Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Speaker size v. Tone: I don't hear any correlation
- Thread starter Kwesi
- Start date
Big +1. KJung continues to make sense
. That Dead Horse pic would fit better in a bunch of threads on the first page of the Basses forum if you wanna take it over there.There's no horse being beat here. I asked for opinions on the validity of speaker size/tone relationship not for people to tell me which they think is better. Frankly, I couldn't careless about what other people like at this point. I've had all kinds of people telling me what amps/cabs are good or bad and more often than not I end up disagreeing with them. This is more a reminder to those who've forgotten what this thread is and isn't about. It is about your personal observations. It isn't about the greatest amp/cab you've ever played on. Thanks.
Stay in school
(taken from OT 
)
My actual quote was that it sounds like a '110 on steroids' (i.e., a higher db versions of a typical, small single 10 cab with a typical midrange oriented driver... more punchy and grindy than deep and full). That is a great example of why driver size is a dubious method for describing the tone of cabs. Many describe the Berg HT112ER as the 'best 115 cab ever', again using the cliche'd impression of driver size tone to describe a cab that doesn't fit that cliche at all
Seems to me that if you are talking differences between cabs, then the characteristics of the drivers are convoluted with the characteristics of the cab construction (which by the way is hopefully designed by one knowledgeable in the art and science to sound pleasing with that driver), and so you can not really get a whole lot from the composite discussion.
Taken on their own, of course, there are significant differences in the response characteristics of different driver sizes, some of which Bill mentioned.
Then, you start comparing array characteristics for groups of drivers, and it gets more complex. And, this is a good thing for the cab designer, because it gives them a lot of design options.
Take each cab on its own, use your ears, and pick the one that best fits your sound. If you are KJung, maybe you pick a few more. The best "test" is to get the cab out on the gig.
As to making choices based absolutely on specific driver sizes, well....how well do you taste with your eyes?
Taken on their own, of course, there are significant differences in the response characteristics of different driver sizes, some of which Bill mentioned.
Then, you start comparing array characteristics for groups of drivers, and it gets more complex. And, this is a good thing for the cab designer, because it gives them a lot of design options.
Take each cab on its own, use your ears, and pick the one that best fits your sound. If you are KJung, maybe you pick a few more.
The best "test" is to get the cab out on the gig.As to making choices based absolutely on specific driver sizes, well....how well do you taste with your eyes?
If you've played those cabs, his point is that even though they each have the same driver size, they sound totally, completely, utterly different.
I'm missing your point. See post 85!
I suspected as much. I need to get better at recognizing when people are agreeing with me, lol.
I do now
I suspected as much. I need to get better at recognizing when people are agreeing with me, lol.
I do now
Fun discussion.
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
- 16,860
- 278
- 76
- Disclosures
- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
It does, and I kid you not. The material the cab is made of and the construction techniques used can give results just as divergent as a basswood body bolt-on with passive single coils versus a walnut body neck-through with active buckers.Depends on the type of wood the cabinet is made of...
(I kid, I kid.....)
Many describe the Berg HT112ER as the 'best 115 cab ever', again using the cliche'd impression of driver size tone to describe a cab that doesn't fit that cliche at all
But you also said this in your thread about the cab: "Again, with that big driver in that small box, this is not a deeply voiced, traditional 115... it's more of a 'super 112' to my ear at this point."
I'd say it's more techniques than the construction material. My experience has been the type of wood makes no damn difference if it's braced so as to be non-resonant.
Sadly, if you go knock on most commercial cabinets you'll find that bracing is a foreign concept
Not disagreeing with you necessarily, but you seem to be focussing o the psychological element that contributes to other people hearing a difference, but are avoiding the psychological elements that *prevent you* from hearing a difference.
I do not know what you mean by deep - this is a purely subjective, non-scientific term. I only know what I mean by deep. I don't know what you mean by punchy, growly, boomy or muddy either. I only know what those terms mean to me. This is a fact.
Another fact is that everyone's ears are different. Physically, my ears are different from yours, sound channels down my ear canal and bounces around differently then it does in yours, sound stimulates my ear hairs and my cochlea differently than yours, and my brain interprets those stimuli differently than yours does.
