Played through the amp and cab this afternoon, and had a great first impression.
I set everything dead flat, and the system was loud and essentially colorless. The amp appeared to reproduce nothing but the sound of my bass, which I already love.
Some light adjustments to the EQ yielded pretty dramatic results, which wasn't necessarily needed, as I generally like to adjust my sound at the instrument. Responsive it was, though.
The cabinet reproduced highs surprisingly well with the bass set to deliver treble (the tone control of the Longhorn boosts when set past center detent), giving me all the brightness I generally desire, and maybe a bit more, even EQed flat on the amp. Overtones were rich, and the natural compression of the tube pre was pleasant but not at all intrusive.
With the front pickup soloed, the sound had plenty of bark. Playing slap with the pre-gain dimed did very briefly light the limiter LED, but that was the only time it ever greened. The transient response was very good. In fact, the responsiveness overall was quite impressive.
I never pushed the master volume past 10 o'clock and we were booming the storage warehouses where we set up the meet (found some resonance frequencies there too - sorry neighbors!).
Just for giggles, the seller (a bassist himself) plugged in his six-string to demonstrate the lower frequencies. The setup held strong all the way down to the open B with no obvious rolloff of volume.
I was slightly surprised that pushing the pre-gain did not result in more distortion, but what I'd read before indicated that the stock tubes these units came with did not contribute a lot of breakup to the sound even when pushed hard. That of course could be changed with a tube swap if I decided it was desirable, or a pedal through the dedicated effects loop, although that's not part of "my" tone.
Not auditioned was the built-in chorus section, as that's not really something I'm likely to use. I also did not test the bi-amping functions, although there was another amp there to test with, due again to lack of desire to utilize the function in the foreseeable future. The balanced XLR output is something I'd use, but had no opportunity to test.
Overall impressions of this rig were very positive. I've got one more system to audition before I buy, but the price/performance ratio of this rig has put it into top consideration for a purchase.
Those who turn their nose up at the Crate label should maybe give this system a listen. I personally don't care what's on the front of the cabinet if it sounds good, and this system delivered pretty much exactly what I was looking for - old-school warmth of tone and faithful reproduction of the sound of my bass, with adequate volume for most any situation I can think of that wouldn't require FOH support.
