SD800 compared to LMII

From what I've read here, the SD800 definitely gets louder than the LMII. However, the tone is slightly different, but you said that isn't an issue for you.

Another suggestion is that you could tell you guitarist to turn down. What cabs are you using? Both 8 ohm I assume giving you a 4 ohm load? Also, I wonder if the guitarist is stepping in your sonic frequency a bit. I think I remember those 4x10 DeVille's getting quite bassy if the guitarist doesn't know how to eq for the mix properly.

 

Hey... Are you near Garden City, my Girlfriend is from there.

Anyway the SD800 is a lot more powerful but it's still only a 4ohm minimum load. As Tony asked, if you're using two 8ohm cabs the SD800 might be a better way to go. If you're using two 4ohm cabs you'll need an amp that will go down to 2ohms or you'll have to use/daisy two amps like two LMII or two SD800.

You could get a Carvin B1500 which is really powerful, does 2ohms and is very affordable. It's got pretty good eq also.

Personally I like the Markbass Amps better but they don't do 2ohms. I have a LMII and might pickup another or go with a F1 and run two rigs myself.

Hey... Tony is right... tell your guitar guy to get in the mix and don't expect the rest of the band to work around just his sound/volume/tone thing. Thats why it's a 'band/group/team'

You knew that ....

edit: I had an SD800 and didn't care for it with the cab I was using at the time. (Epi 410UL Series I)
It's got the digital power not class a/b so it does have different tone etc. You might like it.

What kinda cabs are you using and what is the ohms (impedance)?

 

I doubt it would be THAT much louder than the LMII. You need a ton more wattage to double the vol. ouput. Another idea is get two 8 ohm 410 cabs. That should be quite loud.

 

A different option, if the price of the SD800 is ok you could probably get an SA450 and a big stereo poweramp for the same money. The SA450 makes a fine preamp and you could get the largest power amp you feel you're ever going to need. What are your cabs tho? All that power could just end up as heat if you don't have some pretty big cabs.

 

SD800 is 750 W at 4 ohms
LMII is 500 W at 4 ohms.

Someone please correct me, but seems the SD800 would need to be 1000W to be only 3 db louder than the LMII, assuming everything else equal and both amps running at full bore. Since it's 750W, my guess it'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 db louder?

 

This is true in theory, but I've played through both heads back to back, and the SD800 flat out CRUSHES the LMII in terms of volume/headroom. I prefer the slightly warmer tone of the LMII to the SD800, but there is no question that the SD800 is much louder. And the LMII is a loud head itself!

There is usually a big difference in headroom between a 500 watt amp and most 700+ watt amps. 700 watts pushed the amp into that "lead sled" category where the notes just sound much bigger.

 

Those guys at MB really rate there amps conservatively, I'm inclined to believe.

 

Hey Tom
If you have two 4ohm loads you'll still need two LMII or two SD800's. Both only take a minimum of 4ohm. I think you know all this just putting it down anyway, but that's why I mentioned an amp that can do 2ohms like my B1500.

I also am looking into running two 4ohm loads with two separate amps. I have an LMII. I also think the SA450 is a good option as a second amp or preamp as el-kabong mentioned. So, either an second LMII, F1, or SA450. Maybe a Shuttle.

But here is what I really wanted to point out. As Vision said the SD800 is a really loud amp. I had one and also an Epi UL902C. Both are digital power sections and extremely powerful but unusable IMO. What I hated about both these type of amps was I could barely turn either of them up on the master past 1 or 2 no matter how I had the gain or eq. Sounded good in my practice room, but on the gig I found them very hard to use especially the 902c. It is said one can never have enough headroom... well IMO these two amps unusable head room, at least for me. This was my experience with the Epi 410UL Series I cab. I'm quite sure others will disagree with me on this.

So my point is gear synergy. My buddy BigRedSix loves his SD800 with either Berg NV610 or NV215 which are sealed cabs and can utilize that big wide low end which sound terrible to me in a ported cab type, not to mention the watts. You could try one and see if they match up well with your cabs.

 

+1.....except that I prefer the tone of the SD800....YMMV.

 

The SD800 is much louder than the LM with two 8ohm cabs. Great headroom in the SD800 at 4 ohms!

 

I'm not sure if its relevant to this thread but Ashdown are just launching the Little giant heads this month.
Top of the range is a 500watt in to 4 ohms per side (so 1000watts in total at 4 ohms) digital head and its very cheap, about the same price as the SA450 i believe (over here in the Uk anyway).

 

Ah, glad you got to hear them together.