I just got off the phone with Mesa Boogie Tech Help. I spoke to Marcus over there and he was very helpful. I wanted to share some information about Mesa's design process with speakers, particularly with the Powerhouse 1000/1200. I also wanted to share this information because the main website is less than welcoming on specifications and/or design processes.
The Powerhouse 1000/1200 are the 410 and 15 all in one box design. The cabinet is nothing special - it is purely the Powerhouse 15 and Powerhouse 410 put into one box. No special crossover between the 10's and the 15. Each speaker is putting out the same sound. I asked Marcus about excursion limits and how the 115 is going to give up before the four 10's ever break a sweat. He says that it really should not be noticeable on this particular cab. The sheer volume would make up for that. I also asked him in regards to the beaming of midrange frequencies through the 115 and how the 10's will disperse the midrange frequencies a little differently. He replied the engineers really did not care about those factors and may have just corrected it with the porting designs of the cab.
He also commented on their design process for speaker cabs. He has been a minor part of it, and most of this information is second hand, but it is still important. As far as tuning/porting and design speakers, Mesa Engineers typically do this part by ear and do not measure frequencies, volume or much of anything. If it sounds good to them, they roll with it. They are not concerned with presenting that particular information to the general public. They receive a lot of flack for this from the bass community regarding that, but they continue on.
In the end, Mesa makes some excellent products. I have had great success with their products in the past.
I will conclude by saying the Powerhouse 1000 and 1200 are PROBABLY the worst designed cabinet offered by Mesa. ON PAPER they look terrible - I can not back that up on sound since I have not tried either long enough to make a statement. The rest of their gear, though, is superb.
The Powerhouse 1000/1200 are the 410 and 15 all in one box design. The cabinet is nothing special - it is purely the Powerhouse 15 and Powerhouse 410 put into one box. No special crossover between the 10's and the 15. Each speaker is putting out the same sound. I asked Marcus about excursion limits and how the 115 is going to give up before the four 10's ever break a sweat. He says that it really should not be noticeable on this particular cab. The sheer volume would make up for that. I also asked him in regards to the beaming of midrange frequencies through the 115 and how the 10's will disperse the midrange frequencies a little differently. He replied the engineers really did not care about those factors and may have just corrected it with the porting designs of the cab.
He also commented on their design process for speaker cabs. He has been a minor part of it, and most of this information is second hand, but it is still important. As far as tuning/porting and design speakers, Mesa Engineers typically do this part by ear and do not measure frequencies, volume or much of anything. If it sounds good to them, they roll with it. They are not concerned with presenting that particular information to the general public. They receive a lot of flack for this from the bass community regarding that, but they continue on.
In the end, Mesa makes some excellent products. I have had great success with their products in the past.
I will conclude by saying the Powerhouse 1000 and 1200 are PROBABLY the worst designed cabinet offered by Mesa. ON PAPER they look terrible - I can not back that up on sound since I have not tried either long enough to make a statement. The rest of their gear, though, is superb.
This correlates with Mesa sales people giving out tech info that is just plain flat wrong (another TBer posted that he was told that tens are bad for bass, and they have told many buyers, including me, to get the 12 inch Walkabout combo in 4 Ohm, to max out all the 300 watts, even though the driver farts at about half that). I love many of their products, but this makes it sound like their cabs are designed by players, rather than acoustic engineers........and that's like having your appendix taken out by a psychiatrist.......yeah.......it might turn out OK but......
