bongomania
Commercial User
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EAR CANDY CABS? ANYONE OWN ONE or TWO?
- Thread starter Rapisme
- Start date
bongomania
Commercial User
My response wasn't particularly directed at you either; I sound defensive because time after time we have these threads where good ol' boys slap each other on the back and say "it sounds good to me, so those armchair nerds with their book-larnin' should get lost, we hate them anyway". Then it's easy for people to jovially agree that those nerds should quit listening with their calculators.
Point being that book-larnin' really does have value in the real world, helping people understand what their gear really is and isn't doing--physics is reality, not some nerdy fantasyland; and that many of those supposedly armchair nerds actually have quite a history of gigging; and that with the exception of Bill there
, all the comments I've seen have been criticisms of the company's technical claims, not criticisms of how the cabs should "sound" tone-quality-wise.
bongomania
Commercial User
So, I got a PM directing me to a thread where someone was bagging on Earcandy, and once again from my perspective most of what they were criticizing was unrealistic claims made by Earcandy, not the cabs themselves per se. To be fair, the person doing the criticizing was pretty rough in his language and did cut Earcandy down quite hard, as well as cutting down people who think Earcandy cabs are in any way special, so I'd have to agree in that thread his posts were intended to make people think Earcandy cabs were not worth buying.
For the record, I think that particular person does know what they're talking about, from both technical and gigging-practical standpoints; however he was being a total jerk in the way he tried to communicate that info.
So the challenge for each of us is to share what we know, whether technical or aesthetic/practical/musical, without crapping on the other person. Right?
For the record, I think that particular person does know what they're talking about, from both technical and gigging-practical standpoints; however he was being a total jerk in the way he tried to communicate that info.
So the challenge for each of us is to share what we know, whether technical or aesthetic/practical/musical, without crapping on the other person. Right?
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
- 16,860
- 278
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- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
The judgment that they probably don't sound either better or worse than all the other cookie cutter cabs out there is hardly a rousing endorsement. OTOH the claims made on their website for their performance compared to other cabs would require that there be something fundamentally different about their engineering, and that's just not the case.You're not helping my argument there Bill.
Just a side note, it's completely unfair to Earcandy, but there was a thread long ago from a guy who sung the praises of his Earcandy cab, and it evolved into one of the epic threads of all time for reasons completely unrelated to the cab itself.
That was a great thread. It wasn't fair to EarCandy but it was hilarious. I really enjoyed my BassBomb while I owned it but never could get it to fill a stadium with sound. Remember that one? The person in the thread singing the praises of his EarCandy was likely a teenager living at home. There are many young folks on this forum who deservedly command the respect of other members. Not this poor fellow. He was banned, btw. Ironically, it gave some other posters a chance to make fools of themselves in public, as well.
Enjoy!http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247942&highlight=earcandy
M. M.
I'm a student of of "Book Larning" and performance testing and every other way to compare basses,amps and cabs...and I wish every manufacturer did it in the same standardized way so that we could more easily compare electronic basses,amps and cabs...but until that day comes... IMHO, one must play through A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT and LISTEN CAREFULLY to what it sounds like before judging it or comparing it to another piece. I'll say more about these cabs when I get my second EarCandy BassBomb cab and I start running my GB1200 with both cabs at 2 0hms with the full 1200 watts...peace...DAcat 
+1
You know, it's funny--I get really interested in the threads and posts from acoustical experts here, and make my mind up that any cab I buy must be the most efficient and scientifically-correct thing possible... and then ten minutes later I get wrapped up in threads about how awesome old Ampeg, Mesa, and Peavey amps sound(ed), and make up my mind that any cab I buy must be the epitome of vintage rawk.
Yes, I'm foolish that way. Oh well.
Anyway my point is that from what I've read, the Earcandy cabs rock hard and sound awesome, in spite of the possibility that they may not be designed on the soundest of acoustical principles, and may not do quite as well in the lowest frequencies as they claim.
