The argument for (or) against mixing cabs - example: 115 & 410

[/\/\3phist0]

I definitely wouldn't have used the word "stupid". This said, reread your own words. The number of people burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for daring to say the Earth is flat is exactly zero.

This is exactly what the MDP usually replies with when room problems and interactions with FOH are mentioned. I suppose it's a BFM heritage. And I have difficulties buying it. I promise I'll reread the sticky threads, but I don't think I've ever seen actual science, not just ipse dixits, supporting the claim that phase anomalies generated by cabinet mismatch are of a greater order of magnitude than other contingent sources of peaks and nulls. And @ThisBass got showered with links and ridicule for actually raising a good point in one of his earlier posts: for people who actually have PA support, even someone else's floor monitor with some bass in it creates potential problems. For all the good that raising awareness on the perils of mismixing does, it would be reasonable to admit that in such situations it's just one possible source of problems among many.
And since it takes nothing to be quickly judged as a flat-Earther, and arguments aren't always weighed for themselves but filtered through the general impression of which side a poster appears to be on in a discussion, at this point I feel the need to say I don't mix myself and find the idea of looking for good sound by randomly throwing together different cabs tortuous at best.
Also (and I think we might have had the same conversation in the past), as someone way more knowledgeable than both of us once pointed out, too much of a relatively good thing can actually be simply too much: the upper bass bump from a matching stack may well sound too bloated in comparison with the same peak from just one of them, also considering that the baffle step moves down to the same freq area with the stack.
Also also, matching is well and good, but telling a guy to get a second 410 identical to the one he has because he'll get just more of what he loves is not the whole picture. With four more sources comes more comb filtering in many listening positions.

it certainly is not black and white. All XX" drivers are not the same, or even designed for the same purpose.
Size means nothing.
Some people still claim that "bass frequency needs XX amount of feet to develop" when i hear bass just fine with headphones, now of course that includes direct transfer of the vibrations to my body physically.
the Science is out there, but science cannot prove or disprove anything. Belief in science, often takes less "blind faith", and science is often theory, (AKA an educated guess) as with all things there is seldom an absolute. Personal experience is valid, and applicable but as is often the case, perception is no more fact than theory, it is a single persons theory. In the absence of contravening evidence their personal experience is their only reality. Reality itself is a debatable thing to some.
perception: is like this.
The Blind Men and the Elephant
very real for the perceiver, but quite askew from the shared reality of the many.

 

[Brad Johnson]

I mixed a GenzBenz 115 loaded with a JBL E140 and a SWR 410 WPro and the results were really terrible, the JBL farted worse than anything Ive ever heard, yes-it sucked really bad. Then I unplugged the genzbenz and plugged in a BagEnd S15B-D and the results were amazing! I used it for a few years. Next I got my lesson here and figured I should get another SWR410 and it was good but not better, I just missed the BagEnd, really bad, something about that bag end cab. But I will say that the bagEnd cab wasnt that great by itself,.. weird, so I picked up a smaller S15D and paired the bag ends, all is good. Im glad not to tote the 410s anymore. If I mix cab sizes with same drivers, where does that fit in the debate? Really though, I see all sides, good stuff!

I've heard Bag End S15 cabs paired with a wide range of cabs and the results were surprising. Like pairing it with an Eden D410XLT. It really rounded out the bottom of that rig. Go figure.

 

[gjohnson441496]

Oolong doesn't think so

Ok. This is funny!

 

[DavidEdenAria]

After reading many threads on talkbass i decided to buy another 15 so i can match my first cab, but ill tell you what, the best sounding rig i have heard was a 15 and 2x10 with no pa. It was an eden rig and was sick.

Ive done this with my Eden Metro which is 450 watts into the stock 4 ohm load. though the 2x10 that are stock in this combo, measure higher than most any other pair of 8 ohm speakers in parallel.

SO....I ran a 1x15 EV15L at 8 ohms paired with the stock 2x10 since this amp will drive 2 ohm loads.....sounds great too.

Still, it is much easier, IMO, to get good results with similar size drivers in similar type cabs (ported or sealed).

The differences between all extremes of bass cabinets are just that...EXTREME LOL!!

 

[leesbrushes]

 

[TonyP-]

Just a request...

Can someone use the word "crossover" again in this thread, in a sentence.

Oh and it does not have to pertain to speaker design, but it can if you want to...Ho

Ops sorry I meant go...

 

[redhed]

Only players on talkbass know what amps and cabinets to use.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Just a request...

Can someone use the word "crossover" again in this thread, in a sentence.

