Xsonics 212 and the 210 – I met up with Nick recently and tried out these two cabs. He let me BLAST BOTH and play whatever the heck I wanted in his basement. Nick was a great host and enjoyed hearing what a 5 string sounded like through them.
Here are my FIRST impressions of both cabs – I have not used them in a gigging situation yet and I tested both cabs with my Carvin BX1200 heads and the same settings on them. Bass was a Spector Euro 5LX. Nothing was boosted; I tried to keep the Carvin heads as neutral as possible so I could hear what the cabs could do. Please keep in mind that what I report here should not constitute as the “gospel” and that my ears hear differently than everyone else’s.
kringle77 had said the CF212 hit like a hammer – it definitely does. The first thing that came to mind was Schroeder cabs. This is very similar to a Schroeder cabinet, HOWEVER, the CF212 and 210 both were more articulate and minor EQ changes caused an actual tone change. The midrange was not nasally or hollow sounding either. I owned a Schroeder 212R for a few days and it was awful for my uses. Midrange bump on it was nuts, little to no articulation and for some reason, I could cut through in band situation. I could not EQ that cabinet to save my life.
Using distortion (VT Bass/Xotic X-Blender) heavy with overdrive and the character knob nearly all the way right) on the CF212 and 210 resulted in a VERY wicked distortion tone. The pick attack definitely came through and both cabs were INSANELY loud when I did that. It was like a completely different character came out at that point. I would describe it as if the cabinet had a power tube section and distortion tone I use became edgier and wilder. It was pretty darn cool. I could see either box cutting through Marshall full stacks with ease. Not just one 412, but TWO! I am serious on that one.
Standing the cabs vertical and horizontal – there was a definite tone difference. Coupling with the floor when horizontal resulted in more low end and sounded more articulate when vertical. More low end than most Schroeder cabs ever put out.
Dispersion – these cabs were crazy again! Sound was flying out at least 20 feet with lots of volume. I was amazed. All this talk about beaming with bass rigs on talkbass nowadays…..I barely heard any of that on these cabs. Maybe some of the highs were gone 20 feet out, the growly midrange content was still flying around though….
For a little fun, we ran my DNA 210 against the CF210. Volume wise (despite the 97db sensitivity), the CF210 can get LOUD and play fine at crazy volumes. My DNA 210 did really well though, but the CF210 won here. The DNA 210 had more low end and was more polite sounding, more articulate. The CF210 is just a mean, growly, punch machine. For stage use, I still want to use my DNA cabs, but if you really want to cut through with ONE cabinet, Xsonic cabs are worth checking out.
Playing a 5 through the cab: I am not sure how much low end was actually coming out of the CF cabs with my B string. I think my DNA 210 had more low end. Currently though, I don’t use a lot low end from my cabs on stage. I typically roll off the lows below 150hz since I am always so close to the subwoofers at shows. I can already hear and feel the subs, so why blast my rig with low end if I can already hear/feel it from the PA? Have I tried the fEarful cabs? Nope. I have no idea what bass cabs can really do in the low end. In the horizontal position though, the cab had some good low end response. Lowest frequency? Don’t know.
Lastly, the 210 and 212 sounded pretty much the same. The high end off the 210 (no tweeter) had a higher crossover point and sounded better to me. The 212 had a lower crossover point which resulting in less articulation from the speaker. But, when I turned the tweeter up a little more on the 212, the high end was better and worked for me. There was definitely an output change between the cabs and I could definitely hear more low end on the 212.
That’s all I know for right now. Nick had offered to have me try out his cabs at a show in the future and I WILL take him up on that. That is truly the only way to know for sure what the cabs can do.
