Single 10” Cab

[Schmidty]

What are your arguments for or against building a single 10" cabinet, with a tweeter, to be paired with other cabinets?

I'm running a Markbass Little Mark 500 to an SWR Big Ben. This is an 18" cab, and I'm loving the low end. The high end response is also impressive, but it leaves me wanting a little more.

I'm considering buying a 10" Eminence Legend (500W, 8 ohms) and installing that in a home built cabinet.

I'm assuming 10's are better paired together, since all cabinets you see are made that way, but a single 10 cab would be lighter and more portable.

What are your thoughts? I'm open to alternative suggestions that would solve my problem.

 

[Stumbo]

Why reinvent the speaker?

How about a RS8 1x8 | RevSound

RS110T 1x10 w tweet Bass Cabinet | RevSound available too!

@dawind99 the builder is a TB member.

 

[akrachanko]

I'll offer you a bit of advice, and point you towards a great thread here:
Any Rules For Mixing Cabinets?

Now, my advice. Remember, if you have 2 x 8 ohm cabinets, say a Big Ben, and a 10" cab, they will be receiving the same amount of power. Those drivers are going to handle that power differently, so it may not be the best option. Now, what I did to combat this problem a while ago, was start using a power amp with 2 channels. This let's me set the levels individually for my 2 cabs. If I wanted to get crazy, I could even run 2 different signals to the cabs, say a clean signal to one, and an effects loop to another, but I digress. Sorry if I didn't really answer your question... Regardless, good luck, and rock on!

 

[JimChjones]

Have you looked at the frequency response curves? I would guess that a high power 10 would tend to overlap a lot with the 18. Seems to me that you might be better off with a crossover and some sort of HF driver. Maybe build a cabinet with an HF driver, horn flare, crossover and LPAD, and plug your existing speaker unaltered into the LF output from the crossover?

 

[Schmidty]

Have you looked at the frequency response curves? I would guess that a high power 10 would tend to overlap a lot with the 18. Seems to me that you might be better off with a crossover and some sort of HF driver. Maybe build a cabinet with an HF driver, horn flare, crossover and LPAD, and plug your existing speaker unaltered into the LF output from the crossover?

I've found the frequency response curve for the 10", but not for my Big Ben. I've found a related thread where others have made the same suggestion. I'll explore that optional as well. Thanks!

 

[Stumbo]

Previous thread on the same topic: SWR 18 inch Big Ben cabinet upgrade - 18Sound XD125

 

[Schmidty]

I'll offer you a bit of advice, and point you towards a great thread here:
Any Rules For Mixing Cabinets?

Now, my advice. Remember, if you have 2 x 8 ohm cabinets, say a Big Ben, and a 10" cab, they will be receiving the same amount of power. Those drivers are going to handle that power differently, so it may not be the best option. Now, what I did to combat this problem a while ago, was start using a power amp with 2 channels. This let's me set the levels individually for my 2 cabs. If I wanted to get crazy, I could even run 2 different signals to the cabs, say a clean signal to one, and an effects loop to another, but I digress. Sorry if I didn't really answer your question... Regardless, good luck, and rock on!

Could you link a photo of your rig so I can see how you are setting this up?

 

[akrachanko]

Could you link a photo of your rig so I can see how you are setting this up?

I would share a good picture if I had one, but sadly, I don't (but I kind of do... See below). However, I was able to throw together a lame little diagram of my setup to hopefully clarify. At it's simplest, I'm running my bass into a pre-amp, then a stereo (2 channel) power-amp, and then to my cabinets. The power amp will actually accept a mono signal and feed it to both channels, if you move a switch to tell it to. The pre-amp, in this case, could also be the DI from an amplifier, if you don't have a dedicated pre-amp. From there, you have 2 individual channels on the power amp you can connect to 2 different cabs, and set 2 different volumes.

After writing the bulk of this post, I did find a decent picture of my setup, although I was only using 1 cab at the time. From the top down, here's what's in this 4U case (Ignore the Ampeg amp on top for now): Furman Power Conditioner, PreSonus Studio Channel (Pre-Amp), Crest Audio ProLITE 2.0 Amp. The Ampeg on top is feeding a DI signal to the PreSonus (for some Ampeg tubey goodness), and that PreSonus feeds a 3-way passive XLR splitter (Radial LX-3) to give me 2 DI outs, and 1 signal to feed the power amp. I made a custom plate on the back with all the connections I ever need to simplify the entire setup. I put a picture of this below also. It's not the simplest setup, but it's very flexible. I also have the option to bridge the 2 power-amp channels for some serious power into one cab, if needed.