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Double Bass Successor to Acoustic Image?
- Thread starter Neon Scribe
- Start date
The AI Heads on any decent front firing cabinet sound delicious. The Double Shot and Upshot were Rick’s designs. He told me in no uncertain terms during the ISB convention at Colorado State that the amp shells for the Ten 2, Contra, and Coda were made offshore and quite expensive to fabricate.
Since the design was so room dependent, he moved on to the Up Shot and Double Shot, because they sounded better and could be built in house.
Since the design was so room dependent, he moved on to the Up Shot and Double Shot, because they sounded better and could be built in house.
Well, I don't know about the last generations of these, but the first series Contra I have, the cylindrical part is a cardboard tube used for post setting in concrete and the top and bottom shells are vacuum formed ABS. At least for that version, if there was more than $30 total production cost in the enclosure I'd be surprised. Fow low volume production the vacuum forming tools could easily have been made from wood, with total tooling cost on the order of maybe $5000.
So I'd take the "so expensive!" comment with a block of salt. Now it's true I haven't analyzed a late-production Contra, but it's clear to me that using inexpensive components was something they knew how to do.
I’m more interested in the amplifier portion of this Uptone amp than the speakers. I’m so used to the AI HPF that it drives me crazy when expensive amps otherwise well designed for DB, like the GR Acoustic Cube, don’t have one. $1600 and I still have to use my fdeck….ugh.
The late runs of the Ten2 and Contra shells were made offshore and cost more, at least that’s what Rick told us in a TB post and me personally at the ISB convention 9 in Rochester NY. He wanted something he could make in house that addressed the room dependence of down firing cabinets, and was less expensive to produce. I saw the prototype of a up and down firing cabinet with dual 8” speakers, that never went to market, but was one of the inspirations for the Upshot and the Double Shot.
Every cabinet design has its merits. The MAS 1.8 has I currently own has a custom “8” Eminence woofer, a 3’ midrange driver and a 1.5 soft dome tweeter all tied into to a 3way crossover network designed by Duke LeJune (Audiokinesis) 700 watt IcE power amp with internal HPF.
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I had a similar conversation with Rick about engineering design, implementation, and costs for the plastic amp shells. He was very clear that he had in the range of six figures for all of the design and pre production CAD & fabrication of the moulds to make them. I always felt that they were about 1" too shallow, hence the two speakers clanking together and causing internal damage on my early production model. What seemed like a simple fix was a financially unobtainable task.
Downfiring.
Yeah, I’d have to agree. I do think that the AI Ten 2 with a front firing 10 and the down firing 10 really improved their sound, but it increased the weight.
The Upshot and Double Shot were vast improvements IME IMHO. Just my take. A MAS 1/8 side by vs the Contra was a revelation. Just my take. The GR Bass AT Acoustic sounds huge by comparison based on what my ears tell me.
i did a thing, and i dont know why it took me so long to think of it. i turned the ten2 upside down on a gig. was wonderful. front firing and upfiring. no loss of floor coupling and a speaker aimed right at my head while sitting practically on top of the amp. this is the speaker that rick jones should have designed. i played with people i play with a lot, and they all said "dont play with that bass you usually play with, use this one from now on, it sounds so much better!" i had to tell them everything was the same, i just turned my speaker upside down...
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Years ago I did a similar thing with my series 1 Coda, laying it on it's back placed on a padded folding chair. It was awful -- very little bass response. That's when i realized the genius of the down-firing into the floor thing. RIP Rick Jones. I'll always remember the free repair you did for me.
The "problem" with the coda/contra is that the cabs have practically zero internal volume (by design). That's why the downfiring woofer works because it couples with the floor. I wasn't all that impressed with the upshot product.
Agreed on the Upshot, the Double Shot was a vast improvement over that design, but alas AI shuttered it’s doors before they could refine that concept.
IME AI heads were great with just about any other cabinet you match them with, I.e Bergantino, Aguilar, Barefaced, MAS, you name it.
The point of the Upshot was to provide a speaker that those of us city folk who travel via public transportation could manage and would sound good. I use mine a lot. Best possible sound? No, but those subway stairs can be challenging with bass and amp.
Not to make too fine a point of it but Acoustic Image was a bass amp, built by bassists for bassists. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see this again. A successor to that companies mission would be pretty rare.