Oh and it does not have to pertain to speaker design, but it can if you want to...Ho

Ops sorry I meant go...

oh don't tempt me Tony.... there IS a joke there

 

[mbelue]

Only players on talkbass know what amps and cabinets to use.

Of course not, but we do make a conscious effort to care.

Sure wish manufactures would drop the shenanigans and crossover to our side.

 

[Ric5]

I'm fairly new here at TB and run across so many commentary and advice against running a 1x15 & a 4x10 cabinet together.. it's as if you're playing on a Ouija board with a baptist pastor or something that it's ridiculous.. I've played bass since 1988 and at a semi-pro level since at least 2001 with over 600 shows to date.. I've mixed cabs of 2x15 and 2x10 together, 4x10 and 1x15 together etc... all with good results.

Pro's play the same... here below are a few examples but maybe you guys know something some of us don't... please try to explain the argument for (or) against mixing cabs. Thanks -

Flea of RHCP uses three Gallien-Krueger 2001RB amps, one controls the other two as slaves. The amps run into three Gallien-Krueger 410 cabinets and three 115 cabs, all running. There are two additional 2001RB amps in the rack, one is used when Klinghoffer plays bass, and the other is simply a backup.


View attachment 795803 View attachment 795804

Just before heading out on this 2011 Mars Volta tour, Alderete switched his amp setup from his old standby SVT-VR heads and cabs to the newer PF-500 heads, which power PF-115 1x15 and PF-210 2x10 cabinets.

View attachment 795807

info courtesy of : Invalid Link Removed

I HAD A FRIEND WHO MIXED CABS AND THEN ALL OF HIS TEETH FELL OUT, HIS WIFE LEFT HIM AND TOOK THE DOG AND HE GOT BANNED FROM PLAYING BASS FOR LIFE

Actually some of the best gigging rigs I have played through in the last few decades had mixed cabs ...

 

[moody]

Call me a grumpy old fart, but my 'ideal' driver is a single point source, diameter irrelevant, in a properly loaded box driven by a class A amplifier.

I don't necessarily agree with class A. I don't think I have ever seen a class A bass amp.

There are some who believe that your average small band PA would be better off as a single point source. Sure it doesn't look as balanced but it would get rid of a lot of issues and cost half as much. I often do it for rehearsals, running lead vocals through one speaker and backing vocals through another for example.

A good single bass speaker at a height that suits you for monitoring on stage is pretty much ideal.

 

[leesbrushes]

A friend of mine once mixed cabs.
He disappeared not be be seen or heard of since.
Not sure what happened to him but I no longer speak his name without sprinkling salt over my shoulder and spinning around in a clockwise circle.

 

[Anachronism]

I HAD A FRIEND WHO MIXED CABS AND THEN ALL OF HIS TEETH FELL OUT, HIS WIFE LEFT HIM AND TOOK THE DOG AND HE GOT BANNED FROM PLAYING BASS FOR LIFE

Actually some of the best gigging rigs I have played through in the last few decades had mixed cabs ...

Sounds like an old country song...

 

[njones89]

Any decent amp will have some kind of balance control that allows you to compensate a difference in power rating.

 

[kat888]

I don't necessarily agree with class A. I don't think I have ever seen a class A bass amp.

I wasn't meaning bass amps, specifically mate, I was talking about an 'ideal' applicable to any and all music/audio amplification/reproduction.

btw - class A topology eliminates *crossover* distortion (!). There, I've used it in a sentence, do I get a biscuit?

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Just a request...

Can someone use the word "crossover" again in this thread, in a sentence.

Oh and it does not have to pertain to speaker design, but it can if you want to...Ho

Ops sorry I meant go...

Ok: @TonyP-
My ex girlfriend was a Christian Woman.
On her bedroom wall, she hung a crossover her bed.

Her roots were showing, she died them black.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Any decent amp will have some kind of balance control that allows you to compensate a difference in power rating.

please explain?

 

[kat888]

please explain?

penguins

 

[njones89]

please explain?

You turn the knob and it attenuates the power going to each cab on a channel.

 

[gjohnson441496]

I HAD A FRIEND WHO MIXED CABS AND THEN ALL OF HIS TEETH FELL OUT, HIS WIFE LEFT HIM AND TOOK THE DOG AND HE GOT BANNED FROM PLAYING BASS FOR LIFE

Actually some of the best gigging rigs I have played through in the last few decades had mixed cabs ...

after that your friend started playing guitar, became a big country star, bought a set of teeth, found a new wife (a cat lover), and got banned from Nashville because he played Hollywood Country instead of real Country (swimming pools, movie stars).