I agree that my STL900 isnt the best pairing with the Ampeg 810e,i will be soon looking for a new cab or cabs to get the most out of my new head. Im not throwing in the towel yet on my Genz,its been a great amp that im trying to get to know,fast. Ive done some tube rolling in it with positive results,right now its a new 5751 in the V1,and MAYBE a 12au7 in the V2 im seeking. I believe its tone,along with its light weight,high power will prevail after i find the right preamp tubes. But my 810e isnt actually mine,but my drummers cab,its there because of convenience. Tunaman suggested the GK neo 1x15s,which id like to checkout asap,but what other mid heavy,cab or cabs should i checkout that can handle the 900s power and maybe compliment its slightly scooped tone? Ive always been a 10 or 12s type of cab seeker,maybe 15s if done right. I really think my problems are directly the cab im stuck with currently...Its kinda not me,ive always dug a clearer/high fi cab in the past..
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NAD! SVT7 Pro (also comparing it to my Streamliner 900)
- Thread starter johnk_10
- Start date
Strange, iirc most stated that the Ampeg 810 was one of the better cabs with the amp.
I tried tube swaps too. I found it made a little diffrrence, but not enough. I didn't wanna get mid heavy cabs just for that amp either.
Ymmv of course.
I tried tube swaps too. I found it made a little diffrrence, but not enough. I didn't wanna get mid heavy cabs just for that amp either.
Ymmv of course.
right on here.
As a gigging player who owned both (at the same time) your post is right on the money regarding your experience, although I haven't had a hard time getting deep, warm, heavy lows with the 7 pro.
That being said- I don't play metal.
The 900 is a killer amp. I always found it lacking definition live- this with a Berg HD410. This was also in a moderate volume situation (read americana with pedal steel, lap steel, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, mando etc). I think it's a bad ass amp, but for my gig the 7pro has the warmth WITH the definition and usable articulation. That's my experience, but I'm not a heavy metal player either
I hope you tried it out WITH a band. Ymmv but, That was the killer for me. LOVED it by itself, totally lost in a band mix.
Hope it works for you.
Hope it works for you.
Depends on the band mix and the cab. Lots of folks are happy gigging them. I have one of each and will eventually give my preferences. I think it will be venue specific though.
Hard to get lost in a mix with this
Hard to get lost in a mix with this
When I see a 1515/66, I get the feeling that it needs an ice marker, or maybe a flat panel display in the upper left area.... maybe a small beer fridge?
When I am old and decrepit, and drooling on my Jimi Hendrix t-shirts, that space is reserved for the tweeter, when I sell the cab. Not sure if that will be 2013 or 2014
The crossover already has the tweeter component.
If my band had more frequent/large gigs I would sell advertising space.
The crossover already has the tweeter component.
If my band had more frequent/large gigs I would sell advertising space.
OK, so my brand new C00 7 Pro showed up today! My main cabinet is a fEARful 15/6/1, and for a while now my only amp has been a Streamliner 900.
It looks good, controls feel solid, and layout seems intuitive. Power LED took a few seconds to come on, which gave me a minor coronary.
I've been playing through it and A/B'ing against the Streamliner for an hour or so. So far I've only tried it with the fEARful and my main bass, which is a Nordstrand NJ5 with Big Singles and the Nordstrand 3-band preamp.
Gain Structure
The gain structuring took a bit of getting used to. When I hit hard, I got a bit of crunchy fuzzy distortion (and not in a good way). This was regardless of the gain setting. In order to get headroom, I had to hit the -15dB switch, and then I could crank the gain up to about 2:00 and get a good strong clean signal. OK, just a quirk of the amp. I can deal with that.
Basic Sound
The tone with all controls at noon is good, MUCH more neutral than the Streamliner (but what isn't?
). I messed around with the amp set "flat" for a while. I could gig with that sound, no problem. It has a good classic sound. Nowhere near as "tubey" as the SL. The low end does not have the thickness of the SL, but that could be a plus in a mix I guess. It's not as clean and pristine sounding as the SL, which again could be a good thing in a mix. The Streamliner has a rounded low-frequency attack on each note that I've not heard in other amps, it makes the notes pop out even with the tone rolled off. The 7 Pro has a more conventional sound to the note attack. I like the sound of the compressor, although cranking it reduces my gain a lot. I will probably leave it all the way down or at most at 9:00. When it is cranked up it gives a bit of that Billy Sheehan tone, which might be nice sometimes.
Volume
I know about differing curves on the volume knobs, but it does not seem nearly as loud as the Streamliner for a completely clean sound. Once I maxxed out my clean headroom on the preamp, I was able to turn up the master to noon, and although it was loud, it was easily bearable. The Streamliner on the other hand starts to get frighteningly loud by around 10:00, unbearable and dangerous at noon. I don't want to crank the volume in my practice room, so I don't know what happens beyond that setting on either one. I'm guessing it will be loud enough even through my 8 ohm 15/6, but I like to have lots of clean headroom. I'll report back after a rehearsal or gig.
Tone controls
Ultra Lo scoops the life out of the tone for me, so I probably will never use it. Ultra Hi makes the sound very lively, so that may be useful. Bass and treble controls work as expected. The bass boost/cut seems wider than the Streamliner, and even boosted the low end does not seem as solid and thick as the Streamliner. I'm assuming this has to do with mid-humps and such. I think I would tend to leave the 7 Pro bass control flat most of the time.
Here's something I find a bit wierd and worrisome. The taper on the mid control seems to be all squashed into the extremes. No matter which frequency I choose, there seems to be a big change between 7:00 and 8:00, very little change between 8:00 and 4:00, and lots of change between 4:00 and 5:00. When I sweep the control it almost sounds like there are two switches at the ends of the travel, if that makes sense. Is this normal for the 7 Pro??? It doesn't give much control over the mids, which are the most important frequencies.
