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Speakers distorting?!?!?!

C

CoachL

Nov 4, 2007
25
0
#1
I just picked up an Eden N28S this morning in a trade for a guitar I was selling. It puts out 120 watts @ 8ohms, 170 @ 4ohms. After reading all the reviews I could find, it seemed like it should be a nice amp. Unfortunately, when we met this morning to do the swap, we were not in a place where I could really crank it up. Now tonight I got the chance to set it up at home and I'm not so sure about it. It sounds great up to about 4 on the master. Anything above that and low notes distort the speakers. Granted, they are 8s, but then I plugged in a different 8 ohm cab with a 15 and it was distorting too. Does this amp really have little headroom? It only seems to be happening on lower notes.

I wanted to use this as my stage monitor with my new band. We run everything direct - guitar is using a Line 6 amp and drummer uses a Roland TD20 kit - and use a sizable PA and monitor system. 75% of what we hear on stage is coming from them monitors and side-fills. But, I still want the option to crank the amp up a bit if I need a bit more of myself on my side of the stage without having to put more in the monitors if everyone else is happy with the monitor mix. But I'm barely loud enough for home let alone anything else. What's up with this?
 
#3
There are not too many 8" speakers out there that can handle an electric bass. Your amp puts out 120W@8Ω you say. That's not a lot. For my vocal monitors I use 300W. Some cabs need to have a reasonably powerful amp drive them in order to get them "moving". Case 1: Too small speakers, case 2 too small amp.

The actual number on the volume control is meaningless. For a low output bass you might need to run the amp at 8 to obtain full output from the amp. A bass with a hotter signal might only need 2 to reach the same level.

Paul
 
#4
I haven't heard any of those small speaker amps that'll really play loud enough for stage monitoring unless it's with a few acoustic instruments and maybe drums with brushes.

It's not so much the low power but the inefficiency of the little speakers and their inability to put out any solid bass at anything above home practice levels. I have a Yorkville 50 watt, 1x10" combo that actually plays louder and cleaner than many of the boutique mini amps I've tried. Remember, back when electric basses first started getting used you couldn't get anything more than 50 watts, but the speaker cabinets were larger even though the speakers were garbage compared to run of the mill speakers made for bass today.

The little Walkabout Scout manages to put out a pretty big sound for a 50 watt, 1x12 combo but look at the price. They've done some extensive work getting the most out of that speaker in a smallish box.

I used a Yorkville XM200C combo with 2x10" speakers. Even though using the internal speakers only it probably could only put out a little over 100 watts, it could handle rock gigs in smaller rooms. But much bigger and heavier and definitely not a mini amp.

Sorry about you getting hosed. An extension cabinet with a good 12" speaker might do the trick.

I've also got a GK MB150S combo with 100 watts into its internal 12" speaker and it's about the same maximum volume as my 50 watt Yorkville. Better sound though. With the matching GK 12" extension cabinet it puts out 150 watts and the extra speaker gives a decent and noticeable increase in useable volume. But I also tried it with a very efficient Eden 1x10" extension cabinet and it was much louder and actually sounded more like a 150 watt amp.
 
#7
It definitely sounds like you're out of headroom. You may want to try an EQ curve that has less lows and more mids/mid-highs. The lower in frequency you go, the more wattage it takes to get the signal back up to your standard listening level. It may also be worth it to find the most efficient cab that you can find.
 
#8
I'm going to take it to rehearsal tomorrow night and run it through the mains and monitors like I would for a gig and see what I can do from there. I may not need much lows coming out of the amp itself if I'm pumping it through the PA.
 
#10
CoachL said:
I'm going to take it to rehearsal tomorrow night and run it through the mains and monitors like I would for a gig and see what I can do from there. I may not need much lows coming out of the amp itself if I'm pumping it through the PA.
Click to expand...

That might be enough. Dialing out the lows in the Eden will gain you some headroom.
 

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