After monitoring this incredible thread, I finally took action and contacted Jorg regarding his cabinets. Since we both live in the L.A. area, I made arrangements to go to his place today and hear them for myself. With the demise of the LA Bass Exchange a few years ago, there has been no place for local players to audition high end equipment. As helpful as it is to read all of the reviews here and elsewhere, there is still no substitute for hearing something with your own ears.
Jorg couldn't have been nicer and agreed to have me come to his home to try the cabinets. He even delayed the start of his power trio rehearsal to accommodate me. I brought my string bass and a Kubicki Ex-Factor 4 string, my Walter Woods Ultra amp, an Acme B1 (my main string bass speaker) and a Bergantino HT112, my main bass guitar speaker. While I've been happy with my string bass sound, the trip to hear the Schroeders was brought about by my increasing unhappiness with the Bergie that I pair with either an EA VL110 or an older Avatar single 12 for bass guitar and doubling rigs.
He had a 1210 and a 1212 for me to audition, both of which were available for sale although a large stack of cabinets in the corner of his garage had already been sold and were headed out to other about-to-be-happy customers. To say I was blown away by the sound of these cabinets is an understatement. They are incredibly loud, very accurate, can handle vast amounts of power with no distortion or farting, and sounded equally good for both string bass and bass guitar. The difficult decision was which of the two to buy. After tons of going back and forth, I fianally decided on the 1210. I loved the sound of the 1212--it was louder and darker--but I finally decided that the 1210 would do a better job of cutting through the mix of my three-horn band that is going to be the main use.
After playing through each of the Schroeders for a long time, I then hooked up the Acme and then the Bergtantino to hear what they sounded like and as a check that the Schroeders sounded as good as I thought. There was simply no comparison. The Acme is still fine for string bass, although the relative lack of efficiency means that I have to really goose the volume to match the output of the Schroeder. However, the Bergantino didn't hold up as a stand alone cabinet--and this might be a very unfair comparison since I don't think that Bergantino ever anticipated the HT112 as being used this way when he designed it. The Bergantino simply sounded too thin in comparison.
I'm completely knocked out by these cabinets, and may end up buying the 1212 as well so that I have a choice in the future. There is no question that only one cabinet will be plenty in all of the playing situations that I encounter. Of course, that's good since neither the Woods nor the AI Focus will handle loads of less than 4 ohms. I now understand why this thread has grown to such an incredible length. These cabinets are a working bass player's dream.
Erik Lars Hansen
Los Angeles
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Wow! Alright! Glad to hear it handles that much wattage for someone out there, with care and precaution of course.
