Shuttle 9.0?

[rpsands]

i'm not saying it was meant for it...i'm just saying that i think it's built well enough to be able to run less than 4, but not quite 2 ohms.

at any rate, i only have a single 8 ohm 410 right now and i don't even have my shuttle 9 yet (isn't shipping til today even though it was paid for on thursday :scowl: ). i plan on just picking up another 8 ohm 410, so don't feel bad for my shuttle.

Do not do it. An 8 ohm cab is rarely exactly 8 ohms throughout its frequency range and the same for a 4 ohm cab.

Tell your bandmates to turn the hell down. 900 watts into a 4 ohm 4x10 ain't loud enough you have problems

 

[Mastermold]

I got my new Shuttle 9.0 today.. I have only had about an hour with it. But I immediately noticed the extra horsepower under the hood.
The first thing that I noticed the second that I turned it on was how quiet it is.. I would say it is silent compared to the already low fan sound of my 6.0
I actually picked it up to look to see if the fan was moving at all. And it was..

GB is using a multi speed fan in this new amp, so I guess it won’t kick into high speed until the extra cooling is required. And at the low speed the fan is not able to be detected. It’s like a whisper.
Which can be great if you are in a studio gig and your amp is on top of your cab being miced.. no fan noise to be picked up by condenser mics or drum mics...

And even at home in the living room you don't have any annoying fan noise..
GB did their homework on this one and seems to incorporate what folks on TB had on their wish list regarding the Shuttle series when it first came out a few years ago.

Not only that but personally their participation here makes me want to support GB all the more -- as if this new 9.0 wasn't enough!

 

[MikeBass]

I got my new Shuttle 9.0 today.. I have only had about an hour with it. But I immediately noticed the extra horsepower under the hood.
The first thing that I noticed the second that I turned it on was how quiet it is.. I would say it is silent compared to the already low fan sound of my 6.0
I actually picked it up to look to see if the fan was moving at all. And it was..

GB is using a multi speed fan in this new amp, so I guess it won’t kick into high speed until the extra cooling is required. And at the low speed the fan is not able to be detected. It’s like a whisper.
Which can be great if you are in a studio gig and your amp is on top of your cab being miced.. no fan noise to be picked up by condenser mics or drum mics...

And even at home in the living room you don't have any annoying fan noise..
GB did their homework on this one and seems to incorporate what folks on TB had on their wish list regarding the Shuttle series when it first came out a few years ago.
After plugging in my passive Jazz bass and my Alleva coppolo kbp4 the second thing I noticed was the slightly more booty in the lows as compared to the 6.0
Its not a huge difference.. but just seems extended somewhat and give a nice (might I say ) organic sort of support.. Its hard to believe that a Class D amp can actually be described by me as sounding sweet.. And it does. It sounds sweet...

This is only preliminary, since i only have had the amp for less than an hour. Im feeling pretty excited about it. And right out of the box I am able to tell that this amp will be something very cool.. can’t wait to show this thing off..
The first time I brought my Shuttle 6.0 on a gig, the FOH thought it was just a preamp.. I said no it’s a whole amp and wait till you hear how loud this thing goes.
He may poop himself when he sees this one. Just as long as i don’t .
No work until Wednesday and i will report on it more..
I cant wait to unleash this little beast to see what it can do on a fairly loud gig. And maybe one day soon on an 8x10.
900 watts @ 4 ohms…. Mmmm mmmmm. The Shuttle 9 so far from what I can tell has elaborated on the theme and is a nice step up.

I ordered mine last Thursday, hopefully/maybe it will be here tomorrow (if not the GBE1200 comes out!).
I have a pretty packed week playing wise so when it comes, it's getting a workout right out of the box.

Great prelim report Kirk!

 

[svtb15]

Thanks Mike.. I have to say this amp is pretty freakin LOUD through the only cab i have at here @home right now.... I have only played it at home so far.. I doing a count down to when i can let it out of the cage....
Hope you get yours tomorrow.. its very cool.. and i think it has a very smooth overall sound...
everyone knows what it looks like but i will try to get some pics up tomorrow.. my cabs are packed away today.. only cab i have here is my old bagend right now...

 

[Red Planet]

Cool I picked up a 4ohm 4x10 Golight the other day. Can not wait to hear the 9.0 through it. Have not yet ordered one yet though.

 

[DAcat]

i'm not saying it was meant for it...i'm just saying that i think it's built well enough to be able to run less than 4, but not quite 2 ohms.

at any rate, i only have a single 8 ohm 410 right now and i don't even have my shuttle 9 yet (isn't shipping til today even though it was paid for on thursday :scowl: ). i plan on just picking up another 8 ohm 410, so don't feel bad for my shuttle.

