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New Avatar Cab

#3
Yes, it does look cool, and it's an interesting story (that he bought out Genz-Benz's speaker supply) -- but I'm skeptical when Avatar stuffs its existing boxes with whatever speakers will fit... Any thoughts on how that cabinet will work with these drivers?
 
#10
This kind of makes sense.

I haven't kept up with Avatar that much recently, but before Genz was shut down, Avatar was a retailer (seller?) of their amps, kind of like they were for THD on the guitar side before that.

May've been some "oem/insider info" or some such before the public announcement (not bashin', just sayin'), but anyway, Genz had moved from Eminence to Faital for their "NX2" update of the "NeoX" series of cabs shortly before the closure of the business.

I have to imagine they had contracts out for more than just that one particular 12" driver.

My point being, if you can get "Genz engineered" raw drivers someplace for a nice price, do.

Regardless of what name is on them now, it's their ears and brains that made them sound like that. Especially that sound they get when you make them work a little too hard. ;)
 
#12
In an Avatar box, no doubt.

There are literally hundreds of combinations of tweaks one can do (when you're an oem), even to a single frame/structure platform, to produce wildly different tones and behaviors, especially when you get past the small signal behaviors we all seem to focus on here talking about response, excursion, etc.

Small signal stuff gets you a starting point, but doesn't tell much about how things behave in the real world, with gobs of power applied, sitting in a band mix, in varying environments, over extended periods of time, etc.
 
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#13
Ok, well if they are considering making this an offering on their site, I'd be inclined to think they did a modicum of box math / tuning to accomodate these drivers. I'd think they have run the design through some paces to make sure at the extremes you don't instantly cook the drivers. They're not Emperor (or Seismic). Surely they didn't just throw a new baffle in the 112 all willy nilly just to use up drivers when they could have just modified their existing 210's tuning scheme...and still the skeptics who know nothing about the actual sound but will cry foul anyway. Amazing. As always.
 
#17
Avatar is an "affordable but good" approach. Not "boutique" and never claimed to be.

Their 112 & 210 are the same box, different baffle cutout. Their 410, 212, & 115, same thing. All are "close enough" to produce satisfactory results with their drivers, while none being "ideally optimized" for any of them, which would drive the price up at least 2 times, probably more.

This way of doing it is not out of the ordinary at all, in fact it's very ordinary. Just look at offerings from other companies. GK, Ampeg, Carvin, Ashdown, ... hell even Mesa and Aguilar.

If people want to complain about "cookie cutter boxes", they might should direct their righteous indignation towards companies following this practice while claiming "boutique" or "superior" status...or at least charging for it, rather than downtalking lower tier companies just making bass gear that gets booties shaking at the local pub that common people can actually afford.

The vast majority of design in most any decent sized company comes in the design of the driver itself, rather than just "WinISD and a box".
 
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#18
I spoke to Dave earlier this week. He told me that they have tested both the 12 and 2x10 in this cabinet and they sound great, especially together. They made modifications on the cab that's on their website to optimize these Faital speakers. Exactly what that means I can't say, I'm not an expert on cab design.
 
#20
seamonkey said:
Confirmed, speaker in a box

Hard to believe FMI would allow trademarked Genz Benz name be spread about a discount/surplus speaker site. I can bet they did not sell rights to use the name.
Click to expand...

Dave told me they bought pallets and pallets of these speakers when .fender closed down the Getz brand. They're labeled Faital so he can use that name.
 

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