Double Bass EA Micro 550 + Schroeder 1212 BMF - headroom issues

[mrpackerguy]

It's the gauge of the wire that matters. That's all, nothing else. As long as each power cord can handle the amperage drawn by the amp, it makes no difference at all. The voltage rating stamped on the cord is irrelevant in this case.

I do have power cords of different thicknesses.

 

[drurb]

...and so, what gauge of wire should be the minimum for a power cord? Speaker cable?

They probably run around 16 or 14 gauge. I'm sure that what's supplied with the amp is more than sufficient. Unless the power cord is so thin as to heat up and result in substantial voltage drop or large amounts of noise are finding their way into the line, I don't believe anyone could reliably detect any difference at all as a result of changing power cords.

 

[mrpackerguy]

Except me...the power cord savante. All kidding aside, the Micro was noticeably louder at comparable volume settings with the supplied cord, more of a 12 or 10 gauge cord, than the one I was using from another amp, which was more like a 14 gauge.

They probably run around 16 or 14 gauge. I'm sure that what's supplied with the amp is more than sufficient. Unless the power cord is so thin as to heat up and result in substantial voltage drop or large amounts of noise are finding their way into the line, I don't believe anyone could reliably detect any difference at all as a result of changing power cords.

 

[drurb]

Except me...the power cord savante. All kidding aside, the Micro was noticeably louder at comparable volume settings with the supplied cord, more of a 12 or 10 gauge cord, than the one I was using from another amp, which was more like a 14 gauge.

Well, please accept this in the light-hearted spirit in which it's offered. You may want to check out one of these.

 

[bassdaddyfive]

The power cord is important, but once you plug it into wall there is no control on how the wall supply is wired. I seen stages way out of wiring code. But when you got good power it makes all the diffrence in how your amp performs.

 

[mrpackerguy]

I received my MICRO back from Gary at EA and it is MUCH LOUDER! It is very noticeable with my WAV4 EUB, but the most dramatic difference is when using my active MM Stingray. Lots of headroom to spare now. So it was either malfunctioned before, or had the wrong power supply in it or something. But it is totally useable for me now and combined with my new Wizzy 10 will be a great sounding and portable rig for the jazz trio gigs I have. Great customer service at EA Audio.

 

[Jim Dombrowski]

Thanks for the update. I bought a used Micro 550 recently and ran into headroom issues last night also. I was playing a Lakland electric with active preamp into the Micro and an Accugroove Whappo Jr cab (4 ohms).

Initially, I was quite impressed with the sound and volume of the amp, but later in the evening when the band got a little louder, the Micro ran out of gas. When turning the gain or master volume controls from about 60% to all the way up, there was almost no change in volume. I'll talk with Gary at EA, and send him the serial number.

 

[Bob Gollihur]

I received my MICRO back from Gary at EA and it is MUCH LOUDER! It is very noticeable with my WAV4 EUB, but the most dramatic difference is when using my active MM Stingray. Lots of headroom to spare now. So it was either malfunctioned before, or had the wrong power supply in it or something. But it is totally useable for me now and combined with my new Wizzy 10 will be a great sounding and portable rig for the jazz trio gigs I have. Great customer service at EA Audio.

There was nothing malfunctioning, EA's spec simply didn't push the output section as hard as it could be. Due to power comments here, Gary engineered a very simple change that would maximize the output available from the output module. It's a mod available to any past purchaser; all those we have sold recently have the mod already.