Small Speakers

Adam wrote:
>I don't see the need that the speaker always remain a 12" size. If you're going
>to reduce the wattage why not also shrink the speaker? That will really
>reduce the sound levels. Say a 8" or 6" or maybe smaller. That way
>you could also replicate the 5th dimension of distortion which is the
>sound of a speaker starting to break up. Maybe with using the proximity
>effect of miking it close will over come the sound of the small
>speaker.

There is a speaker isolation cabinet with a small speaker, but it got a bad review in the November 1996 issue of Electronic Musician: The MicroRoom has a 6" speaker, a power attenuating inductive load, and a dynamic microphone. At this low power, you could probably use a condenser mic without clipping the mic, for more open-sounding, high treble.

There is an interesting pair of articles covering the Amp Summit in the March and April issues of Guitar Player magazine. Manufacturers report of rejecting large shipments of speakers for various reasons.

One topic that needs much more coverage is guitar speakers. There are almost no articles or shootouts about guitar speakers. People think an inductive load can sound like a speaker! But I gather that speaker dynamics are essential to a complete tube amp tone. I think that speakers add complex, musical dynamics that alter the way the power tubes respond.

Essential ingredients: Speaker clank, speaker feedback to the power tubes, speaker breakup, and the "physical" sound.

Sam 846 wrote: The Lexicon 284 is simply amazing! Of course, you have to run it through speakers.

Andrew P. Mullhaupt 1998/10/24 alt.guitar.amps wrote:

>Yes. And it matters what speakers. So far I've found it likes EV 12s and the 10s in the SB210 cab. I don't like it as much through Celestion 12 cabs, although I generally like Celestion 2x12s and 4x12s.

>It goes without saying that it also matters a lot how you mike them, too, but that's not too specific to the 284.

>> The 284 DI [speaker simulator] is a flat, "processed" sounding failure. But I've never liked any DI.

>Well, I find that the DI can be used if you subsequently run the track through miked speakers. An old mixing trick, but a worthwhile one. The 284 runs at low enough power that you aren't losing a lot of speaker distortion, in fact you can be gaining some depending on how you drive the miked speaker. I agree with you to mike speakers, but in a pinch, you can add the speakers later.

-- Andrew "Someday, all this will be DSP" Mullhaupt

http://electrosound.co.nz/articles/guitar.html - Matt's Speaker Facts - Guitar Tone Tips From: NZ Musician Vol.6 No.8 April/May l997 � Matt Hennessy. Good article.

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