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DSM Humboldt Bass Master & Sub-Atomic

#41
Hi there!

I was hoping to get some detailed practical feedback from the community before investing in a DSM/H Simplifier. I have done my homework on the feature sets of the original Bass Station and the new Bass Master, but I am left with some crucial questions about how to apply those in practice. I would be quite grateful for any insights from members who have owned or tried both on:

- Cabinet Simulation Quality: beyond the additional controls like porting and tweeter on the Bass Master, is there anyt fundamental improvement in the sonic quality of the core cab sims from Bass Station to Bass Master?

- Cab Sim Blend: I am very drawn to the Bass Station's onboard cab sim blend, it seems ideal for silent practice and getting a mix of DI and amped tones directly in headphones without external gear (e.g. a mixer with both DIs plugged). Now I see that they removed this feature in the Bass Master. How does the headphones experience compare? I am going to use this feature quite a lot.

- "Only Preamp" Mode: in the future I might plan to use the simplifier without sim cab as only preamp into a power amp/cabinet setup. I see that the Bass Master features a dedicated cab sim bypass switch for the 1/4" output, while the Bass Station requires turning the blend knob to "Dry". In practice, is the dedicated switch a major advantage for quality and convenience? Does it provide a cleaner or truer "preamp only" signal?

Thanks in advance!
 
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#42
To answer all three questions, with the bass master I don’t seem to have as much control of the cabsim as on the original. The blend on the original affected both the XLR and 1/4. I don’t like the switch but I understand their intent.

In terms of cabsim sound quality they are both pretty good, but it’s not as easy for me to dial it to taste as in the simplifier.

There are always compromises when you cram this much stuff into a small space. I would like to see a bypass switch that is accessible. That and the change in loops keeps the DSM off my board.

I did use the original simplifier live and it was great.

Also. Since this is a “zero-watt” amplifier design, don’t expect it to drive a power amp alone. It behaves best at unity gain, so you’ll need a preamp or something to get you up to line level.
 
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#44
Zbysek said:
Did you end up selling your XB Driver? Could you please share the screenshot? Thank you
Click to expand...
1755917489903.jpeg

And yes, I’ve decided the XB will go and this one will stay — 1. DSM’s got a headphone out 2. I don’t use the XB’s crossover function.
 
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#45
Lowbrow said:
View attachment 7305809
And yes, I’ve decided the XB will go and this one will stay — 1. DSM’s got a headphone out 2. I don’t use the XB’s crossover function.
Click to expand...
Interesting.
The xB driver kicked my DSM off the board. I use the crossover almost always. :-).

I found it difficult to get the simplifier to work with other pedals, though it sounds really good by itself.
 
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#46
klattman said:
To answer all three questions, with the bass master I don’t seem to have as much control of the cabsim as on the original. The blend on the original affected both the XLR and 1/4. I don’t like the switch but I understand their intent.

In terms of cabsim sound quality they are both pretty good, but it’s not as easy for me to dial it to taste as in the simplifier.

There are always compromises when you cram this much stuff into a small space. I would like to see a bypass switch that is accessible. That and the change in loops keeps the DSM off my board.

I did use the original simplifier live and it was great.

Also. Since this is a “zero-watt” amplifier design, don’t expect it to drive a power amp alone. It behaves best at unity gain, so you’ll need a preamp or something to get you up to line level.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot! Now I'm even more confused though haha. It feels like I should settle more on the Bass Station for what's your feedback, I definitely want to keep the DSM On Board and make full use of the loops. I'll think more about that.

About the use with the power amp, would it work with just a booster after the DSM? It's just a thing in my head, I would probably just go directly on the PA at the end of the day, but I have my old Ampeg 1x12'' that I would like to use with zero changes in my setup and shutting down the cab sim.
 
#48
chickymonkeys said:
Thanks a lot! Now I'm even more confused though haha. It feels like I should settle more on the Bass Station for what's your feedback, I definitely want to keep the DSM On Board and make full use of the loops. I'll think more about that.

About the use with the power amp, would it work with just a booster after the DSM? It's just a thing in my head, I would probably just go directly on the PA at the end of the day, but I have my old Ampeg 1x12'' that I would like to use with zero changes in my setup and shutting down the cab sim.
Click to expand...
I’ve put a clean boost pedal after the simplifier and that works.

The original simplifier has two channels with a loop in each channel. When I used it live I ran the parallel channel with the lpf at 100 and with a boost in that loop. I ran my modulation effects in the preamp loop. Worked well to get more lows mixed in with my effects and the much gainier preamp side.

On the new “master” one loop is after where the two channels are combined and the other loop is after either the preamp side, parallel side or both. To me that’s much less “simple” and I cannot run it the same as the original. I can set the selectable loop to the parallel side and boost the filtered lows, but then I don’t have a loop for just the preamp side. Depends on use case.

This is indeed a “simplifier”.
 
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#53
DuluthDank said:
Yeah, I just use mine as a headphone amp so I'm not concerned about the loops as much....just wondering if a better tone can be coaxed out of the newer one with those extra preamp modes. But if not, I should be glad at the opportunity to save 350 dollars.
Click to expand...
The new sound is not significantly different either to my ear. They are both really nice, but having both I wouldn’t have got the new one.
 
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