True. I bought one in 2007. At first I was unpleasantly not impressed. Then I had some rattling issues. He fixed those at his expense (shipping, parts and labor). He ended up replacing one of the Eminence speakers. Then after a year and a half, one of my speakers locks up. I have no clue what happened to it. He offers to remake the whole cab for me. I did have to pay to ship it back, but he paid to get it to me when done. I got it TODAY. It sounds exactly like the old one. Deep lows are weak at best. The mids and highs are good. It has a boxy kinda sound. He uses no dampening material on the inside. I'm thinking about adding some to see if it improves a bit. But, to make a comparison, I have a VERY old GK 1-15 cab, probably early 80s design. No tweeter, and a slot port across the top of the baffle. It has MUCH more deep bass response than the 2-12 bassbomb. I'm convinced it is just the design of the box. He makes some serious claims on his website as to how it is equal to this or that (much bigger cabs), but it really isn't all that. The one thing in hindsight I should have noted, is that on his website, there are NO response curves, or any definitive specs at all, just words. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have spent the $650 for it. I would have demanded a listen, or trial period, like Carvin offers. Tim, the owner, bent over backwards for me to make me happy, but the cab is just not at all what I was hoping for. It makes a nice addition to the old GK cab, which I am doing, but alone, it is just kinda weak in the deep bass dept, to my ears.
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,350
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- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
But I hear the pine is juicy...oh wait...they've actually changed the site quite a bit. A lot of the really poorly florid copy has been removed. The wood descriptions for the cabs are still suspect, but not nearly as bad as they used to be.
Heh. They have 'military spec' cabs...I wonder if pacman is using these on his gigs.
Heh. They have 'military spec' cabs...I wonder if pacman is using these on his gigs.
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
- 16,860
- 278
- 76
- Disclosures
- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
So we give him a thumbs up on customer service, thumbs down on engineering chops.
By the look of his site that's what I expected, bass cabs built to guitar cab standards. The problem with that is, while you can throw a driver into a box and it will work perfectly well on guitar, do that with bass and results will be iffy at best.
I own an EarCandy BassBomb 212 as well as a Genz Benz Uber 410. I've been thru a lot of cabs since 66. Have you all heard of an Uber 212 or 410 cab...these cabs sound better than any other cab I have ever tried out before...I just love thier tonal variety and especially thier " old school " punch and snarl(no distortion-but a biting fatness that is hard to describe -but its very satisfying-kinda like when you hit a baseball with the bat right in the "sweet spot")...now I know that's all subjective- but its clearly heard by me...I did'nt see the specs but fell in love with this cab as soon as I heard it. Now I'd already had my EarCandy Bassbomb first...which I have had similar opinions as I have about my Uber 410 about-and no trouble getting low end out of it what so ever-if anything thats what it does best...and since owning my Earcandy 212 I've compared it to a Schroeder 212L, a Schroeder 410R, an Epifani UL II 410, and 212, and and Eden 410 and Ampeg 410(not sure of the exact models) and this cab was as effiecient as the Schroeders ( the loudest of the cabs), and IMO had the best, deepest, fat tone of all these cabs....again almost identical to the Uber 410 that I finally discovered as well... anyway... I was wanting to have one more cab for our practice site...and the more I ABed theUber and EarCandy cabs, the more difficult it was to tell them apart...and since it was going to be less expensive to get another EarCandy BassBomb, I ordered it... and it should be here any day. So unless you own one, and have listened to a lot of cabs and compared them to it, its not very fair to completely dismiss these cool cabs. And no disrespect to you Snavedog, you are completely entitled to your opinion and what sound you prefer... but just comparing it to "a VERY old GK 1-15 cab, probably early 80s design" may not be the best comparison...comparing 12s and 15s are kinda like comparing apples and oranges sometimes (although as you can see I compared 12s and 10s-I was just looking for the best sound). Since there are'nt specs out-if anyone wants to do them on my cabs-I'll let you. And if you don't have access to hear an EarCandy BassBomb Cab-Go play an Uber 212 or 410 cab-thats about what you'll be hearing-for subjective descriptions-there are plenty of people raving about these Uber cabs on TB right now...I really have'nt checked to see if they have Specs on these Uber cabs printed yet. But they still sound great. I wish all cabs sounded great-I wish they all let you try before you buy- and I wish there were a uniform set of specs that we could trust so that we could compare before we buy...but right now its still hard work to find the sound that you really like- and I've been trying for a looooong time....Peace...DAcat
DAcat:
I respect your opinion too, but I think it is fair to compare the bassbomb to a single 15" cab loaded with a 200W Jensen speaker. The reason it is fair, is because on the earcandy website, at the time I purchased the cab, he made lots of claims that it could easily replace a 4-10 cab, or a 2-15. Having said that, AND after a weekend gig, in the July heat of Alabama, it has started to "break in" a bit. It is a lot smoother sounding that it was on Friday, right out off of the UPS truck. It is deeper, and almost as deep as the old GK cab. It is now the GK that sounds "boxy" in comparison to the bassbomb. I'm gonna give it a bit more time, but as of now, my smile is coming back. Again, the job Tim did and OFFERING to replace the whole cab was totally his doing. If it improves any more, gravy. If it stays the way it is, considering all the custom options I got, I'm beginning to think I got the $650 worth that I paid.
