BA12-3
- Power Rating: 350W / 8 OHMS
- Freq. Response: 32 Hz – 15K Hz
- Sensitivity: 98 dB 1W/1M
- Dimensions: 16"H X 19"W X 18"D
- Weight: 34 LBS
- USA MAP: $879.00
I'm liking everything about these specs. Cant wait to hear one. Looks really nice too.
Those are the driver sizes. The big speaker is 12" and the line array is four 3" drivers.
I've been spending more time than I should in the Mesa Subway thread and this one, watching them in parallel. I am mostly interested to see what the Genzler team comes out with for a head (I've been playing my old GBE again and digging it -- hoping for something with similar slam and clarity that I can throw over my shoulder), but I have to admit that the 12-3 is an interesting looking cab. I like the idea of the mids and the line-array. Not saying that a woofer + tweeter cab can't be done well, but when I hear a lot of the two-way cabs that I used to like, now, I am conscious of a hole somewhere in the mids that I can't EQ around. It's not an earth-shattering problem, but I'm conscious of it just the same. I'd bet the dispersion in the upper mids would be noticeably improved vs. most 12" cabs, and I know that it would be vs. your typical 410, etc.
Anyway, re. the frequency response specs above, is it possible to get the -3 dB and -10 dB points on the low end? Mesa provided those for the Subway cabs, and I find that kind of data helpful. If that's already been posted and I missed it, apologies, but I didn't see it, re-skimming the thread just now.
I guess it all depends on how narrowly one defines "new" and "unique".
For whatever it may be worth, I've posted about this cabinet on a couple of forums, and I have looked around the internet on my own for
any 4+1 cabinet that uses a single 12" and four 3" drivers, and I haven't found a single example so far, bass-specific or more general-duty.
So, that vertical array of midranges
with no separate piezo/horn/dome tweeter may, in fact, be unique.
That, in and of itself, is pretty astonishing considering this is a configuration that
could have been built at any time in the last 50 years or so.
To diminish this design in any way by implying "it's nothing new" is being pretty disingenuous, and ignores how challenging it can be in a mature maket (like speaker design) to develop something that is truly innovative.
As for the "first" line array setup I can remember learning about, it was the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound", but you'll see no concentric cone drivers here:
That Wall of Sound photo is amazing. I've seen it before but, still, wow. Never saw the Dead live -- wish I had, now.
You said, "I have looked around the internet on my own for
any 4+1 cabinet that uses a single 12" and four 3" drivers, and I haven't found a single example so far, bass-specific or more general-duty."
My Big E/MAS-112 uses a single 12" driver and four, 3" Faital midrange drivers -- I'd guess the same ones used here and, I think, in Duke's Hathor cabs, maybe others, but I'm not sure. My cab has a tweeter, but it was an option and I can (and do sometimes) switch it out of the circuit, in which case the 3" drivers run to the top of their range (they're not low-passed). The mids are not arranged in a line-array, though. I have a smaller MAS cab -- a 4x6" -- with three of the 3" Faital mids. Those are arranged in a line array, but not in front of a single woofer. That cab has a tweeter, too, but I requested a switch to turn it off (again, the mids run to the top of their range). I like tweeters sometimes -- there is a bit of air/detail/bite that a good tweeter adds -- but sometimes I like to turn them off, depending on the amp, bass, sound I'm going for and (for me rare) use of fuzz.
If the Genzler 12-3 uses the same 3" drivers, they do, indeed, have a very nice, detailed top-end that's crisp but not harsh. They go noticeably higher than the 6" Faital mid (which I also really dig) that's used in some tweeterless designs like the Baer ML-112 (and, ironically enough, a Dr. Bass 2x12 that was my main cab for several years). Harmonics are clear, chords are nicely detailed, and slap still cuts nicely. I bet they sound really good in this cab.
I don't mean to diminish the 12-3 at all -- your points about trying to innovate in the speaker market are well taken, and I get that my MAS cabs are a very different design. I only mention them in reference to your points about the multiple 3" mids and line-arrays in bass cabs. As far as I know, the 12-3
is unique among bass cabs in having that mids-comprised line array centrally located in front of the woofer. I've never seen that in a bass cab, anyway. Configuration and superficial resemblances aside (people think my 46 is a Phil Jones box), I'm sure that a lot of careful attention went into tuning, construction, crossover design, and component selection. That -- and of course the resultant sound -- will set the cab apart from others as much as anything.
