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Looking for advice- 2x10 cab
- Thread starter EXCAV8
- Start date
I highly recommend the DNS-210 by DNA. I bought mine because I would get the deer-in-the-headlights look from club owners at small venues and I wasn't happy about being told the 410 was too big and that I had to use some small combo they provided. Nobody thinks twice about seeing a 210 come in the door.
The DNS-210 will handle 700-watts rms both mechanically and thermally. Max SPL on it is 134db, so it gets really loud. It has the same sonic qualities that my DNS-410 has, only with half the speakers. It is super clear, articulate, full, has a really low and tight bottom end and it's LOUD. It takes very little power to make it loud. At our rehearsal studio I usually power it with a class D amp that puts out only about 125 to 140 watts into 8 ohms. Street price is ~$849 (occasionally you'll find one for $799) with normal ceramic speakers in it. It can be had with Neos for ~$975). I have the ceramic speakers in mine.
At gigs, I power it with my Eden WT500/800. That's a WT500 that has been upgraded to 400-watts per channel at 4 ohms and 800-watts bridged at 8 ohms. I run it bridged into my DNS-210. HOWEVER...I never get close to pushing too much power into that cab because it gets loud so quickly. I can't run the master on my 800-watt amp above 10 o'clock without being told I'm too loud and drowning out the rest of the band.
Below is the set-up I use for most gigs now. I still pull out my DNS-410 for outside venues and festivals, but this is my go-to rig for most gigs:
I rehearsed with it for about a month and a half before I gigged with it and I wasn't sure it was going to be enough for this medium-sized, bordering on large, venue. So I brought my DNS410 with me and stacked the 210 on top of it. Just plugged the DNS-210 into it figuring that if it didn't handle the room well it would only take me a couple of seconds to unplug the 210 and plug in the 410. I use the DNS410 for outdoor festivals and get told to turn down there, so I knew it would more than handle it.
Well that DNS-210 handled it just great. When we did our sound check I walked around the main room and into the bar area too. Turned my amp up to 10 o'clock from 9:30 and balance was good, bass was well defined. Then when we started playing, I about blew my ears out. Stage was in a corner and I was standing in a fairly shallow pie-shaped part of the stage with my DNS-210 about 3-feet behind me and just below ear level. It was painful. I ended up moving my stack as far to my side as I could and moved it up closer to the front so I was just behind the speaker's dispersion cone, and that worked.
And this was the way I was set up at that first gig with it. Never did plug the 410 in and it just sat there being a very expensive speaker stand for the DNS-210:
Ended up moving our house-right Mains speaker over so I could push my amp away from directly behind me. And then I moved about a foot to house-left from where the mic stand is in the picture above. This is a real kick-@ss 210!
$1350 USD plus currency exchange bank fees? That tops all of the 2x12 on Sweetwater right now. The GK neo version is a much better deal at $850.
I doubt it will beat Mesa's 2x12 Subway in sound and quality, and Mesa's cheaper and made locally. Plus, both GK and Mesa likes US greenbacks so no need to pay exchange fees!
The Wayne Jones 2x10 powered had a 1000watt amplifier on it. Maybe the passive version could handle that much power.
Definitely agree, and listen to Agedhorse here, OP. A 2x10 can only do so much at the end of the day. I love my Powerhouse 210, but where it shines in the real world stage mix is when it's paired another cab (in my case, the PH212). By itself at home or jamming with the guitarist, it's a outstanding cab, but if you're playing with a loud rock drummer like I am, the extra speaker area will vastly help drive the low frequencies.
And then there's this. I don't see a need for using more than a third of those 1000 watts when the house is going to DI the amp anyways. 700 watts at 8 ohms is plenty for any live situation I've played since the mid-2000s
For many years I gigged with "two", 8 ohm, 500 watt ea. cap., Avatar 210 Neo cabinets stacked as a vertical 410.
One of the heads I used was the Hartke LH1000, it was rated at 1,000 watts at 4 ohms, (it benched at slightly over 1,100 watts.)
At that time I was using this set-up in a LOUD, working, 5 pcs., classic rock group with a drummer and a Marshall half-stack using lead player where neither one of them knew the meaning of controlled stage volume!
The Avatar 210 cabinets never flinched with that abuse and sounded very, very, very good while being abused.
I'd suggest your checking out Avatar, they have top line components/drivers, build quality as good as any commerical bass cabinet manufacturer and they do it at a lower price because their mail order only, no middle-man to be paid, also, their customer service is second to none.
www.avatarspeakers.com
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