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NAD: Yep.... Mesa TT800 and Subway 115

#61
two fingers said:
I haven't forgotten about you, Subway 115. This. Cab. Kills. Seriously, many of you saw the thread I started regarding whether to get the 215 or 2 115 cabs. I decided to get just the 115 and decide later if I wanted another one, or the 112, or a 215, or.... When the honeymoon is over, I will definitely be trying my Ashdown LB30 with it.
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I have a D800 and 212...Im saving up for a 115 as well for smaller gigs and such. I already have a stand for it, just saving gig money so I can buy it outright and have enough for a good padded cover:) Would love to hear more details on the 115 as a stand alone in a rehearsal/gig setting:)
 
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#62
FirewalZ said:
I have a D800 and 212...Im saving up for a 115 as well for smaller gigs and such. I already have a stand for it, just saving gig money so I can buy it outright and have enough for a good padded cover:) Would love to hear more details on the 115 as a stand alone in a rehearsal/gig setting:)
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I shall report back the moment more data becomes available!
 
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#65
FirewalZ said:
I have a D800 and 212...Im saving up for a 115 as well for smaller gigs and such. I already have a stand for it, just saving gig money so I can buy it outright and have enough for a good padded cover:) Would love to hear more details on the 115 as a stand alone in a rehearsal/gig setting:)
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I love the 115 as a stand alone. Great cab. Very full sounding.
 
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#66
Man o Man, I love the TT800! It's such a great amp.
Other than awesome sound in a small package, I like the footswitch mute / channel switch. It makes it really easy to dial in a couple different tones for different basses and quickly and silently switch between them.
 
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#67
two fingers said:
Just a general compare/contrast? Or is there something specific you want me to dive into?

One thing to note already is clarity. I love the Walkabout for what it does. (I have done many a gig with that stack. Kills every time.) It hangs with any amp as far as warmth goes. I don't buy into it being so "loose" on the bottom end. But, then again, I use a Broughton Always On in front of it, so there's that. But it will get punchy for days.

The Walkabout and Boogie channels share some common ground, although different. They both can do old-school gooey goodness.

However, the Subway channel runs laps around the Walkabout if you're looking for clean, articulate, straightforward bass tone. It's by no means sterile. It still has a tube front end. It has lots of character. But it can get into crystal clear territories where the Walkabout gets left behind.

Short version: Although different, the Boogie Channel and Walkabout are "close enough for rock n roll" as far as sonic territory they cover. The sound of the Subway channel is simply not available to the Walkabout. And I adore the Walkabout, so that's not a knock on it.
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how much of this do you attribute to the amps and how much to the cabs? Have you plugged the walkabout into the subway 115 yet, and the TT into the subway cabs (low volume!)?
 
#68
hotrodjohn said:
how much of this do you attribute to the amps and how much to the cabs? Have you plugged the walkabout into the subway 115 yet, and the TT into the subway cabs (low volume!)?
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I haven't but I will. (Twist my arm.) ;)

Yeah I'll play around with all kinds of combinations later and report back.

Edit: I have played the Walkabout head through a bunch of cabs. And nothing changes in that regard from what I said earlier. The Walkabout will be warmer and rounder than the Subway channel in every shootout every time. It lives more in the sonic space of the Boogie channel (again, although they are quite different). The Walkabout will never get to the squeaky clean clarity that the Subway can achieve. (Keep in mind that you can drive the Subway channel into some grit too. But that's not where it lives naturally, in my view.)

I'll still run some experiments later.
 
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#70
Congrats!! A great review. The Subway 15 is perfectly capable of spreading its pixie dust all over a bar, club, rehearsal space, or wherever. Even with a loud drummer like mine. Even without any pa support or other cabs. Trust me on this. I angle mine up with an Ampwedge. And, of course, I power it with a Subway D-800.
 
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#71
Okay, this settles it. Couple years ago I was using a Subway 115 as my primary cab. Last year I picked up a couple of Elf 2x8s because they sounded decent and I love the modularity of them. The quality of my sound definitely dropped, but I've long been an advocate that 99.9% of the audience will never notice or say anything (at least not to a bass player in a pop cover band). A lot of guys say that if their sound isn't good quality they can't have a good time and that affects their performance. I would nod and say sure but internally shake my head a bit at them being snobs.

I was wrong. The Mesa is just so much better and I've reached the point that I'll lug an amp stand for it rather than have the convenience of stacked 208s. This review hit the nail on the head, it's got great boom in the low end but without loss of clarity.
 
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#72
petch said:
I angle mine up with an Ampwedge. And, of course, I power it with a Subway D-800.
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How much of an improvement is the Ampwedge? I would be running this exact setup and can't go with a lot of other tiltbacks because I'm afraid the head will slide right off. But I really like how the vertically stacked 208s are close to my ears, I was considering a Proline stand that just elevates without tilting too much.
 
#74
acid bass said:
How much of an improvement is the Ampwedge? I would be running this exact setup and can't go with a lot of other tiltbacks because I'm afraid the head will slide right off. But I really like how the vertically stacked 208s are close to my ears, I was considering a Proline stand that just elevates without tilting too much.
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The Ampwedge certainly helps, but likely not as much as a stand. To keep the head from slipping off when tilted back, I use this black shelf liner which has great non-slip qualities. The D-800 stays put on the tilted Subway 15 when the cab is topped off with it. :thumbsup:

124260555.jpg
 
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#75
acid bass said:
Okay, this settles it. Couple years ago I was using a Subway 115 as my primary cab. Last year I picked up a couple of Elf 2x8s because they sounded decent and I love the modularity of them. The quality of my sound definitely dropped, but I've long been an advocate that 99.9% of the audience will never notice or say anything (at least not to a bass player in a pop cover band). A lot of guys say that if their sound isn't good quality they can't have a good time and that affects their performance. I would nod and say sure but internally shake my head a bit at them being snobs.

I was wrong. The Mesa is just so much better and I've reached the point that I'll lug an amp stand for it rather than have the convenience of stacked 208s. This review hit the nail on the head, it's got great boom in the low end but without loss of clarity.
Click to expand...
To me the ELF 208 is just to narrow and small, especially with those powerful speakers. I prefer the execution of Revsound's RS28V much better, especially this blue one (beautiful).
RS28V | RevSound
 
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#78
My apologies to all I had promised to run experiments for last night. My sinuses (dang Fall allergies) got the best of me so I turned in early.

I did, however, take just a couple of minutes to take the head into my house and run it through the headphones using the Aux in to jam along to my phone music. Yes, it works well. Yes, it's super fun to have "your sound" in a headphone practice rig. Yes, it's one more reason why this head is still blowing me away.

My jam room is over the garage. Keeping that heated to 70 degrees during the winter is impractical. This will allow me to keep the head on my desk in the main house and practice whenever I want and leave the jam room down in the 60s until rehearsal day.

But it doesn't just "function". It sounds fantastic. (I was using my Westone IEMs.)

By the way, after I jammed with my phone for a while, I took the phone out of the Aux in and charged it while I was playing without music for a while. That works perfectly as well.

Just a couple of small updates as I continue to take advantage of the features of the TT800.
 
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