Double Bass EA Combos

[Mike Dimin]

!

 

[drurb]

Does the fact that the Whizzer cone and the main 12" driver are on the same axis mean anything in terms of off-axis performance?

Like I said - not being a techie at all - I'm picturing these waves - sorry, spheres - of moving air and sound coming out of the cabinet.

If these spheres originate from the same center, the smaller ones would push out and blossom inside the bigger ones. In a multi-driver system, these spheres would be coming from different points, albeit probably less than 12" or so apart, and they would eventually cross each others paths, overlap, smile and say "How do you do?" ... whatever.

Would that affect the perceived off-axis performance?

I'm sure this is at least worth a chuckle to the scientific types ...

To add to mje's response, drivers in multi-driver systems will have overlap in the frequency regions they radiate. "Smoothing" these crossover points is done by careful design of the crossover, paying particular attention to the amplitude and phase response through the transition regions. It's very tricky. To this day, in the hi-fi world, there are those devoted to full-range single driver systems (the prototype being Lowther).

 

[bolo]

Thanks mje and DRURB. Most enlightening. You guys are great, although a lot of it goes over my head most of the time.

And I am relieved that my description of those spheres of sound was not so far out and far off after all. I was beginning to think I was the only one who sees those groovy colored sonic spheres coming from their bass cabinets. Boy, that would make me kinda ... well ... off my axis.

 

[Freddels]

I went ahead and ordered the iAmp 500 from AHB. It's scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

 

[jb6884]

Did you get the combo or just the head?

 

[Freddels]

Just the head. I already have a wizzy cab. In the future, if I decide that I want to run 2 wizzies, then I may get the headless cab so that I can put the head in and make a combo. But for now, I'll just run one.

 

[bolo]

I was gonna ask why you chose the 500 vs. the 200. But I think your last point explains that.

Did you consider the 800 at all?

 

[Freddels]

I thought the 800 would be too much for what I would ever need. Plus the extra weight of it just didn't make sense to me. Even the 500 will be heavy to me since I'm used to the WW m-100.

I just want to be able to figure out the settings on it. I really don't like fussing with knobs and prefer just plug and play.

 

[bolo]

FWIW, as flexible and as accurate as the EQ section is, I just bypass it with my upright. That's with a Rev SOLO p/u, and that's how it sounds best to me. So the only button I use besides the power on/off is the speaker on/off. Pretty simple. Great sound.

P.S. I will add the Contour 1 button is very cool for fingerstyle on BG, but I don't slap or treat her mean.

 

[Freddels]

So I guess I should just run everything on it flat? Hopefully, if it gets here early enough tomorrow, I'll take it with me to my jam session.

 

[bolo]

You could trying starting off w/ everything flat, just to kind of set the sonic "baseline" for this rig in your head.

When I got my 200C, I started off just like that w/ no EQ. Then of course I tried all 4 of the Contour buttons, one at a time. Then I tried the Contour buttons in combinations. Not sure if I exhausted all of the combinations, but I got a better feel for what each Contour button can do.

Then ... then I tried each of the 4 EQ bands. I would boost one of the EQ knobs to say 3:00, and then slowly spin the variable frequency control from it's lowest point to it's highest. Man ... this was a serious education for my ears. Especially in the mids. You just gotta hear it to do it justice.

Then I tried cutting each EQ band instead of boosting (like 9:00 vs. 3:00), and again spinning through the frequencies for that band. Again, serious tonal shaping possibilities.

But you know what? As I did this, I just kept coming back to the flat EQ. To me, it just sounded the most accurate, complete, and balanced. There is a nice little switch were you can just bypass the whole EQ section, and that's what I do for DB.

But I know not everybody agrees w/ my approach, or goes for the same type of tone I do I guess. For tone shaping in different rooms, I basically leave the EQ alone and try to use the position of my cab relative to walls and corners to get the sound I want. Floor vs. raised is another thing I usually try.

IMO this amp will highlight the accuracy or the deficiencies of whatever you're feeding into it. Like many folks have already said, no EQ setting is gonna make a bad sounding bass or a crappy pickup sound good. So it does make you think about nailing down the accuracy of your front-end rig (pickups, mics, preamps).

Whatever you do seems to come through and translate nicely. So it's cliche but I use my hands a lot to control the tone (e.g. raising the right hand up a little farther away from the bridge to get a little mellower tone for ballads, that kind of thing).

Anyway, I guess the EQ possibilities are pretty mind boggling. But it's not bad at all once you get into it. The owner's manual lays things out pretty nicely.

I think you're really gonna dig it.

 

[bolo]

I think the owner's manual actually says do the opposite of what I described above. They say twiddle the EQ knobs first, then try the Contour buttons.

And for clarification by "4 Contour buttons" I really meant the four buttons labelled "Deep, Contour 1, Contour 2, Bright".

 

[mchildree]

I have an iAmp 800 and I've found that simply running my New Standard into the amp flat, or maybe with the Contour I preset engaged gives me perfect tone, depending on the room.

Where I found the eq very helpful is on a "lesser" bass like my '39 Kay, where certain freq ranges aren't as ballsy as others. That can be easily remedied with the eq, usually the low-mids. Just boost a bit and sweep until you even things out.

 

[Mike Dimin]

I think the owner's manual actually says do the opposite of what I described above. They say twiddle the EQ knobs first, then try the Contour buttons.

And for clarification by "4 Contour buttons" I really meant the four buttons labelled "Deep, Contour 1, Contour 2, Bright".

When I wrote the manual I never used the word "twiddle"

Mike

 

[tombowlus]

When I wrote the manual I never used the word "twiddle"

Mike

LOL!

 

[bolo]

When I wrote the manual I never used the word "twiddle"

Mike

Good point. Stupid twiddly little word.

My feet are just too big though for "kicking on the presets" as described on p. 7. I just use my index finger.

 

[bolo]

I have an iAmp 800 and I've found that simply running my New Standard into the amp flat, or maybe with the Contour I preset engaged gives me perfect tone, depending on the room.

Where I found the eq very helpful is on a "lesser" bass like my '39 Kay, where certain freq ranges aren't as ballsy as others. That can be easily remedied with the eq, usually the low-mids. Just boost a bit and sweep until you even things out.

+1. You really have to hear this thing (the EQ section) to appreciate what it can do.

 

[Freddels]

Well the iAmp arrived today. I didn't get to use it before my jam session so I just took it with me. I used it with the EQ off and it sounded great. I didn't get to "twiddle" with the knobs so maybe one of these days I'll play with the Tone Shaping but running it flat sounded great with my bass.

 

[bolo]

No twiddling pal. We don't twiddle w/ EA gear. I have hereby removed that descriptor from my vocabulary.

I am glad your initial impressions were good. But like DRURB pointed out a while back, taking the time to get familiar with the EQ section is time well spent.

And as I said before, it really helped open my ears A LOT - like really hearing the difference between 400 Hz and 500 and 700 and 800 - all picky regions for some piezos I think.

I think it's safe to say all the EA iAMP heads share this very high quality EQ section. The 200, 500, and 800 heads all appear have the same EQ capabilities.

If you want to compare and contrast the iAMP with your Walter Woods for us at some point too, that would be pretty cool.

 

[tombowlus]

I think it's safe to say all the EA iAMP heads share this very high quality EQ section. The 200, 500, and 800 heads all appear have the same EQ capabilities.

This is correct, and you can include the 350 and 600 on that list.