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Powerful/lightweight 10" speakers for Mesa Boogie 8x10

Insouciance

Insouciance

May 2, 2009
403
152
Minneapolis, MN
#1
Talkbass,

I am looking for a powerful and light speaker that I can replace the speakers with in my 8x10...

After about 5 years of searching, I finally got my hands on an early 90's Mesa/Boogie Road Ready 8x10. You see 2x15s, 2x10s, 1x15s, and the occasional 4x10 and 1x18...rarely an 8x10 though.

I love it and it lives up to all the expectations...but it is INSANELY heavy. I was anticipating some weight because it is a Road Ready cab (I own a few 2x15s, and a 4x10), but it is out of this world heavy.

I hoped that I got one of the few 8x10s that came with EV10Ls (the 15 and 18 cabs came with EV speakers back then) but mine has the Eden speakers. Nothing against them, as the cab sounds AWESOME, but I am looking for an alternative.

As far as 15 inch speakers go, Talkbass raves about the Eminence 3015 speaker...is the 3010 speaker awesome as well?

I am open to suggestions. Not totally worried about the price.

Let me know your input and experiences.
 
#4
It's not just about an "awesome speaker" but also how it fits with the design of the cab since these things are engineered all scientifically. Best to get an equivalent of whatever the original spec was.
 
#5
BassmanPaul said:
I have a feeling that even with Neo drivers in your cabinet it will not be substantially lighter. There is a heck of a lot of wood in that box. It will also not sound the same with different drivers installed. Most folk who use an 8x10 quickly learn the best way to move the cabinet around.
Click to expand...
^^^ OP, I think (unfortunately) this. Plus, the 3010HO (while being a monster 10" driver) isn't even that light at 7.6 lbs. The 8 drivers would run you ~ $1600 :woot: & you'd end up with a 3200 RMS 810 :woot: :woot:. For that kind of bread, you could build a super box from scratch, like a 1515/66 for instance (~85 lbs., maybe a hair less).

I don't know if they'd work, but if I was going to do something like this, I give a hard look at Eminence Alphas or Faital 10FE200s. You'd still have a 1200 RMS @ 4-Ohms cab. And for just over a quarter of the 3010HO price tag. And they're both ~3 lbs. a pop lighter than the 3010HOs (a 24 lb. savings).
http://www.usspeaker.com/ALPHA10-1.htm
http://www.usspeaker.com/faital pro 10fe200-1.htm
 
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#6
Thank you all for the input, I have some research to do! I come from the world of effects pedals where if something isn't working, one can just substitute in a different pedal until the desired sound is achieved...was hoping for a similar situation with speakers.
 
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#8
Maybe it's an idea to take one of the drivers out and weigh it so you can compare it to other drivers, that way you can calculate how much lighter the 810 is going to be.
Maybe the Eminence S2010 is a well suited drop-in, it has pretty flexible TSP's so it's able to handle a lot of different port tunings and enclosure sizes, it's also very light.
 
#9
Insouciance said:
Thank you all for the input, I have some research to do! I come from the world of effects pedals where if something isn't working, one can just substitute in a different pedal until the desired sound is achieved...was hoping for a similar situation with speakers.
Click to expand...
Oh, you can do that...if you have unlimited money. Even the cheaper speakers are going to be $70-80 per and they won't even be neos, and you need to replace all of them to see how it works. And if they don't, you've got 8 speakers that just cost you a lot that you'll need to sell at a loss, and you'll have to buy 8 more.
 
#10
Those Mesa Cabs with the Eden Drivers in are far too good to mess with, its what it is.
It's very suitable for a studio or installed system where weight and transport costs are irrelevant.
There are lots of good Neo built cabs about today that are far more suitable for the hard touring
musician of limited physical capacity.:)
PS. In India it appears western ideas about what's sutable equipment for loading to a tour truck, may not be universally catching on.
 
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#12
A quick calculation tells me the enclosure volume per driver is approx 30liters (1cu ft), that's pretty much perfect for the Eminence S2010. If the tuning is somewhere between 45-55hz then I see no reason why the S2010 wouldn't be a good and lightweight replacement for the Eden drivers. The only thing that may be different is the impedance of the driver, a different type of parallel/series wiring may do the trick here.
The netto weight of the S2010 is 1.59kg(3.5lbs), the Eden driver will weight approx 4kg (8.8lbs). For eight drivers the difference will be almost 20kgs difference and that's a lot of weight IMO.
 