Well...I'm certainly not advocating running a 4 ohm amp with a 2 ohm load...again only speaking for those of us who do have 4 ohm cabs ...thinking it would be nice to have a light, powerful micro- head that could do 2ohms AND sounds awesome ...Yeah, the Iamp 800 did put out a fairly wimpy 1000 watts at 2 ohms(Sorry AE, IMO and IME), and the new Carvin BX500 is stable @ 2 ohms(have'nt tried this one)...but I was wondering if its too difficult to build an amp that goes to 2 ohms and still keep it light, or is there some other reason...as IMO, it seems like most people have 4 ohm cabs, or at least 50%...anyone else have any idea about this( I bet Agedhorse/Hasbeen do..knock, knock ) ...until then I'll just hang on to my GB1200 "sled" head ...Peace...DAcat

 

[agedhorse]

Building a class D amp AND SMPS that does good 4 ohm AND 2 ohm numbers in such a compact lightweight package THAT IS ALSO VERY RELIABLE would add a lot of cost for a feature that many users would be unlikely to be willing to pay for IMO.

Look at the big pro audio amps that approach this power density (>275 watts/lb) and you will find that the cost gets high in a hurry. Look at PowerSoft, Lab Gruupen, QSC PL380, etc and you will see the challenges crating such high density products and the costs.

 

[gregbackstrom]

Excellent! I can bring my 6.0 and see how the 9.0 coompares head to head into an 8 ohm cabinet.

Ralf

I had a very satisfying rehearsal this weekend with my Funk / Disco band. I used my new 9.0 with a Mesa Boogie Powerhouse 1000. (I've used this cab a few times with my 6.0 too).

There seemed to be plenty of heft and bottom, and plenty of volume too. I left the rehearsal feeling like I have finally found the "one amp" that's wonderfully portable and can drive all my cabs. I still have lots of combinations to test: Multiple Epifani UL2-110's, UL2-310, UL2-410, Mesa Powerhouse 115, Bergantino AE 410, and the Powerhouse 1000 that I used this weekend!

For me, the Shuttle 9.0 appears to be a winner! More to come ...

- Greg

 

[DAcat]

Building a class D amp AND SMPS that does good 4 ohm AND 2 ohm numbers in such a compact lightweight package THAT IS ALSO VERY RELIABLE would add a lot of cost for a feature that many users would be unlikely to be willing to pay for IMO.

Look at the big pro audio amps that approach this power density (>275 watts/lb) and you will find that the cost gets high in a hurry. Look at PowerSoft, Lab Gruupen, QSC PL380, etc and you will see the challenges crating such high density products and the costs.

Thanks Agedhorse...I had a feeling that there was an electrical /technical/expense factor that was making it either too difficult/prohibitive or else there would ALREADY be more Amps able to push a 2 ohm load period!! Now that the Micro-amp revolution seems to have begun...it may have its own limitations in the creation of aps that generally just will do 8 or 4 ohm loads...at least for now...I guess for now I will continue to lug my GB "lead sled" 1200 around since it allows me to use any 2 of my three 4 ohm cabs if needed or desired since it will handle a 2 ohm load if needed...Peace...DAcat

 

[Red Planet]

Well you can run two 4 ohm cabs off the SM 12.0 so there ya go.

 

[agedhorse]

Well you can run two 4 ohm cabs off the SM 12.0 so there ya go.

Correct, this is a solution that allows manufacturers to utilize the great engineering resources required to bring a reliable product like this to market more efficiently. By standardizing on a power amplifier platform, we can spread the high development costs over a wider number of users and products.

The resources required to develop this new class/type of compact lightweight product is considerable. In fact it's pretty daunting. At GB, been working on developing this stuff (specifically for bass and acoustic amps) for well over three years, and I've been working with it in pro audio for 6 or 7 years. It's very, very challenging technology to do well. With the advances that the bass amp industry has made in the past few years and the player demand for these new types of products, there have unfortunately been some less reliable products released that have scared off some players who would otherwise benefit from the smaller and lighter amps. The same thing happened with the early products containing Neo speakers, poor implimentations caused players to dismiss Neo as unacceptable where the real problem (obviouslly) was poor implimentaton of Neo.

The same thing can be said of early switchmode power supply amps, early class G/H amps, early solid state amps, early composite necks, etc. There's good and bad implimentations of technology, time generally allows this to sort out and desireable standards of performance emerge.

All I ask is that you don't judge all small lightweight class D amps based on playing only one from any single manufacturer or even model. There's a wide variety of products on the market, some are more reliable than others, and some may be better suited for one type of player than another. It's really up to you to educate yourself as to what you as a player require (feature and tone-wise), determine what works for you personally, and then do your research on reliability and customer support if that's part of your personal criteria.

