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What does 'Headroom' mean??

#21
My point is that you are going to have bowel, prostate, and depth perception problems when you're my age for insisting on using 750w or more. On the bright side, you will more than likely have a higher sperm count ;)
 
#23
JimmyM said:
My point is that you are going to have bowel, prostate, and depth perception problems when you're my age for insisting on using 750w or more. On the bright side, you will more than likely have a higher sperm count ;)
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Well, at my age, most people already have those issues, and they're not even bass players. And you left out hernias. I still say start at 750 and go up.
 
#24
It depends also on the amp/cab pairing, and also on your venue for playing. Some cabs (like my Avatar SB112 Delta) don't come into their own until their being fed lots of watts. No distortion or overdrive or anything, it just sounds better, more ballsy, when my amp (G-K 700 RB-II) is on say 4 or 5 or even 6 versus 2 or 3. Where I've been gigging lately though, it's mostly on 3-4. I'd say the same thing for my amp as well, which I have played with other cabs. That's why I'm using it instead of the 1001 RB-II, it gets to the sound I want at a lower volume.

But the basic definition is how loud can you go before you start getting distortion and clipping.
 
#25
It depends also on the amp/cab pairing, and also on your venue for playing. Some cabs (like my Avatar SB112 Delta) don't come into their own until their being fed lots of watts. No distortion or overdrive or anything, it just sounds better, more ballsy, when my amp (G-K 700 RB-II) is on say 4 or 5 or even 6 versus 2 or 3. Where I've been gigging lately though, it's mostly on 3-4. I'd say the same thing for my amp as well, which I have played with other cabs. That's why I'm using it instead of the 1001 RB-II, it gets to the sound I want at a lower volume.

But the basic definition is how loud can you go before you start getting distortion and clipping.
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This might not be due to the cab "liking being fed more watts" as much as the sound filling the room @ higher volume and the gain structure of the amp. GK has a term for this mystical, magical, wonderful thing that an amp does when it starts to work a bit more: "hitting the rails". This is usually the sweetspot where there's just enough added distorsion from the signal to sound nasty and dirty while keeping the fundamentals clean. Added distorsion from radiator speakers can also be somewhat desirable to some people and that can only be attained @ high level of db.

I personally love item a and dislike item b a lot.
 
#26
BillMason said:
It depends also on the amp/cab pairing, and also on your venue for playing. Some cabs (like my Avatar SB112 Delta) don't come into their own until their being fed lots of watts. No distortion or overdrive or anything, it just sounds better, more ballsy, when my amp (G-K 700 RB-II) is on say 4 or 5 or even 6 versus 2 or 3. Where I've been gigging lately though, it's mostly on 3-4. I'd say the same thing for my amp as well, which I have played with other cabs. That's why I'm using it instead of the 1001 RB-II, it gets to the sound I want at a lower volume.

But the basic definition is how loud can you go before you start getting distortion and clipping.
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If you are running your 750 at say 5 to get to a 200 watt sweet spot for your cab, wouldn't the 1001 putting out 200 watts at say 3 yield the same sound?
I'm wondering if you are working off of a bit of disired distortion there with the amp comment???
 
#27
mothra2 said:
If you are running your 750 at say 5 to get to a 200 watt sweet spot for your cab, wouldn't the 1001 putting out 200 watts at say 3 yield the same sound?
I'm wondering if you are working off of a bit of disired distortion there with the amp comment???
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I don't know - I've heard/read that you have to work the 1001 at a higher volume to get the same sound of the 700 at a lower volume. It makes sense - let's say you get that sound at 30-40% volume, which would be decently loud on the 700 and freaking head-splitting loud on the 1001.

Not sure what you mean by your last question...?
 
#30
JonathanD said:
I think of head room as the space between the level I am playing, and the peak of the amps power. The more headroom the less distortion. This also allows me to have a hard attack without compression.

Its like jumping on a trampoline. If you have a ceiling 10 feet above you you have to be careful, or tie some bungy cord to your foot so you don't go to hi (compression). Having lots of head room is like using the trampoline outside.

Jonathan
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All of these responses and it never got any better then this from Jonathan. :p
 
#38
To me an amp without headroom might sound compressed when turned up. An amp with headroom would have more apparent gain before compression. There are to many factors as to why this would be, and this is much the reason why some amps carry with them the claim of "more headroom" than others.
 
#39
Headroom is power that you have available in excess of what you're using.

It's good to have at least some headroom.

It has nothing to do with knob position (i.e., "I only have my volume on 10 o'clock!"); if the amp starts clipping and farting at 11 o'clock, it didn't have much headroom.
 
#40
keyboardguy said:
I think of headroom kinda like two cars.

First, you have a Yugo doing 80 mph. it's straining but you're moving down the highway.

Next, you have a porsche/ferarri, type of car doing 80.

Both going the same speed, but one is almost at it's limit.

Now, let's take them both to 100 mph. The Yugo is straining and gets to 100, but it won't last long. It'll probably blow the engine in a few minutes.

The Porsche/ferarri easily goes to 100, and will go to 175 ALL DAY IF NEEDED with no strain.

That's headroom.....



Mike
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Nice analogy or way to think of it.
 

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