Re: speaker cabinets

[Doug Lawrence <dlawren@pacbell.net>]

Just thought I would post some thoughts of my side-by-side
comparison of an Eden 410XLT and Epifani T-212. FYI, the other gear used in
this test was an Eden Navigator preamp, Hafler power amp, Lakland 5 string
basses (fretted and fretless), and a fretted MTD 535.

Immediately, to my surprise, the 410XLT has a more pronounced bottom end,
but this is probably more bass overtones accentuated by the cabinet design
(or front facing ports). In spite of the fact that I would think a 12"
driver can produce lower "raw"  frequencies, the Epifani doesn't seem to
have any bottom end frequencies the cabinet accentuates, so it's a little
more tight sounding.

I think the Eden would tend to sound "louder", or "fuller" at lower 
volumes,
kind of like a "loudness switch" that puts a slight curve in the bass
frequencies. The Epifani 2x12 could play at much louder volumes and have
really solid bass without breaking up, not that I ever turn up loud enough
that the Eden breaks up.

I really thought the Epifani T-212 would have more of an "old school" kind
of bottom end kick to it, but it doesn't, so I still kind of prefer 410XLT
when playing Funk or Jazz with horns ... for Fusion or Rock, I may like the
tighter sound and volume capacity of the Epifani. In the case of the Eden,
sometimes a few resonated bass overtones from the cabinet aren't a bad 
thing
...

As for the B string tone, the Eden does bring out a nice low end growl to
the overall sound whereas the Epifani has a punchier, more articulate sound
to my ears. Although, the Eden sounded "quicker" ... the Epifani kind of
felt "slower" to form the note, if that makes any sense. Now if you have a
bass with an active preamp and start cranking the bass knob, the Epifani
will be more forgiving and actually try to reproduce what is being sent to
it from the amp a little more, the Eden would just get real boomy fast ...
but then again, you may want that effect.

For a metaphor reference, to my ears, the Eden 410XLT is like a running
through a warm tube amp (where ever so slight distortion is not a bad 
thing)
and the Epifani 2x12 is more like a high powered solid state sounding
cabinet.

To me, I think this is one of the reasons that Eden came out with the 
410XST
... so they can have a cabinet that replicates what some of the other "high
end" cabinets are sounding like these days ...


----- Original Message -----
From: <JIMFOWLER@prodigy.net>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 4:02 PM
Subject: OT: speaker cabinets


> anybody have experience with the following cabinets?
> i'm looking to upgrade from my current raezer's edge
> as they tend to break up too much for my taste.
>
> epifani
> bergantino
> euphonic audio
> ebs
>
> any other suggestions are welcome.
>
> thanks for the advice.
>
> -jim
>