SWR Triad

I've played through one and I loved it. I think it shines best as an extension for a redhead or a metro.

 

Sounds great but it's a little quiet as a standalone.
Use it with 2x10 or sth. similar.

 

I would tend to agree, though I have yet to use this set-up. I have two Triads. I used to leave one at church and have the other at home for when I played elsewhere. In some venues I've had trouble being heard through one Triad. A few times I've taken both Triads on a gig and it's been nice. I may have to consider trading one for a 2X10. It's a bit much lugging two Triads around.

Peace,

James

 

I'm using an SWR 500. When I say quiet, it's probably more appropriate to say "gets lost in the mix". I don't know if it's that the setup (a 15, a 10, and a horn) somehow gets stepped on in the midst of all the various frequencies, or if it's a direction thing.

The best sound I get is when I split the channels (two of my basses are stereo. I can send one pick up to each speaker).

Fact of the matter is, I'm not too knowledgeable about amps and cabs. I plug 'em in and tweak 'til I like what I hear. Some of the "getting lost in the mix" could be a result of over-tweaking.

Peace,

James

 

A friend of mine had one of these which he rented for a weekend. I thought it sounded good, but I agree that a 2x10 would be nice with the triad. It would give it more punch. And besides, 2x10's are just cool !

 

I totally swear by SWR cab's....I had a Triad for a few months before upgrading to a Goliath Senior/Big Bertha.
The Triad I had performed wonderfully. Only thing I didn't like was that it only seemed to sound it's best when pushing a lot of power through it. I would definately have a powerful amp to push it if I were you. You should be very happy with it should you get one and I agree with those here who mention coupling it with a 2x10.

 

when i had my triad it definitely sounded better when i hit it with 1000w vs the 350 it got in my stereo setup (incidentally, with a goliath jr)


to give you an idea on how inefficient the triad is - i did a little experiment to see if i could get them to be the same percieved loudness, and on my poweramp with the triads channel maxxed out, the 2x10's was at a little over half.


but that cab definitely sounded GREAT.

 

I like Triads. Some people don't. Play one.

 

I A/B'd a Triad and a Goliath III. I chose the Goliath... its been said above.. the Triad just didn't sound loud enough to me. Otherwise though, it sounded great.

 

MOST of the time I'm playing through it straight. No board, no mic. These are the times when I'm saying one cab off of an SWR 500 get's lost. The times I've miked it our run through a sound board I've had no issues.

Peace,

James

 

What do you need a speaker on/off switch for?

Alex

 

Changing basses quietly w/ no pops and noise from a hot cable tip.

 

But you'd still hear that from the PA, and if you just pull the plug out slightly at the amp's input jack you mute everything silently.

Alex

 

The Triad is a full range hi-fi type cab. As with most of these types of cabs, it isn't as efficient as a straight speaker (like 4x10's etc.) I pushed mine with a Carvin dcm1000 and it needed every bit of it. Not that I ever drove it into clipping, I just feel that it needed a lot of headroom. The tone is pretty flat and much like a PA speaker. I play 5 string and it handled the low b just fine. As for getting lost in the mix? I don't think this is a good stand alone cabinet for a rock band. True, when you standing in front of it your pants are flapping from the lows and your ears are ringing from the highs, these sounds tend to get masked by the cymbals and kick. What you need for rock is that low mid-range punch that sits between the kick drum and electric guitar. This speaker doesn't have a lot of it. You can of course EQ it and that is where you need the extra power. Boosting the low-mids takes extra power. Adding a 2x10 cab (as others have suggested) will probably add the low-mid the cab needs without EQ'ing. If you decide to go with a 2x10 you have another decision. 4 or 8 ohm. Since the Triad is a 4 ohm cab, mating it with a 8 ohm 2x10 with drop you ohms to 2.66 or raise them to 12 depending on how you wire it. If you get a 4 ohm 2x10, your ohms will drop to (2) or raise to (8) again depending on how you wire it. In either case I think you'd be best to use a stereo power amp and power them in parallel mono instead of bridging. In this way you could balance both cabs.

 

Sounds like you've gone for the best cab then - with the Goliath you can just mic one of the tens, possibly towards the centre of the cab so you pick up a bit of the horn sound, whilst the Triad would need separate mics for the different speakers unless you had enough space and isolation to distant mic.

Alex