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Mesa Subway D-350!

#1,502
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Packing my D-350 for a couple of fly-in shows up east this weekend. Fits great in the Kapsule. Relying on the venues' cabs but I' taking everything else.
 
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#1,511
agedhorse said:
While the term "gold" sounds exotic and premium, it turns out that gold on gold isn't much (if any) more reliable than passivated tin in most applications, and in fact tin has the added advantage of being a thicker plating and more forgiving in many connector applications. The thickness of the gold flash on connectors is typically ~5 - 10 micro-inches, which when plated on conductive coated clear Mylar can actually be seen through, it's THAT thin. Gold is not plated directly over copper, there must be a diffusion barrier of nickel to prevent copper ion migration through the gold. Tin plating thickness is typically 200-300 micro-inches, and is generally more forgiving.

Gold is better where there is chemical reactivity present (vapors corrosive to copper or tin), or where the dimensions and spacing are very close (ie. fine pitch), or a hard surface is required (like for a switch contact, but the plating will be much thicker and more expensive). Tin is better for general connector applications because it is more forgiving.

We use both gold and tin where appropriate, it depends on the connector and the application. For most switches, we do use gold (called hard gold over nickel) plated contacts because they are more reliable and last longer. I am wary of using gold as a marketing term because in general 5-10 micro-inches of gold is more marketing than performance IMO. If you look at (real) high reliability connectors that are not used in consumer items, you won't see 5-10 micro-inches but considerably thicker and it may also be a type of plating called hard gold.

The ICEPower modules that GK uses in all of their amps use tin plated connectors exclusively, ICEPower does not use ANY gold connectors, therefore all GK connections can't possibly be gold on gold. It's just simple fact, doesn't make it better or worse just not all gold on gold. In general I have always liked the way GK has laid their amps out, and they haven't seemed to have had any issues with their connectors regardless of the material.

I've used tin on tin for over 40 years, I haven't had any corrosion issues with any of my designs over that 40 year period, I'm sure my results would be about the same if I had used gold.

[edit: thought I would do a quick fact check to be sure I was remembering correctly and here's a couple of GK PCB that clearly shows tin connectors]:
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Thanks for the info. Our company owns solidworks and CST, and I work in the high tech arena. Simulation of the connectors which are close pitch does rely on the gold plating for many applications due to the high speed and corrosive Environments. I’m more structural, but the folks on my team that do EMAG are amazing!
 
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#1,515
ImTheOnlyOne said:
Curious how near to a WD-800 a D-350 can get with maybe a pedal or two out front.
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The D-350 and the WD-800 are voiced differently. The tube in the WD surely does contribute to the voicing but the heads were designed with different goals in mind.

It may be possible to use pedals to make the D-350 sound similar to the WD-800 but I have almost no experience with pedals and would not know what pedal(s) might help.

I own a D-350 and a WD-800 and use them for different purposes. YMMV and almost certainly will.

We are guilty of focusing on one part of our signal chain and making broad statements about which Mesa head sounds ideal to us. We each have differing ideals and use different cabinets and basses. I have a nice collection of basses and know that my G.Gould 6 is going to sound a lot different than my Roscoe SKB 6. The Gould has a graphite neck and EMG electronics and the Roscoe has a wood neck with inlaid graphite bars and Bartoini electronics. How could they not sound different?

It is helpful to share our opinions since it is impossible for many of us to go to a store and try out the equipment we are considering. What we have to keep in mind is that we each have our own valid (for us) opinions of what sounds good to us.

I played a jazz gig in a 2000 seat old venue that was built in 1909. It was built with acoustics in mind. I used my upright bass, D-350 and one SW115. The tone was to die for. The sound man was also a bassist and he was gushing with compliments on the sound of the bass through the Mesa gear. I played another gig in a large modern venue with a dance band and used my D-800+, a pair of SW115's and my Roscoe Century 5 string bass. It sounded fantastic and I got loads of compliments from other bassists in the audience.

Which was the right rig to use? Both. Both of those Mesa Subway rigs were the right one to use.

I own each of the Subway heads. In my opinion, the one Mesa head that is likely to please the most players is the D-800+. It has great tone, ample tone shaping controls and is quite easy to use. I asked Andy for his opinion prior to ordering my first Subway head. He recommended the D-800+.
 
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#1,517
sundog964 said:
Thanks for the info. Our company owns solidworks and CST, and I work in the high tech arena. Simulation of the connectors which are close pitch does rely on the gold plating for many applications due to the high speed and corrosive Environments. I’m more structural, but the folks on my team that do EMAG are amazing!
Click to expand...
For fine pitch, it’s also used for tin migration control. None of the requirements for gold on gold apply to the connector types used in our industry.
 
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