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Double Bass Phil Jones Ear Box distortion- anyone experience this?

Hasty

Hasty

Jul 4, 2014
1,736
3,717
Fort Worth, Tx
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: Remic Microphones
#1
I ran a search to see if there was any talk about this, but didn’t find anything.

I picked up an Ear Box about 5 weeks ago and I’ve only used it a few times. I don’t play many noisy gigs on the upright, but I do play quite a few of them with the electric bass. Each time it was an amazing experience, crystal clear and exactly what I needed.

Last night I used it for the first time with the double bass. It flat out sounded terrible. The sound is broken up almost to the point of being distorted, almost like the low end is overpowering the drivers completely.

Here is my signal path: DB> Realist Copper Piezo> F Deck Pre (rolled off about 25% on the low frequency and level at ~80%)> EA Doubler (gain at noon, EQ basically flat, level set at noon, 300ish watts @8ohm)> Dr. Bass 1260 Cab 8ohm > 10 foot speakon cable> Phil Jones Ear Box

The amp/cab are on my left mostly enough away that I’m not getting resonance or feedback and the Ear Box os to my right at ear level on mic stand about 2-3 feet away. Without the earbox this is an amazing setup and sounds about perfect. The rest of the rig still sounds good, but the Ear Box just fuzzes out. I tested again this morning with the electric bass to make sure there weren’t any issues and it still sounds great.

I’ve thought about playing with the notch filter on the EA Doubler, playing with the F Deck HPF but I also have to balance out how much I’m changing my overall setup to make an accessory work the way I want it to.

I immediately get tunnel vision thinking about low frequencies, sub-harmonic type stuff because it only shows up on the Double and not the Electric Bass. However I’m totally open to suggestion if I’m going down the wrong path.

Has anyone else experienced any issues like this? If so I’d love your thoughts.
 
#3
I am guessing here: I don't think it would be bass frequencies. If I understand correctly, the impedance curve of the Ear Box makes sure that effectively no bass frequencies get in the Ear Box. However, I have sometimes experienced that the sound coming out of Ear Box was not pleasant in case I boosted high mids or highs on my amp or instrument...or if I made wide open the tone knob on my NS NXT electric upright...
 
#4
DoubleMIDI said:
You can cut off more of the low frequency stuff with the HPFpre and see if that solves the problem. This probably won't sound good out of the cab, but might point if low frequency content is the problem. In that case a solution would be a highpass filter just in front of the ear box.
Click to expand...


Yeah I just need to sit down and spend some quality time with frequencies to see if I can find a cause. However I don’t think it would be that easy to throw a HPF between the cab and the earbox with a speakon connection.
 
#5
Zbysek said:
I am guessing here: I don't think it would be bass frequencies. If I understand correctly, the impedance curve of the Ear Box makes sure that effectively no bass frequencies get in the Ear Box. However, I have sometimes experienced that the sound coming out of Ear Box was not pleasant in case I boosted high mids or highs on my amp or instrument...or if I made wide open the tone knob on my NS NXT electric upright...
Click to expand...

I agree about the frequency curve, which is why I thought it odd.

Didn’t give much thought to the mids and highs.

This might be the root of my issue. I haven’t played through it since this post. I’ll report back.
 
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#7
Hasty said:
Yeah I just need to sit down and spend some quality time with frequencies to see if I can find a cause. However I don’t think it would be that easy to throw a HPF between the cab and the earbox with a speakon connection.
Click to expand...
My idea was to use a HPF in front of the amp to identify if low frequencies are the problem.

When this is the case a capacitor like one to separate low frequencies for a mid speaker in the speak on cable (you might need to experiment for the value) should do the job.
Note that the value depends on the input impedance of the ear box which might differ from a typical speaker impedance.
 
#8
DoubleMIDI,

I understand what you're saying now. I misunderstood the application but now it makes sense.

I tested it out today and it actually sounded as perfect as it did previously. Much to the dismay of the neighborhood I cranked it up quite a bit, probably a little higher than I would with the 20 piece Big Band and it sounded great. With the exception of the feedback I started getting through the bass itself, as I reached the point where I had more frequency than my house could handle (which was actually kind of cool for a few seconds... til everything started shaking in this old house).

The only thing different previously was that I had the L-Pad mids and highs cranked almost all the way up on my 1260 cab which I returned to their normal spot around unity where they've always lived. I wouldn't imagine settings within the cab would hop the bridge to the next speakon, however there's a lot in this world that I don't know and this might be one of those things. I don't remember ever touching those pads... but stranger things have happened.

Anyway, all appears to be right with the world now and I'm super glad that I can continue to use the Ear Box as it's really quite handy when used in the proper context.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.
 
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#9
Hasty said:
DoubleMIDI,

I understand what you're saying now. I misunderstood the application but now it makes sense.

I tested it out today and it actually sounded as perfect as it did previously. Much to the dismay of the neighborhood I cranked it up quite a bit, probably a little higher than I would with the 20 piece Big Band and it sounded great. With the exception of the feedback I started getting through the bass itself, as I reached the point where I had more frequency than my house could handle (which was actually kind of cool for a few seconds... til everything started shaking in this old house).

The only thing different previously was that I had the L-Pad mids and highs cranked almost all the way up on my 1260 cab which I returned to their normal spot around unity where they've always lived. I wouldn't imagine settings within the cab would hop the bridge to the next speakon, however there's a lot in this world that I don't know and this might be one of those things. I don't remember ever touching those pads... but stranger things have happened.

Anyway, all appears to be right with the world now and I'm super glad that I can continue to use the Ear Box as it's really quite handy when used in the proper context.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.
Click to expand...

I am glad the issue is solved!
 
#10
I just purchased an Ear Box from Sam Ash. Are you using a NL4FX or Neutrik NL2FX speakon cable? Everything I've seen says it uses the NL4FX but I wanted to make sure before I picked up one as they're a bit more costly than the 2FX. Thanks! Rick
 
#11
rknea said:
I just purchased an Ear Box from Sam Ash. Are you using a NL4FX or Neutrik NL2FX speakon cable? Everything I've seen says it uses the NL4FX but I wanted to make sure before I picked up one as they're a bit more costly than the 2FX. Thanks! Rick
Click to expand...


Rick,

I make my own cables. I use 2 wires but connect them with the 4FX. So I don’t have a great answer for you in that one. I haven’t had any issues at all since that one odd instance that started this whole post.
 
#12
I think the NL4FX is a four wire connection for cabs with independent speakers that are driven by separate power amplifiers (like bi-amping, one power amp for the lower end speaker and one for the higher end one).
That would 't make sense for a device like the ear box, so a two wire connection like with the NL2FX should work. But a 4-wire cable should work the same, only one pair of wires is not used.
 
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