Overall
It sounds good, and has a more "normal" tone than the Streamliner. So far, it's not blowing me away, but I've been playing long enough to know that the sound only matters in the mix, and I won't be able to judge that in my practice room. I'll be taking it to The Good Hurt for a gig tomorrow (with the Streamliner along as insurance of course). I'm not the type who goes gaga over amps immediately, so I'm waiting to see how I like it in the band context.
If I have the energy I might try out the Uber 410 and the NeoX 212 cabinets to see how that changes my impressions.
If anybody has any helpful input on the mid control taper, I would appreciate hearing it.
More as I learn the amp.
It looks good, controls feel solid, and layout seems intuitive. Power LED took a few seconds to come on, which gave me a minor coronary.
I've been playing through it and A/B'ing against the Streamliner for an hour or so. So far I've only tried it with the fEARful and my main bass, which is a Nordstrand NJ5 with Big Singles and the Nordstrand 3-band preamp.
Gain Structure
The gain structuring took a bit of getting used to. When I hit hard, I got a bit of crunchy fuzzy distortion (and not in a good way). This was regardless of the gain setting. In order to get headroom, I had to hit the -15dB switch, and then I could crank the gain up to about 2:00 and get a good strong clean signal. OK, just a quirk of the amp. I can deal with that.
Basic Sound
The tone with all controls at noon is good, MUCH more neutral than the Streamliner (but what isn't?
). I messed around with the amp set "flat" for a while. I could gig with that sound, no problem. It has a good classic sound. Nowhere near as "tubey" as the SL. The low end does not have the thickness of the SL, but that could be a plus in a mix I guess. It's not as clean and pristine sounding as the SL, which again could be a good thing in a mix. The Streamliner has a rounded low-frequency attack on each note that I've not heard in other amps, it makes the notes pop out even with the tone rolled off. The 7 Pro has a more conventional sound to the note attack. I like the sound of the compressor, although cranking it reduces my gain a lot. I will probably leave it all the way down or at most at 9:00. When it is cranked up it gives a bit of that Billy Sheehan tone, which might be nice sometimes.Volume
I know about differing curves on the volume knobs, but it does not seem nearly as loud as the Streamliner for a completely clean sound. Once I maxxed out my clean headroom on the preamp, I was able to turn up the master to noon, and although it was loud, it was easily bearable. The Streamliner on the other hand starts to get frighteningly loud by around 10:00, unbearable and dangerous at noon. I don't want to crank the volume in my practice room, so I don't know what happens beyond that setting on either one. I'm guessing it will be loud enough even through my 8 ohm 15/6, but I like to have lots of clean headroom. I'll report back after a rehearsal or gig.
Tone controls
Ultra Lo scoops the life out of the tone for me, so I probably will never use it. Ultra Hi makes the sound very lively, so that may be useful. Bass and treble controls work as expected. The bass boost/cut seems wider than the Streamliner, and even boosted the low end does not seem as solid and thick as the Streamliner. I'm assuming this has to do with mid-humps and such. I think I would tend to leave the 7 Pro bass control flat most of the time.
Here's something I find a bit wierd and worrisome. The taper on the mid control seems to be all squashed into the extremes. No matter which frequency I choose, there seems to be a big change between 7:00 and 8:00, very little change between 8:00 and 4:00, and lots of change between 4:00 and 5:00. When I sweep the control it almost sounds like there are two switches at the ends of the travel, if that makes sense. Is this normal for the 7 Pro??? It doesn't give much control over the mids, which are the most important frequencies.
Overall
It sounds good, and has a more "normal" tone than the Streamliner. So far, it's not blowing me away, but I've been playing long enough to know that the sound only matters in the mix, and I won't be able to judge that in my practice room. I'll be taking it to The Good Hurt for a gig tomorrow (with the Streamliner along as insurance of course). I'm not the type who goes gaga over amps immediately, so I'm waiting to see how I like it in the band context.
If I have the energy I might try out the Uber 410 and the NeoX 212 cabinets to see how that changes my impressions.
If anybody has any helpful input on the mid control taper, I would appreciate hearing it.
More as I learn the amp.
That means that you've only investigated 1/2 of the rotation so far. Why do people worry about such things? Just keep turning it up....
Perhaps some people are so used to having the usable volume squashed into the first 1/2 turn of the volume pot that they get scared to try turning it up? IMO, there really needs to be a sticky about potentiometer tapers......
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
I love both of these amps, but I don't understand the notion that a STM900 won't 'cut thru a mix.' That's just silly talk! Both are really awesome, but I lean to the STM because it's just different enough
That is a good review smeet, enjoyed reading it
I have my first Streamliner 900 gig tonight and will post my thoughts in the relevant section
I have my first Streamliner 900 gig tonight and will post my thoughts in the relevant section
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
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- John K Custom Basses
Smeet,
that's exactly how my 7Pro's mid pot's taper works too. i would like it to be more even, but it works fine enough for me the way that it is.
that's exactly how my 7Pro's mid pot's taper works too. i would like it to be more even, but it works fine enough for me the way that it is.
I haven't spent enough time with a Streamliner to say for sure, but it does sound as if its master volume control comes on more quickly than the 7PRO. It irks me when people think there could be a problem with an amp because it isn't near maximum volume with the master only half way up - IMO, a good design should allow you to use the whole range of the volume control. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the worst I've encountered is the M9 Carbine, which has so much gain that you can barely touch the volume knob before getting extremely loud.
