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Why am I not loud?

#81
just fyi, Ampeg cabs are the kings of inefficient. 1200 watts into an ampeg speaker is roughly equivalent to 400 watts into a boogie, Eden, or GK.
As far as blowing your speaks from too many watts. It is a possibility, especially with teh compressor full on. Compressors raise the average signal level by clamping down on parts of the signal that exceed a certain threshold (well technically thats a limiter, but the only difference between the two is really the time domain). Raising the average signal level in this way takes a lot of the punch out of the tone. Try defeating the limiter/compressor and see if it isnt more present sounding. On my last ampeg (an all solid state 450h or something) the compressor made me sound half as loud and was only good for keeping a lid on my volume if jamming after 10pm.
As far as the deep switch, with some cabs/basses it really rocks. In your instance I believe the advice others have given is good, brnig the EQ to flat. Try and get you volume up from there.
That way when you are this close enough to being loud enough it only takes a tweak of the mid or the bass to get all the way loud. Also, extreme EQ can make the bass seem like it has dead spots in the neck. Way more than I have seen from "mismatched cabinets".
 
#83
Destructobot said:
And your post isn't devoid of it either. For instance:






Well, sorta. It means the speakers inside add up to 400w of thermal dissipation before the voice coils will start to heat up to where they can warp. More importantly, the cab will take a lot less than 400w before the speakers run out of excursion and just give you distortion as you crank the volume further.





Right on the first point, but a cab doesn't need a certain amount of power to "start sounding good" unless you want the sound of the speakers distorting (as is often the case with guitar speakers).





A clipping amp is no worse for speakers than a fuzz pedal or any other source of clipping. Which is to say, not bad at all. The bad-for-speakers part is that you've got a cranked 1200w amp. Overpowering harms speakers, period, whether clipping or not.








Bassy is right on the money here. After doing a ton of reading on this site about speakers, it seems to me that Bill F. Maurice's horn-loaded designs are the kings of efficiency across the frequency spectrum. They're also very very cheap if you have some tools and know how to build them yourself. Traditional speaker cabs can't keep up unless you're talking about seriously big stuff like 8x10's or multiple smaller cabs. My advice: do like I did and just go 8x10 + 2x15 :D You won't need 600w, much less 1200.
Click to expand...


Like I said, I didn't try to go into the technical side of thing to loose the OP who, obviously has no understanding of how amplifier and speaker cabinet works. I was simply trying to vulgarise and parts of what I said may come of as innacurate.

I know all this stuff, I work as an electrical designer in an engeenering firm, I'm glad you brought those points and explained them further, thanks
 
#86
Other than what everyone else is saying (correct information, for the record), i just want to point out that you could get a little bit more volume by playing harder.. just my experience. I just have a really heavy hand and by nature i play hard as ****. It's a good thing i play real thick strings. Hell, back years ago when i had a little 20 watt practice amp i could make that thing sound louder than it was.
 
#87
I was actually thinking about going to a buddy's house and seeing if his svt 2-15 could slide into my back seat. It may be a pipe dream, haha, but if it fits im gonna start looking for a used svt 8-10. If it doesn't fit ill either look for a 4-10 or keep my current setup, which i'm not content with.
 
#88
With 4 PRO...

pretty much what JustOpen... said........ read it and understand it.

And, just for emphasis.......

The PREAMP light can be blinking like crazy, no problem. The POWERAMP light is the one that is going to cause trouble..... How much depends on playing style. If you are all about string pops, consider turning off the limiter. otherwise don't. A lot of high peaks will trigger the limiter which will then proceed to squash the rest of the sound.

TURN OFF THE "ULTRA-LOW". I call that thing the "suck switch", it sucks out all the power, and makes the sound sucky.... There's maybe two people who need that switch, and you are not one of them.

I may have missed how you are connecting the speakers...... probably either one per channel or two on one channel. Which means you might get either 450W or 600W max. Not bad, but not great.

On the other hand, you don't have enough speaker to use that much power..... A 410 is about minimum..... a 610 will do good.

Oddly, the regular 810E is NOT good, it is too easy to run out of speaker movement and hear that loud cracking noise.....

if you listen to some folks here, you will get the impression that Ampeg has tried to cut every corner and cheap out on everything. Those folks are, frankly, ignorant and acting like idiots. They may be entitled to their opinion, but they clearly don't know jack. I was there, I know.

The 4RPO is a good amp, and the speakers are good speakers. That doesn't mean that they are all a good match for that amp, and I think you have nearly the WORST matchup possible.

You need at LEAST a 410HLF to use the full power effectively. better something like a 610HLF, or two 410s. You want a total of a 4 ohm load regardless, so you can run mono bridged. The amp just "opens up" when run that way......
 
#90
JimmyM said:
i'm still not buying any of that.
Click to expand...

Jimmy, once you take essentially the same driver and put it in a cab with an Ampeg tag on it you lose at least 3dB right there ; } - on paper anyway, since Ampeg has consistently been one of the few companies to not engage "Ludicrous Speed" in their marketeze specsmanship.

On the other hand, here's an Eden spec sheet marketing specialist:

ludicrous-speed.png
 
#93
greenboy said:
Jimmy, once you take essentially the same driver and put it in a cab with an Ampeg tag on it you lose at least 3dB right there ; }
Click to expand...



You also gain 3db in price in the process. I swear to God, if you put an ampeg logo on a turd, some people would swear it's a snickers bar. And yes, they are more honest in spec than a lot of folks, that's the reason they look inferior "on paper".
 
#95
Get a couple of fEarfuls and dime/dime the gain and master volume knobs. Be sure the mids are up loud. Your stupid hippie guitard buddies will will weep. While they are blinded by their tears punch them in the face very hard and then tell them to turn their **** down or you will taunt them a second time.

sorted... give me a hard question I am on a roll.
 
#96
Sad but true, man. I love old ampegs but their SS stuff sounds like it's doing a piss poor job of trying to emulate what an ampeg is supposed to sound like. Sounds like you took the absolute best of what there is about an ampeg rig and then draped a couple of moving blankets over it.
 
#99
JimmyM said:
i don't know...i think ampeg's hybrids are good, even if their all-ss amps aren't so hot. and the micro vr is insanely good.
Click to expand...


A lot of the hybrids are pretty good but really not better than anything else, kind of medium ground to my ear. I haven't had the chance to spend any time with the micro vr. The SS stuff I've heard and/or played pretty much sucks, you spend most of your knob twisting trying to make it sound like it's supposed to sound, dialing out the crap.

Of course who knows what my point of reference is here, I don't. Ampeg's gone through 2 ownership changes and probably 4 different manufacturing facilities since then. You don't really know what the hell you're getting. Ampeg used to be like buying a Chevy in 1960, now it's like buying a Kia in 2006......and it's 2010.
 
#100
Hey what's up? Lots-O-Conflict

AMPEG JUST NOT LOUD ENOUGH? Plug in some more.

OP has the standard, I drive the econo POS and I can't put a decent bass rig in it. Then I say trade it in on a van.

The 4PRO would love a pair of 410HLF's plugged on. I can fix a guy up with some of my spare 4PRO's, spare 410hlf, or even a few 810's or 215's... I also will load it in my nice shiney 2007 E250 van with only 17,000 mi on it... as when I roll outta here I'm taking my RV trailer and the F-350...

Beam me up... BOB
 

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