#13
As an owner and lover of a 90's Road Ready 2x15 cab, I can only imagine A, how good the Road Ready 8x10 sounds, and B, how heavy it is! Any pics? (As you said it's the older style Road Ready series, correct? Don't know that I've seen the old 8x10 RR before- or if I have, it's been a very long time and I've forgotten- thus why I inquire about seeing a photo). What head(s) are you running through the 8x10?
 
#15
You bought a legendary 810 that is proving prohibitively heavy. The tone of that cab is primarily due to the drivers used and the bass alignment used in the design of the cab. You may be able to find a driver that will 'work', but you will not find one that will cop the tone of the stock drivers. Seems like you have 3 reasonable choices:

1) chuck the tone of this legendary cab and put in light weight drivers that 'work'.
2) Sell the cab for something that you both like and can handle.
3) Reduce the weight of the cab. Either have a new, light weight cab built for the drivers, or reduce the weight of the stock cab. You can probably route out 3/8 - 5/16 inches of wood from the interior and add modern bracing.

I suspect that #2 is the easiest path forward, but, if you are really attached to that tone, go forward with #3.
 
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#16
Backstreets said:
As an owner and lover of a 90's Road Ready 2x15 cab, I can only imagine A, how good the Road Ready 8x10 sounds, and B, how heavy it is! Any pics? (As you said it's the older style Road Ready series, correct? Don't know that I've seen the old 8x10 RR before- or if I have, it's been a very long time and I've forgotten- thus why I inquire about seeing a photo). What head(s) are you running through the 8x10?
Click to expand...
10405331_10152294366296377_4238554307350012936_n.jpg


I use my beloved SVT II. Yes, it is super, super heavy. The tone is like none other.


It took me 5 years of searching for this, so selling it is out of the question. If it just stays in my practice space and I use it only to practice and record, that is not the end of the world. I have been using a road ready 2x15 for years, and prior to landing this cab, it has been my main gigging cab.
 
#17
Insouciance said:
…
After about 5 years of searching, I finally got … 8x10. … I love it and it lives up to all the expectations...but it is INSANELY heavy. … mine has the Eden speakers. ... the cab sounds AWESOME, but I am looking for an alternative. … Not totally worried about the price.
Click to expand...

AstroSonic said:
You bought a legendary 810 that is proving prohibitively heavy. The tone of that cab is primarily due to the drivers used and the bass alignment used in the design of the cab. You may be able to find a driver that will 'work', but you will not find one that will cop the tone of the stock drivers. Seems like you have 3 reasonable choices:

1) chuck the tone of this legendary cab and put in light weight drivers that 'work'.
2) Sell the cab for something that you both like and can handle.
3) Reduce the weight of the cab. Either have a new, light weight cab built for the drivers, or reduce the weight of the stock cab. You can probably route out 3/8 - 5/16 inches of wood from the interior and add modern bracing.

I suspect that #2 is the easiest path forward, but, if you are really attached to that tone, go forward with #3.
Click to expand...

OP, you looked 5 yrs. You love it (must be tone, right, not weight, lol). It lives up to all expectations. It sounds awesome.

If you really love it & if you think it really sounds awesome, then it's the Edens (even though you were hoping for EVs). The problem is the insane weight. Go with suggestion #3, above. Remove the drivers & have a new, modeled/optimized box built for them. If anything, I'd suspect that the tone will get even better from the new enclosure. Take the Mesa Boogie emblems off the (insanely heavy) RR cab & put them on the new one.

If you're looking for an alternative (810 or whatever format), if you want something different, then pick whatever new drivers float your boat & have a new box built around those. And if an 810, then yes, the 3010HOs would make a King Kong cab. Ciare NDH-3s would make a different King Kong cab. They own serious 8.5mm Xmax (approaching double the 3010HO's 4.43 ... 294 cc per speaker vs. 162 cc) & go to 5kHz (vs. 4kHz). They're 3 lbs. heavier (10.1 vs 7.1) & 4dB less sensitive (96 vs 100) than the 3010HOs, though.

A Ciare 810 cab would be 24 lbs. heavier than the corresponding Eminence, but still a lot lighter than the RR. Of course any 810 cab isn't going to be light. Total Ciare 8-speaker dB would be 105, vs. 109 for the Eminences. Total Ciare displacement would be massively larger (2353 cc vs. 1296). And you know what they say … "There's no replacement for displacement." :woot:

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#20
It's very important to remember that much of the TONE of a bass cab comes from what's happening in the midrange and that is down to the minutiae of the cone, surround, suspension, voice coil and dust cap. Modelling the low frequency response is easy but unless you want to use a bass cab as a subwoofer, not for playing bass through, then that's far from the most important thing.
 
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