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Double Bass New ridiculously small amp from Phil Jones

#2
It may sound too massive for people used to listening to music on phone speakers.

P.S. That was tongue in cheek. I bear no ill will to PJB. I'm a happy PJB user and own the BG-150 FlightCase combo and the PB-300 powered cab. But as a long time bassist, it's hard to see how a speaker this small could be useful for bass beyond boosting the sound in a practice studio to hear yourself over people talking in the next room.

There may be a niche market for other instruments owned by people who live in a bedroom-sized apartment, boat, or RV. Even then, hard to see much gravitas from such tiny gear! But if it works, go for it!
 
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#3
Phil Jones, seems to quite literally be downsizing his entire line of bass amps. He’s discontinued the Super Flight Case, original Suit Case, and Briefcase in favor of the
Double Four and Nano Bass amps. Remarkably small, remarkably light and if you listen to an iPhone through earbuds all the time significantly better low end.
I’m very satisfied with the 1/8’s and 1/6.5’s that MAS builds for Double Bass, so who knows just where we’ll end up.
 
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#5
I’d need to try it first. I have four PJB amps: BG300, BG150, PB300, and BG100. The first two are genius. The third is very good. The BG100 is just too small of a box to develop a full bodied sound, IMO. There is a limit to physics, even for a brilliant designer like Mr. Jones.
 
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#6
I'm having trouble finding the application for this piece of gear. When practicing at home, I don't use an amp. My bass is plenty loud for that and when I practice with my string band. With a drummer, electric guitar player or small gigs, it seems to me like it might not have enough "juice" or design to give a good representation of you bass tone. I'm with Ric, I'll stick to My MAS 18 and 28. That's the sweet spot!
 
#7
"Four inch speaker, plus a rectangular auxiliary low frequency radiator."

This sounds very smart to me. I'll definitely go check it out when it's out there. I can imagine many uses for such a small gadget. It would perhaps be too small for a real gig, but our life consists from rehearsals, lessons, transcribing on the road...

Have those rectangular radiators been successfully used somewhere else, I wonder?
 
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#8
jj.833 said:
"Four inch speaker, plus a rectangular auxiliary low frequency radiator."

This sounds very smart to me. I'll definitely go check it out when it's out there. I can imagine many uses for such a small gadget. It would perhaps be too small for a real gig, but our life consists from rehearsals, lessons, transcribing on the road...

Have those rectangular radiators been successfully used somewhere else, I wonder?
Click to expand...

While I have not seen passive radiators used in bass cabs, they are used frequently in hi if speakers and pc speakers, sometimes to good effect. Hats off to PJ to make the attempt.
 
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#14
jj.833 said:
"Four inch speaker, plus a rectangular auxiliary low frequency radiator."

This sounds very smart to me. I'll definitely go check it out when it's out there. I can imagine many uses for such a small gadget. It would perhaps be too small for a real gig, but our life consists from rehearsals, lessons, transcribing on the road...

Have those rectangular radiators been successfully used somewhere else, I wonder?
Click to expand...

They have. You mostly see this kind of thing in hi-fi audio. Radiators work well in some situations.

On here, we know Phil Jones as a bass guitar system engineer, but Phil had major, major success in hi-fi audio with Acoustic Energy and Platinum Audio. The loudspeakers produced by Phil were/are amazing. He also designed for Boston Acoustics.
 
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#17
neddyrow said:
I'm having trouble finding the application for this piece of gear. When practicing at home, I don't use an amp. My bass is plenty loud for that
Click to expand...

I'd assume it's targeted for bass guitar use, not DB. Then again I never understood the market for acoustic guitar practice amps.

Passive radiators are used in a lot of small Bluetooth amps. I own an Oontz that is only 6.5" wide and the drivers are not quite 2" but with the passive radiators it puts out a lot of bottom end. Plus it's crazy loud for somewhere about 5W RMS (it's rated as 14W "peak"). It's not deafening, but it can fill my living room easily, although it's starting to strain.

61NUXGHpvBL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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#18
Here is an example from Hi-Fi with Polk Audio's amazing SDA SRS series. The woofers are a series of 6.5" drivers. They couple to a 15" radiator at the bottom. There is, of course a lot more to these than just a radiator, but, you can see these clearly. A bunch of other companies used passive radiators as well.

SDA-SRS-12tl.jpg
 
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#19
I haven't studied passive radiator designs carefully, but it occurs to me that there's a chance they could solve the problem of port chuffing in very small boxes. They basically work the same as a port, but possibly without the air turbulence issue.

Now I'll have to learn a bit more about them.
 
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