 

[MikeBass]

Correct, this is a solution that allows manufacturers to utilize the great engineering resources required to bring a reliable product like this to market more efficiently. By standardizing on a power amplifier platform, we can spread the high development costs over a wider number of users and products.

The resources required to develop this new class/type of compact lightweight product is considerable. In fact it's pretty daunting. At GB, been working on developing this stuff (specifically for bass and acoustic amps) for well over three years, and I've been working with it in pro audio for 6 or 7 years. It's very, very challenging technology to do well. With the advances that the bass amp industry has made in the past few years and the player demand for these new types of products, there have unfortunately been some less reliable products released that have scared off some players who would otherwise benefit from the smaller and lighter amps. The same thing happened with the early products containing Neo speakers, poor implimentations caused players to dismiss Neo as unacceptable where the real problem (obviouslly) was poor implimentaton of Neo.

The same thing can be said of early switchmode power supply amps, early class G/H amps, early solid state amps, early composite necks, etc. There's good and bad implimentations of technology, time generally allows this to sort out and desireable standards of performance emerge.

All I ask is that you don't judge all small lightweight class D amps based on playing only one from any single manufacturer or even model. There's a wide variety of products on the market, some are more reliable than others, and some may be better suited for one type of player than another. It's really up to you to educate yourself as to what you as a player require (feature and tone-wise), determine what works for you personally, and then do your research on reliability and customer support (in which we kick the living crap out of everyone else...just sayin'...) if that's part of your personal criteria.

Here, fixed it for ya!!

 

[SteveC]

I just can't wrap my brain around the push for 2 ohm bass amps. What gig are you playing where 900 watts isn't enough stage volume?IF you need more

 

[coolrunner989]

For me it's not about getting more watts at lower ohms but about being able to use more 4 ohm cabs to get the sound up by my head and more volume from the increased speaker area.

 

[KJung]

I just can't wrap my brain around the push for 2 ohm bass amps. What gig are you playing where 900 watts isn't enough stage volume?IF you need more

While I'm lucky enough to have the time, money, and I guess knowledge to match cabs of appropriate impedance to my 4ohm minimum heads, the 2ohm thing is not about volume at all, but rather it allows you to mix and match a variety of cabs safely. I would never 'plan' to run an amp at that very low impedance, but for some, it is nice to know that if you have an 8ohm 210 and a 4ohm 410, you can, if needed on occasion, use them both.

So, it isn't really about getting louder (many amps don't even meaningfully increase power going from 4 to 2) but rather flexibility.

Of course, the 'dual mono' heads running at 4ohms per side like the WT800, the Shuttle Max 12, the Puma1000 are pretty much identical (regarding flexibility) to mono heads capable of 2ohm operation, and are very flexible if they can also be bridged into 8ohms (and in some cases, 4ohms, which is basically running each side at 2ohms!).

 

[Boostedrex]

Are the cabs you currently run available in an 8 ohm variety? If so, then sell of yours and buy the 8 ohm versions of them. It's not like the only cabs made worth using come with a 4 ohm nominal impedance.

 

[MikeBass]

I just can't wrap my brain around the push for 2 ohm bass amps. What gig are you playing where 900 watts isn't enough stage volume?IF you need more

What he said...

 

[KJung]

Are the cabs you currently run available in an 8 ohm variety? If so, then sell of yours and buy the 8 ohm versions of them. It's not like the only cabs made worth using come with a 4 ohm nominal impedance.

+1 That was kind of my point. However, many don't have the luxury of having the cash to exactly match optimal cab combinations when buying a new head, etc. The flexibility of 2ohm operation is hard to argue against, even though I never needed it, and would never actually 'plan and purchase' a rig to run at that very low impedance.

It does allow some pretty cool combinations... like a 4ohm 212 and 8ohm 112, or three 8ohm 112's, or a 4ohm 410 and an 8ohm 210, all of which run at 2.67 ohms and result in each driver getting the same power, and allowing for nice modular combinations. Makes sense to me.

 

[VroomVroom]

Adding on to Ken's post above, I think scope is pretty important, at least as it relates to this particular amp. If I'm taking on a gig that involves two 4-ohm cabinets, it's likely that this flavor of Shuttle isn't the amp of choice. I am tempted by this thing, but specifcally as an upgrade to my Shuttle 6.0 - something I can use on small gigs and rehearsals with a single 12" cab, yet scalable to drive a 410 or two 112's. For anything requiring more volume, I'm going with the MAX12.0 or my Epifani 902C.

 

[Boostedrex]

I'm with you KJung. I just have to laugh when I see guys throwing a fit about a head not being 2 ohm stable because they own 4 ohm cabs. Yet most of these same people go out and buy new cabs, heads, basses, etc 3-4 times a year anyway. Just my .02 anyway, not that it's worth that much.