2 ohm button had gotten pushed in by the speaker cable. DOH! on me.
 
#513
Does anyone know if there's a way to run audio into the amp to play over? I don't know how the effects loop works on this amp but maybe I could run an MP3 player into the return and then hear my bass over the music through the headphones. Would this be doable or somehow damaging to the amp?
 
#514
Joe Nerve said:
Longshot, BUT, are you sure the 2ohm button wasn't pushed in? I had a couple of gigs where the amp cut out and I got a little nervous - power was low, head wasn't acting as it should. I noticed the 2 ohm button had gotten pushed in by the speaker cable. DOH! on me.
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Yeah, I checked that. It was on 4 ohms.

It's a great head! And likely not the only ultralight head that would have had problems in the sketchy power that this club had ...

Cheers,
Liam
 
#515
liam_g said:
And likely not the only ultralight head that would have had problems in the sketchy power that this club had ...

Cheers,
Liam
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So THAT'S it. Mine did EXACTLY the same thing at an outdoor gig where the power was coming from a 150-ft power cable running from a temporary power cabinet in the parking lot with 15 other power cables running out of it. The BX simply did not like that at all. The power would cut out completely and the rest of the band would go down with me, but then the power would come back on and the rest of the band came in fine but the BX took about 10 minutes to settle down and power up... but it's been fine in the several indoor gigs I've played.
 
#516
Hey, Eli,

Yeah, you probably had the same thing I did. I've seen reports on here of Markbass amps doing the same thing. These things just don't seem to tolerate low voltage like the old lead sleds. I'm mostly just pissed that I relied on unproven gear with no backup. Stupid me. I've been around long enough to know better.

Cheers,
Liam
 
#517
I ordered my BX500 this evening. :)

I'm hoping that I won't run into the problems that you guys have mentioned. I've got an outdoor gig in early September and I'll probably use this head with a pair (hopefully) of Avatar SB112s since we'll have full PA support. I'd hate to have trouble with it cutting out. We'll see if I even need my amp; one of the other bands will probably have something nice to use.
 
#518
vinxbass said:
I just added the Carvin BRX10.2 neo to the BRX10.4 neo and my BX500 at 2 ohms. Man what sound this thing can produce with 2 extra 10" neo speakers. I thought the sound was full before, it's really full now. Super punchy and powerful to boot. Can't hardly wait for our next outdoor gig that is coming up, this baby should and will pack a punch.
102_0508.jpg
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That is the same setup that I was thinking about getting in a month or two . . .

It would not be a good idea?
 
#519
theory028 said:
I ordered my BX500 this evening. :)

I'm hoping that I won't run into the problems that you guys have mentioned. I've got an outdoor gig in early September and I'll probably use this head with a pair (hopefully) of Avatar SB112s since we'll have full PA support. I'd hate to have trouble with it cutting out. We'll see if I even need my amp; one of the other bands will probably have something nice to use.
Click to expand...

Let us know what you think of the Carvin + Avatar SB112 x 2 combo, I'm running the same cabs with my NeoPak but have been thinking of picking one of these up, for fun :)
 
#520
I definitely will. I can only afford one SB112 right now but I'm still selling stuff. I'm not too far from scoring the other cab. :bassist: I'm probably going to get the heavier drivers that can handle more power.

How does your NeoPak perform with the Avatars?
 
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