What would you consider to be upper end for the current market of FRFR for bass? I really love the tones I’m getting from my Yamaha, and can only imagine what a step up would sound like. Maybe some day!
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New: Zoom B3n Multi-Effects
- Thread starter CharlieC
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MAS offers a powered option for all it's cabinets and Barefaced has a powered version of the Big Baby II
Barefaced Bass - FR800 high resolution active loudspeaker
Bodai Bass Louspeakers
Neither of those sound like a better option price wise. The Barefaced is not a wedge, is only a two way (like my Yamaha), and is less watts. The other one is way too big! And both WAY more expensive!
My Christmass Days project. I have some sanding, painting and wiring job to do yet.
You get terrific bang for your buck from a mid-priced powered PA cab. But make no mistake: you really do get what you pay for with the boutique cabs.
When looking at powered PA cabs, you have to get past the marketing BS and recognize their limitations.
Look at the original Mackie SRM 450’s: 300 watts continuous to the woofer, and 100 to the horn tweeter, in a 51lb package. Compared to most passive top bins of the period, they sounded closer to recording monitors, and the max SPL’s were what you would expect from the claimed wattage. You still needed separate subs if you wanted to get butts shaking on the dance floor, but they were a huge step forward in portable PA. Ditto for the QSC HPR122i’s. Better form factor in a 60lb package, and a valuable step up in sound quality.
QSC’s K series were also big news when they came out, dropping the weight to only 41lb. But something was wrong: the max SPL’s didn’t match the claimed 1,000 watt power rating, and they still needed a subwoofer to match the low end output of conventional bass cabs.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s not really a 1,000 watt speaker in any real sense. The marketing guys must have been thrilled when the engineers decided to use the same 500 watt amp modules for the lows and highs, but the DSP is never going to send a full 500 watts to the tweeter for music playback, and you can’t get spine-compressing low end out of a relatively lightweight 12” midbass driver.
Two-way compact passive cabs like Duke and Alex Claber’s designs occupy a different playing field. They ditch the onboard amps and DSP and use more complex bracing to save weight. Also, there’s no marketing-speak around power ratings: when you grab an 800 watt amp and hit a low B, almost all of the power is routed to the bass driver. The low end response is truly mind-boggling for their size.
This is made possible by the use of high-power bass drivers originally intended for the pro subwoofer market, combined with mid-treble drivers and clever crossover designs. There’s no hole in the mids, and they achieve near-FRFR frequency response. Greenboy’s three-way designs go a stage further, with full FRFR response in the treble.
Two AudioKinesis TC112’s weigh about the same as a single HPR112i, yet it takes just one to kick the QSC to the curb as a bass cab. You need the matching sub if you want to get an equally hefty low B out of the QSC, yet I can hold my TC112 over my head with one hand.
The Thunderchild was up around $750 when I bought it. Compared to your Yamaha, I have to plug in a couple of extra cables and carry a small class D amp in my bag. Still, I consider it money well-spent, because it gives me a true one-trip carry, and covers a wider range of uses.
I can power it with a little G-K MB200 for coffee house gigs, and carry the house with same big, rich response that you’d get from your Yamaha when paired with a powered sub.
The TC can’t carry the house on louder gigs, but if I put it up on a chair and pair it with a kilowatt-class head like an MB800 or a Mesa Subway, I can easily hear my 5-string basses over a loud rock drummer with no fartout, and no sub. Can’t do that with the Yamaha, or a QSC for that matter...
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In my band, vocals are forward and we are not using iem’s. Loud rock drummers need not apply... I am in the FOH always as is the kick. Often kick, snare and hat.
We manage our stage volume carefully and most gigs these days I take a K12 rather than my GK / fEarful rig. I give up some beef in the low end as I HPF at about 60 and I believe the k12 does as well. I also LPF on top to lose any brittleness from the horn. I’m going from the DI On my pedal board to the mixer (Soundcraft UI-24) and from there I take an aux to the K12. Room dependent I’ll put some kick and maybe acoustic guitar in that mix as well.
I’m not sure it is for all time but it’s a simple setup, less to schlep and wire up. So far it works for me. I will say that my range of acceptability is a stage monitor is pretty broad and for me any rig is a stage monitor.
We manage our stage volume carefully and most gigs these days I take a K12 rather than my GK / fEarful rig. I give up some beef in the low end as I HPF at about 60 and I believe the k12 does as well. I also LPF on top to lose any brittleness from the horn. I’m going from the DI On my pedal board to the mixer (Soundcraft UI-24) and from there I take an aux to the K12. Room dependent I’ll put some kick and maybe acoustic guitar in that mix as well.
I’m not sure it is for all time but it’s a simple setup, less to schlep and wire up. So far it works for me. I will say that my range of acceptability is a stage monitor is pretty broad and for me any rig is a stage monitor.
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It makes such a difference when you can work with more sophisticated drummers.
I played with a hormone case for a couple of years. Terrific drummer, but I was using hearing protection and constantly into the limiter on a Genz Streamliner 900. Tiring AND uncomfortable...
Like J-Bass said. It's a Source Audio Programmable EQ. I use it in front of my FRFR monitor (EV ZLX-15P). In my living room things quickly become boomy. While in church there's more high-mid rumble going on. I have a few settings to match the cab a to the differend places where I play. I don't use it for extreme sound shaping, the EQ on the Eden Terra Nova pedal is for that.
Does anybody have trouble connecting the B3n to their Mac to use Guitar Lab? (I know Zoom says its not yet compatible with Mac OS update High Sierra so I'm using it with a non updated Mac). But when I plug the pedal into my MacBook and open Guitar Lab it does not recognize the pedal. Nothing happens.
Reboot your computer? Is the power adapter plugged-in to your B3n? Try a different USB cable? I don't know. Grasping at straws.
Guide says to open Guitar Lab and THEN plug in the B3n. Don't know if order of operation matters or not.
Guide says to open Guitar Lab and THEN plug in the B3n. Don't know if order of operation matters or not.
I contacted Zoom and they said try another USB cable as it might be a "charging only USB" vs a "data transfer USB" I didn't know there was a diffidence. I did try a couple other cables but still no luck. I'll perchance a DATA USB cable and try that.
(Yes I had the power plugged in)
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