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New Boss Katana 500 bass head released
- Thread starter hooky_marr
- Start date
Overdrive sounds horrible.
Reminds me of those fart-can exhausts on Honda Civics in 2002 that sounded like a group of pist-off bees.
Reminds me of those fart-can exhausts on Honda Civics in 2002 that sounded like a group of pist-off bees.
I'm a big Roland/BOSS fan, but this selling in the same range as the Subways with only a single 12 cabinet, I'd say they've got a hill to climb.
I am very intrigued by this head. I currently have a Traynor YBA 300 as my main amp and a GK MB 500 Fusion as my back up paired to a GK 4ohm 410 Neo. After watching a Youtube demo, all I've been thinking about, is selling my GK and getting the Boss. I haven't lusted over bass gear in about three years, but GAS has suddenly come on strong since watching the demo.
Is there some reason you couldn't buy more than one cabinet or use a different brand?
No. But after the combos, I think the market expected something cheaper, and it's a bold step right into the middle of Mesa, Genzler, etc., territory.
I guess if they stop with this head and cab you're right but I think they're just getting their toes wet with these. They also offer enough unique features to appeal to the folks that are looking for something other than Mesa, as sacrilegious as the thought of that is here on TB.
I’m so tired of amps being marketed with “peak” power ratings instead of RMS. That’s even worse than advertising only the power at minimum impedance (2 or 4 ohms) but not even showing the spec for 8 ohm loads.
Bose’s S1 powered speaker has no wattage spec in the documentation at all.
Check out all those off-brand $100 powered PA cabs with “1000W” ratings at Amazon.
My Roland Cube Street EX is rated as 50 watts. It’s nowhere near that since the power supply is 8 AA batteries. To get 50W out of a 12V power supply (actually 10 volts when using rechargeable NiMH cells) would require over 4 amps of current. I don’t know if AA cells can actually supply that much current even in short peaks, and if they had to provide it continuously, they’d only last about 15 minutes. In the manual there is some fine print stating the amplifier only provides the rated power when run off the AC supply, the power drop with batteries is not even specified. All I know is that for an amp with two 8” drivers, it feels more like a 15-20 watt amp.
Bose’s S1 powered speaker has no wattage spec in the documentation at all.
Check out all those off-brand $100 powered PA cabs with “1000W” ratings at Amazon.
My Roland Cube Street EX is rated as 50 watts. It’s nowhere near that since the power supply is 8 AA batteries. To get 50W out of a 12V power supply (actually 10 volts when using rechargeable NiMH cells) would require over 4 amps of current. I don’t know if AA cells can actually supply that much current even in short peaks, and if they had to provide it continuously, they’d only last about 15 minutes. In the manual there is some fine print stating the amplifier only provides the rated power when run off the AC supply, the power drop with batteries is not even specified. All I know is that for an amp with two 8” drivers, it feels more like a 15-20 watt amp.
Heavy scrolling HYPE page (argh)
BOSS - KATANA-500 BASS HEAD | Bass Amplifier
Can't find any real obvious link to actual specifications there (argh)
Where are the specs? User Manual? Can't RTFM? (argh)
BOSS - KATANA-500 BASS HEAD | Bass Amplifier
Can't find any real obvious link to actual specifications there (argh)
Where are the specs? User Manual? Can't RTFM? (argh)
Oof, yeah, that’s an important distinction. $800 for a (physically huge!) maybe 300W RMS amp with three effects is a tough sell. I’m not sure who the market would be for this.
Right off the top, there's no Aux In. Why would you have an amp with a headphone out and not an Aux In? If you're going to use the amp for silent practice you will want it, and other amps they seem to be competing with have it.
I realize you can use bluetooth to stream audio to the head, but now you have a device you need to connect to another device to have the same usefulness it could have had right out of the box.
And it seems unclear if the head can stream audio out wirelessly to a set of bluetooth headphones. Their Katana Air guitar amp can't do this, so even if you stream music wirelessly to the device, you still have to use wired headphones. If this is the same, that seems like needlessly complicating the home practice potential of the head.
I realize you can use bluetooth to stream audio to the head, but now you have a device you need to connect to another device to have the same usefulness it could have had right out of the box.
And it seems unclear if the head can stream audio out wirelessly to a set of bluetooth headphones. Their Katana Air guitar amp can't do this, so even if you stream music wirelessly to the device, you still have to use wired headphones. If this is the same, that seems like needlessly complicating the home practice potential of the head.
I consider that @agedhorse, an industry-respected design engineer who checks in most every day with solid advice, maintains the national repair network for GenzBenz for years to come, an experienced FOH operator, and even includes us in planning future products is a tremendous gift to us all: He doesn't have to do it. Messrs. Genzler and Bergantino chime in from time to time.
So if a lot of us are big fans because of his graciousness, you're confusing appreciation with sacrilege I'm afraid.
JW
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It doesn't to me. I've owned many Roland and BOSS products over the years and I'm a big fan. I'd simply remarked that it's an interesting marketing step to walk right into the middle of some very accomplished competition, not something they've always done in all market segments they compete in.
It looks and sounds awesome. It's totally okay to like and use brands other than Mesa and Genzler lol.
The comparison with Mesa is not relevant at all IMO, they play in a different league.
- For me this Katana amp is more for casual players rather than pro touring musicians.
- Then it's digital, so you can compare it with the Darkglass Element 500 but not with a Subway.
- Last they're talking about 500W but in the specs it's 500 peak watts, which means nothing except that they take us for fools.
Headphone jacks are disappearing from phones, so either you go Bluetooth or add some kind of dongle. Bluetooth is actually great for this application. If you're going to get audio off your phone, why bother with a cable. It’s already shown up in a lot of practice amps (including other Katanas). Besides, with Bluetooth you can buy a Bluetooth turntable and play along to your LPs
Just for comparison Roland’s Cube Street EX has a 3.5mm jack for a 4 conductor iPhone cable (included with the amp) that lets you play audio through the amp as well as record to the phone….but….all current iPhones have no jack for the cable, making the feature obsolete.
