Double Bass Playing without an amp+cab

[modularblur]

Hello!


I need some help here. These days I just play bass at home and I currently play using an Ampeg PF-50T amp + Ampeg SVT-112AV cab. Even though I love the sound this takes quite a lot of space and my wife is not really happy with the looks of it, but space is really an issue.


So, I was wondering if I could use any kind a preamp pedal like the Origin BassRig/Sansamp connected directly to a speaker, without using an amp or cab at all. Is it possible to connect to a speaker like the Bang & Olufsen BEOSOUND A9 or BEOSOUND BALANCE, or something like that (more stylish)!?

Any ideas will be welcome.


Thank you very much!

 

[Francois Blais]

This has been posted on the DB side of Talkbass but I guess you’re asking for bass guitar?

 

[DoubleMIDI]

If you mean playing on HiFi speakers this is not a good idea as sharp impulses can damage the speaker.

HiFi speakers use soft membrane suspension to avoid non-linear behavior, but are made for pre-mixed music that does not contain any sharp impulses. So they can use the soft suspension as the risk of a damaged speaker (by firing the coil out of the magnet slot) is rather low.

Speakers for live sound have a hard suspension that can distort the sound a tiny bit if maxed out, but the hard suspension reduces the risk of speaker damage by a sharp impulse.

Using a preamp means of course that you need either a power amp for a passive speaker or an active speaker.

You might want to use an active PA speaker with the preamp as they also have drivers with a hard membrane suspension.
But not every PA speaker works well with DB as some are not very linear and others might generate air noise at the port with low frequencies. But there are other threads here discussing PA speakers for DB.