Class D amp with the most slam/punch

[ole Jason]

As far as the "audience can't tell" or "your sound is all in the FOH" - that's probably true.

Sometimes I feel bad for people who only ever get to gig through FOH. I love playing small venues or doing jazz gigs where everything, or almost everything, is just stage volume. It's a lot of fun cranking up a great amp through big cabs and letting it rip.

 

[DJ Bebop]

So this is why I asked about cabinet contributing to slam and punch.

I run my Mesa head with a Powerhouse stack of a 4x10 and a 1x18. Seems pretty slamy and punchy. Took it home and ran it through a 1x15, not as much. Still sounded good.

 

[socialleper]

Are you saying your d800+ does hit has hard as your db751 or does not? It isn't clear from your response.

Oops. Let me edit that.
It does NOT. It is close. But just doesn't quite pack the same punch.

 

[socialleper]

So this is why I asked about cabinet contributing to slam and punch.

I run my Mesa head with a Powerhouse stack of a 4x10 and a 1x18. Seems pretty slamy and punchy. Took it home and ran it through a 1x15 not as much, still sounded good .

Personally I find that 1x15 are a little slow. The amount the speaker has to move kinda messes with the impact. Great for lo mids though.

I really like my Barefaced 2x12. Fast, uncolored, and can handle the girth of the DB751 with a smile.

 

[pfschim]

Sometimes I feel bad for people who only ever get to gig through FOH. I love playing small venues or doing jazz gigs where everything, or almost everything, is just stage volume. It's a lot of fun cranking up a great amp through big cabs and letting it rip.

well, how much slam/punch/heft can a "small venue" actually take .... and jazz gig ?? really? I believe you might not get asked back if you brought slam/punch/heft to a jazz gig.

Of course it can be kind of fun to let a big rig rip with the right music, and I have definitely done it, but as a practical matter I think most working musicians (unless your in a slam/punch/heft-centric band) are not chasing this kind of bass tone.

but hey, everyone is free to use whatever words they want to describe non-quantifiable tone descriptions.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Personally I find that 1x15 are a little slow. The amount the speaker has to move kinda messes with the impact. Great for lo mids though.

I really like my Barefaced 2x12. Fast, uncolored, and can handle the girth of the DB751 with a smile.

To my ear, I thought it was more of a difference of playing through 4-10s 1-18 vs a single 15

So a cabinet can contribute or detract from the slam/punch equation?

 

[agedhorse]

If I were to supply a competent amp desginer with unlmited budget could they build an 8 pound or less amp that sounds and feels exactly like a db751?

Yes, IMO if that’s what the designer is going for.

 

[5StringBlues]

 

[DJ Bebop]

Slam and punch punch punch

 

[5StringBlues]

Slam and punch punch punch punch

In brutal amounts.

 

[DJ Bebop]

In brutal amounts.

Unbridled power.

 

[hennessybass]

I love playing small venues or doing jazz gigs where everything, or almost everything, is just stage volume.

Not jazz for me, but I LOVE playing stage volume. Nice tight stage, medium room, vocals in the PA...

well, how much slam/punch/heft can a "small venue" actually take .... and jazz gig ?? really? I believe you might not get asked back if you brought slam/punch/heft to a jazz gig.

I don't think of slam / heft as "jazz" tone, but I also don't think those tone descriptors are necessarily equated with volume or big amps.

 

[hennessybass]

DB751 just posted in the classifieds.

 

[socialleper]

To my ear, I thought it was more of a difference of playing through 4-10s 1-18 vs a single 15

So a cabinet can contribute or detract from the slam/punch equation?

In my completely unprofessional, uneducated opinion I feel like "slam" isn't just those deep lo mids hitting you, it is those frequencies hitting you fast. Another useless, but someone accurate term I use is authoritative, in that it hits quick and solid.
To that end, a cab that can't produce the EQ properly, or can't respond quickly enough to those frequencies, aren't fast enough to take advantage of them. So your 4x10 + 1x18 (is that a 90s Ampeg BTW?) Balances out the depth of the 18 with the speed of the 10s. The excursion of the 15s might be a hair too slow, and the req curve a little too muffled to optimize the "slam" of a DB751. Maybe. I dunno. I'm guessing.
Alex Webster plays a DB751 in a death metal band, or Nick Schendzielos who uses a DB751 on everything from trash to tech death metal, use a 8x10 cab with theirs. They have roadies and I don't, so I use a light weight 2x12 that is as loud as a 8x10.

 

[chadds]

Slam and Punch are available and a choice at any volume. Appropriate in Jazz or Bluegrass Polka Folk.

 

[Marko 1]

Sometimes I feel bad for people who only ever get to gig through FOH. I love playing small venues or doing jazz gigs where everything, or almost everything, is just stage volume. It's a lot of fun cranking up a great amp through big cabs and letting it rip.

I can't crank up very loud indoors, outdoors to a point, but I really enjoy the occasional car show, where the folks are pretty far away from the stage area with the cars hearing the PA, and I get to turn up my stack good and loud without affecting the sound out there.

 

[fishdude101101]

Yes, IMO if that’s what the designer is going for.

That's what I figured. My .02 and take it for being worth about that much, is that a lot of modern amps are very tightly damped. When I demoed the WD-800 and set the dampening control to the loosest setting it sounded more like a "led sled". I might be wrong but that's how it felt.

In your opinion why aren't people out there making lightweight amps that do the db751 thing? No demand? I'm sure Mesa and others have some data about what people want...

 

[Thumpin6string]

and yet, both Mesa (recent) and Genz were designed by the same guy .... so .....

Exactly

 

[agedhorse]

That's what I figured. My .02 and take it for being worth about that much, is that a lot of modern amps are very tightly damped. When I demoed the WD-800 and set the dampening control to the loosest setting it sounded more like a "led sled". I might be wrong but that's how it felt.

In your opinion why aren't people out there making lightweight amps that do the db751 thing? No demand? I'm sure Mesa and others have some data about what people want...

Most lead sled solid state amps have very high (not low) dampening factor. The Walkabout was an exception because that was the designer’s intent.

That’s more a question for Aguilar, why didn’t they do this?

By comparison, I did do this taking the Genz Benz ML-200 to NeoPak 3.5 to Shuttle 3.0. All basically the same preamp with different power supplies and power amps. Same for the GBE-750/1200 to the ShuttleMax 6.0/12.0

 

[stockplus]

Yes, IMO if that’s what the designer is going for.

That’s more a question for Aguilar, why didn’t they do this?

Would love to have Mesa's take on a Class D DB750/DB751 killer!