I respect your opinion too, but I think it is fair to compare the bassbomb to a single 15" cab loaded with a 200W Jensen speaker. The reason it is fair, is because on the earcandy website, at the time I purchased the cab, he made lots of claims that it could easily replace a 4-10 cab, or a 2-15. Having said that, AND after a weekend gig, in the July heat of Alabama, it has started to "break in" a bit. It is a lot smoother sounding that it was on Friday, right out off of the UPS truck. It is deeper, and almost as deep as the old GK cab. It is now the GK that sounds "boxy" in comparison to the bassbomb. I'm gonna give it a bit more time, but as of now, my smile is coming back. Again, the job Tim did and OFFERING to replace the whole cab was totally his doing. If it improves any more, gravy. If it stays the way it is, considering all the custom options I got, I'm beginning to think I got the $650 worth that I paid.
One thing to keep in mind when it comes to the deep bass output of the BassBomb is choice of woofers. It seems that some are loaded with two Kappa 12's. The versions that seem to make a bigger impression in the low end department are the ones with a Delta 12LF in the bottom position. That's the way mine was configured. When hitting the low B my BassBomb held up quite well in direct comparison to my Aguilar GS 212 and Epifani UL-410. 
M. M.
M. M.
My low A (5 string tuned ADGCF) speaks very clearly through my BassBomb / LMII rig.
MUCH better than the Ampeg 8x10 (with LMII) I plugged into last Thursday at Under Acme here in new york. I always get compliments on my sound when I use my BassBomb, when using other cabs not so much.......
MUCH better than the Ampeg 8x10 (with LMII) I plugged into last Thursday at Under Acme here in new york. I always get compliments on my sound when I use my BassBomb, when using other cabs not so much.......
I don't know about that "thumbs up on customer service", I placed an order for a cab back in March, which I was told would be done by mid-May. Sadly, I had to cancel it due to some medical expenditures and he was completely cool and understanding. But, he sent me an email last night telling me that the cab is almost done and that he wants to bill me! ***?!
1. I cancelled it and had at least 2 email conversations with him since cancelling, all was cool.
2. It's the second week of July! 1.5 months late. Does he honestly believe that someone would just let the ship date go by without asking for updates?
And now after reading more about the design of the cabs and how they should be built, I'll pass on Ear Candy.
I don't know about that "thumbs up on customer service", I placed an order for a cab back in March, which I was told would be done by mid-May. Sadly, I had to cancel it due to some medical expenditures and he was completely cool and understanding. But, he sent me an email last night telling me that the cab is almost done and that he wants to bill me! ***?!
1. I cancelled it and had at least 2 email conversations with him since cancelling, all was cool.
2. It's the second week of July! 1.5 months late. Does he honestly believe that someone would just let the ship date go by without asking for updates?
And now after reading more about the design of the cabs and how they should be built, I'll pass on Ear Candy.
Ashdharma...sorry to hear of your situation and I hope your medical situation is better. I have to agree that this is the biggest problem I have heard with EarCandy ...the wait time for your cab to be built...Tim may not be very good at approximating the time of delivery...I ordered my latest cab mid March and was just informed that its now being shipped...but I was told upfront that it would probably realistically take that long(10-16 wks). By the way-most people pay for the cab at the time they order it since its specially made for them. But otherwise I have to agree that his customer service and lifetime warranty to the original owners is very good(only problem with CS is that he does'nt always get back to you right away since he's likely working so hard trying to keep up in the shop... but he's written over a dozen emails to me...I'm probably one of the reasons it takes him so long to build his cabs...LOL Peace....DAcat
bongomania
Commercial User
