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TC Electronic launches BAM200

#61
bassically_eli said:
Generally, it's awefully hard to damage a preamp with too hot a signal, unless you do something really stupid like connect a power amp to it. How hard is it to get the light to turn on if you take the Tonehammer out of the chain? TC is getting quite a reputation for inaccurate manuals, so it's worth doing some experimenting to see how it really behaves.

Honestly, the manual really conflicts with the marketing materials/design concept. The marketing pushes the MOSFET based preamp for its tube like qualities, but what good are tubes (or tube emulation) if you're not overdriving them? I'd let your ears be the judge. It should sound like a$$ long before you do any damage. (I'm referring to hard clipping.) Sounds like you're hearing good old soft clipping.

All that said, I'm not a sound engineer (I just play one on the internet--in real life, I'm an aerospace engineer and I stick to the mechanical side), so maybe wait for a second opinion before you go and start daisy chaining preamps with the gain maxed out on all them ;)
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Thanks for your insight. I haven't actually checked when the light comes on without the tone hammer in the chain, will do that tonight. With it in the chain, and with only moderate settings (think all knobs at noon, AGS off) the light goes on (when playing) with gain only at about 8 o'clock - i.e. not much.

I am thinking the biggest threat would be if it got too hot (it does get warm), but the website says "Amplifier protected against short circuits, thermal overload and low speaker impedance for enhanced reliability" so I am not worried about it overheating. Worse that can happen is it shuts down (which wouldn't be good in the middle of a gig).

Using the ear test, there is definitely no harsh clipping. I get that nice tube like quality that I don't get when playing it through the clean crest power amp (and then into flat response fEARfuls). But not at all harsh. This things sounds great!
 
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#62
:( I was goin' to get one of these because I had a little practice amp that died and I wanted to keep using it
but, I blew it. Much like another thread, I joined years ago which was Low-cost DIY practice/coffeehouse tweeterless 110 [long]
After I got my money together for the parts, I found a David Eden CX 110 for the same money.

This time I was going to get the TC BAM200 but found a deal for 36 months same as cash so, I splurged and bought instead, a Mesa WD-800 :(
:)
 
#63
DJ Bebop said:
:( I was goin' to get one of these because I had a little practice amp that died and I wanted to keep using it
but, I blew it. Much like another thread, I joined years ago which was Low-cost DIY practice/coffeehouse tweeterless 110 [long]
After I got my money together for the parts, I found a David Eden CX 110 for the same money.

This time I was going to get the TC BAM200 but found a deal for 36 months same as cash so, I splurged and bought instead, a Mesa WD-800 :(
:)
Click to expand...
haha, that's quite a splurge! Kind of opposite ends of the class D spectrum: super simple, tiny, budget micro amp, vs knock your house down with all the bells and whistles amp. Congrats! I bet that Mesa is amazing.
 
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#64
HeadWind said:
Thanks for your insight. I haven't actually checked when the light comes on without the tone hammer in the chain, will do that tonight. With it in the chain, and with only moderate settings (think all knobs at noon, AGS off) the light goes on (when playing) with gain only at about 8 o'clock - i.e. not much.

I am thinking the biggest threat would be if it got too hot (it does get warm), but the website says "Amplifier protected against short circuits, thermal overload and low speaker impedance for enhanced reliability" so I am not worried about it overheating. Worse that can happen is it shuts down (which wouldn't be good in the middle of a gig).

Using the ear test, there is definitely no harsh clipping. I get that nice tube like quality that I don't get when playing it through the clean crest power amp (and then into flat response fEARfuls). But not at all harsh. This things sounds great!
Click to expand...

How's the volume out of the fEARfuls? I've heard that they're really power hungry, so that's great that the BAM can drive them well.
 
#65
bassically_eli said:
haha, that's quite a splurge! Kind of opposite ends of the class D spectrum: super simple, tiny, budget micro amp, vs knock your house down with all the bells and whistles amp. Congrats! I bet that Mesa is amazing.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I would have got the BAM then would have been G.A.S.in' for the Mesa so I just cut out the middle step :D
I still use it with my small cabs, like a micro amp, so there's that :)
And it came with micropayments, $30 month :)
 
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#67
bassically_eli said:
oh, you poor, poor fellow. there is no cure for gas. Pretty soon you'll be G.A.S.in' for a Mesa WD-800.001b.

micropayments...nice
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Nope, not goin' happen cause I have self-control!
silence-of-the-lambs.png
 
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#68
bassically_eli said:
How's the volume out of the fEARfuls? I've heard that they're really power hungry, so that's great that the BAM can drive them well.
Click to expand...

Well I use two, so that's twice the cone area and drops the impedance at 4 ohms for the full 200 watts (am I supposed to clarify those are class d watts? :) ). It drives them fine using the tonehammer preamp in line. Plenty of volume to keep up with two-guitar bands in small venues. For my main band, we rely on the mains for our sound so these are really just stage monitors for me, but for my secondary band, we send only vocals through the PA, and I have done several gigs with just the TC. And one of the guitarists in that one is very loud (says he has to get "the breakup", even though he is running everything through a line 6 helix to model whatever sound he wants)

BTW, I did try the BAM200 plugging the bass direct into the input and the green light came on with hardly any gain, just like when I use the preamp inline, so I am not going to worry about it. This is with a passive bass, so if the light comes on with that plugged in and gain down low, I think it doesn't really mean anything.
 
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#70
dramatwist said:
...don't really need it, but tempted as heck...
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I figure it would really suck to have an amp die during a gig. For $150 and just a spot on the pedalboard, this was a good investment. The fact that it sounded great on its own was just a bonus. Also, because it has its own DI, if I had a malfunction in the signal chain (I do tuner > compressor > preamp > LPF/HPF > amp, with a DI coming out of the preamp) then I can just replug the bass cable, amp cable, and DI output and I am good to go. That's actually when I bought this right after an instance of the LPF/HPF cutting out during a gig. It came back on, but still was a scare.
 
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#71
HeadWind said:
BTW, I did try the BAM200 plugging the bass direct into the input and the green light came on with hardly any gain, just like when I use the preamp inline, so I am not going to worry about it. This is with a passive bass, so if the light comes on with that plugged in and gain down low, I think it doesn't really mean anything.
Click to expand...
Seems like very sound reasoning to me. Plus, who makes a warning light green?! It's just giving you the go ahead!
 

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