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vintage vs. modern speakers

Tom Brennan said:
".

Now tell me, have you ever heard an Ampeg B-15 or a Dual Showman with a pair of D-140s? Acoustic 360? Those are my bass references. Any speaker that can't reproduce the sound of those is no good for me.

My opinion of course.
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I work on Ampeg B15s all the time... we regularly recone the CTS square-magnet woofers those are usually equipped with. It's a great cab for bass guitar, especially if you're looking for that James Jamerson type "thick" sound. HOWEVER... I definitely wouldn't use it as a reference for "accurate" bass REPRODUCTION, as would be needed for a good home audio system. Those woofers are in WAY too small of a box, if you run the Thiele-Small parameters. Good for midbass "thump"... but they "ring" too much for accurate "monitor" (or hi-fi) applications.

Same for Dual Showmans. Just reconed a pair of D140s for one.

In fact, I'm currently listening to a Peach State Audio scoop horn, with a reconed D140 in it for bass, a 2123 mid driver and a 2420/2380 HF driver. Pretty punchy, but nothing below 45 Hz, realistically.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
...but nothing below 45 Hz, realistically.
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There aint' a lot, musically, below 45 Hz, either. Except for the biggest/lowest organ pipe(s), it's pretty much 'sound effects' territory.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
 
Well, this answers my question on whether or not I should bother looking for a subwoofer to compliment my KEFs. I get useable response down to 35Hz, and they're only rated to go down to 45Hz, so..... I save some cash! :banana:
Thanks, guys!
 
It's not just the response itself... it's the GROUP DELAY (ie, time errors) that screw up the transient response, on a speaker that doesn't go down to below audible frequency limits.

In a typical vented enclosure (which most of these vintage woofers are used in), you can have significant group delay... which causes things to happen "out of time", as high as 80 Hz.

Also, there's WAY more material happening in the 30 Hz range than most people think. Many modern bass drums have fundamentals in the 30s. Listen to most Ry Cooder stuff of the last decade, for one example that usually surprises people....

Once you've had GOOD 20 Hz, you will never want to go back...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Retro Stereo said:
Why, did you buy some Thiel CS3.6's? :D
Only kidding! :D
I'd love to hear your Apogee's sometime.


Retro
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Dont mind the kidding at all! Kinda makes me feel wanted :tears: .



Hummmm looking at my other post, I dont know if that came out right........... :scratch2:
 
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