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Yamaha BBT500H - Little review...

B

BassPulsar

Oct 16, 2002
126
0
49
Portugal
#1
Hi,

This past weekend I had the opportunity to test this head (plus matching 2*10'') and was a bit disappointed…

The hiss heard was considerably high… Really high… I don’t know if it was due to any wrong connection or problem with the head or cab… I had test it once and didn’t notice it…

The head had a lot of options (IMO, too much) and some usable sounds, but to me it sounded a little dull and not very warm… I thing that it would require a lot of fine tuning to get the sound you want… I’ll probably give it another run this Saturday as I really would like to like this setup… :)

….

I have a confession to make…. I tried the Yamaha head after trying an Ashdown EVO 350 Watts… What can I say… What a sound… With almost no EQ this head sounded wonderful from the moment I plugged the bass… Well, maybe after this head everything would sound just not as good…

If everyone has an opinion or insight on the above, just let it go right here… :)

Best regards.
 
#2
Hiss? That's a shame. I can't remember any hiss when I tried it out, that was with a 4x10, and, admittedly I was concentrating more on the MIA Jazz and MM SUB I was playing. I had it basically flat on the 'modern' setting and I liked what I heard.

I would like to 'back to back' the Yammy and an Ashdown, I liked both the sounds I got from them on isolated occasions. The Ashdown I played was a MAG 300H with the 2x10 and the 1x15.

Thanks for the mini-review :) I found it useful
 
#3
:) That's it - Mini Review, just could not remenber that expression :) Thanks....

Some other talkbass fellow also said that he heard some hiss but nothing significant... I don't know if there was something wrong with that particular head, but since I will give it another run in a diferent store I will clarify this...

Bye.
 
#4
I've owned this head since Feburary. I haven't really played out much with it. A few jams and now, regularly at church. This amp way outclasses the GK 800rb I used to have. I like the flat settings, the r&b sett...heck I like all the presets. It's got nasty/tasty distortion or modern smiley EQ settings, yadda,yadda. Hiss?? Mine is super quiet. Any amp needs more than an in store scale march to see what it can do. I paired it up with 2 EA wizzy cabs. I avoided the Yamaha cab's cause they didn't give any specs and I needed to read what I was after.
 
#5
Hi,

I tested this head and cabs yesterday in a diferrent store... Once again the hiss noticed was very loud... Why the hell is this??? I really cannot understand... The overall sound is very good and the heads seems very versatile!!! The only thing that keeps me from buying it is this background noise...

Any suggestions on why this happens?

Best Regards.
 
#6
I own this head with 2x10 cab.
I can only notice this noisy thing at VERY low volumes. When I turn the volume to normal its totally GONE.

Check so your INPUT level knob is perfect.
Check your Compressor settings.
Check your GAIN and Master settings.

Jazz away!


(still I cant find the 1x15 cab to match my rig :() After alot of searching, I need a 4 ohm.)
 
#10
if your amp is making a loud hiss, check the tweeter level on the back of your cab (if you have a yamaha cab-i have the 2 10). I just know for mine if the tweeter is turned up high then it starts to make quite a bit of noise
 
#12
Hi everyone,
Couple of days ago I have got one BBT-500 and started right away to look around it. I use Roland Cube 100 Bass and Yamaha RBX-170. Why? Yamaha RBX-170 was clear winner in compare to Fender Jazz Bass USA on Ampeg SVT in the store. It is the simple passive bass with excellent pick-ups. Roland is nice litle amp I am using through PA system and it does help as excellent monitor on low volumes, most of people at mixing desk don't like to push too much bass through stage monitors.
I first connected Yamaha BBT-500 to a hi-fi speaker to see what is "really" going on, with reliable Sony mp3 player and good test tracks (Diana Krall, Anne Murray). This amplifier is much better than Roland. Input dynamic is great and - adjustable (when green light comes on, it is enough of sensitivity). With everything max and nothing plugged in, it appears as -40dB noise (good old tape recorder) without signal. NJM072 Op-Amp at the input says: only that much sensitivity as much is needed for the green light. For my purpose, the best sounding positions were "flat" and "modern", with modern adding some of the deep bass and high at about 9-10kHz. "Flat" was really flat with excellent deep bass response. There should be some testing done for any particular speaker, so that one first has to be made "flat" by parametric EQ on some music file and than we can play with tone control settings to get the wanted bass sound. I was scared because cooling fan did not start for some time (it starts when output transistors heat up to 80-90 degrees Celsius). All together, excellent amplifier, the best from "Yamaha" and not missing much if anything compared to big names.
 

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