Your next home practice amp?

There are sims for both the Rumble and Orange lines in my Studio amp, they are so very different at the ‘core’ of the sound. Don’t go by price here, but rather the tone you are looking for.

2 Likes

I know people say that, but I’m skeptical of the concept. Human hearing is less sensitive to low and high frequencies when listening at lower levels. It’s what the “loudness” button used to be for on older stereos. How low frequency a 12” can go will sound better louder, unless you turn up the bass more when it’s set to a low level. I don’t think an 8” at low level will sound any better than a 12” at low level.

2 Likes

What I meant is that I see no point in getting a 2x10 or 1x15 cab when you have not much space and neighbours to think about. I got a 2x10 and it feels a bit lame to play at a volume below 1. The cab is almost as big as a small fridge and imo you want to move air to fully appreciate the sound… Bigger cabs (usually) need more power too. So you will also need an amp to match that power. So why spent money on something that you will seldom use?

A 1x8, 1x10 and 1x12 will be fine for you (same goes for 2x4, 2x5, etc.). The orange 1x12 is a good buy. They usually say that a bigger driver gives more warmth and a smaller driver sounds more tight but I personally think it depends which brand has built it and ofc the quality of the speaker/cab. Just let your ears be the judge.

Found a similar thread on talkbass about speaker sizes: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/15-vs-12-and-10-vs-8-speakers.483741/

2 Likes

ehh, it’s perfectly acceptable as long as you know what you’re getting. and it’s nice to carry a battery powered amp in the palm of your hand with you to practice at your local coffee shop.

Sure, maybe I should have said that you can’t really compare it against any 25+ watt amp. The Fly is only 3 watt with a 3" speaker and totally lacks bottom end. I’m not hating on it or anything and the tone on low volume is okay. But for a next practice amp upgrade I would at least look at amps that are at least 25 watt or higher.

Either that or go ampless and play on your computer with dai + monitors :wink:

1 Like

for sure.

Even bad PC speakers are more powerful than the Fly.

3 Likes

@TL

Just make sure you are happy with your purchase and then any thoughts of upgrading will not even enter your thoughts for a long time. Upgrading costs money.

Anything with a minimum of a 10" speaker should be fine and will work well as a practice amp and in small jam sessions.

3 Likes

There are a few exceptions to this. The Phil Jones Double Four is used be professionals as a practice amp and it only has 4" speakers. There are ways to make small speaker sizes sound like bigger ones. But for a run of the mill amp you are correct that most of the time you want 10-12" and sometimes 15". Although some entry level amps are 8" and that’s fine for a learner or anyone that doesn’t want as much thump.

3 Likes

Phil Jones is just using more smaller drivers to get big sound. I think @Krescht posted a infographic about this subject before… So the double four has 2x4 and the cub has 2x5. You could oversimplify this and say that it has the same surface radius of a 1x8 and 1x10 (don’t shoot me lol). Tone will be different tho. :see_no_evil: :hear_no_evil:

2 Likes