Difference in construction between a British and American voiced speaker.

[Alan0354]

I listen to the comparison of Red White and Blues, legend 1218 and Legend 1258. I seems to like 1258 the best, RWB middle, 1218 is way too bassy. They all good though.

[Chuck H]

The 1258 sounds really good right out of the box. A little rolled off on the top end for me. I might use them anyway except that I figured they would be too dark broken in. That happened to me with a Cannabis Rex. Which was really great when I first installed it and bordered on "muddy" after a year.

[Alan0354]

The 1258 sounds really good right out of the box. A little rolled off on the top end for me. I might use them anyway except that I figured they would be too dark broken in. That happened to me with a Cannabis Rex. Which was really great when I first installed it and bordered on "muddy" after a year.

I only listen to one demo that compare to all the Eminence speakers, yes, the RWB is slightly brighter but it is close to the 1258. 1218 is quite far off. My problem is I don't play music, 150 hours is a very long time. I only play to test the sound and it's only lasting a few minutes a time.

[Chuck H]

I've seen a couple of techniques used to break in speakers quickly. One involves soaking the cone in something or other and the other is just hooking the speaker to a wall outlet via a dimmer and letting it go for fifty hours or some such. Both these methods would seem to have their limitation. Soaking the cone just seems like a bad idea and while breaking in a speaker at or below 60Hz would indeed get it softer and more supple, I don't know that it would be the same as what you'll get actually playing music through it. I haven't tried it though. I probably wouldn't unless I construct one hell of a sound proof box

[Alan0354]

Is Jensen C12N slightly brighter than 1258? I see one for good price.

It is just so hard, I went on Amazon and there are a lot of raving reviews on the RWB. Do you have any demo links you can give me on what you think is the sound of the RWB? The ones I heard is mostly bridge with high distortion. I want to hear rock blues and clean sound with neck pup also.

[Alan0354]

I have been communicating with Eminence, I just got a response saying that Legend 1258 is the closest to the original Fender SF amps of the 70s. I asked him about the Red White and Blue. If it is just a brighter version of 1258, I think I would like it.

[Alan0354]

Actually I have an Eminence speaker in my Fender Rock Pro cabinet and it turn out to be similar to an Eminence GB 128 type speaker according to the technical support from Eminence. I compare the sound with the sound clips on Eminence, it is very close. I have a much better idea in how to listen on the Eminence site as they repeat the same playing for all the speakers.


I have been listening carefully on the sound in the Eminence site. I still like the Legend 1258 and closed 1218. I did listened to the Red White and Blues and it did have a little bit of the boxy or throaty sound Chuck described. I don't really want the slight boxy sound. I personally like the 1258 a little better, but the 1218 has a little more highs and is less British sounding than the GB128. So this is decision time.

[Chuck H]

All the news I can give on the 1258 is that I played one side by side with a V30 and thought they were very similar. The 1258 was a tad led efficient and not as bright or chaotic sounding. Otherwise the overall EQ and feel, reactivity, whatever... The general vibe of the speaker was similar. The V30 is more spicy and brash. So if you sorta like V30's but would like a slightly mellower version, the1258 would be a good choice.

[cyclone]

One vote here for Warehouse Guitar Speakers. Excellent sound and value. I use the ET65 in my custom cabs, knockoff of a Celestion 65 watt, my all time favorite guitar speaker.

Speaking of '67 Pro Reverbs, I had a dead mint blackface one back in the 80's. It came to me without speakers, and I had a pair of the aforementioned 65 watt celestions at 8 ohms. They sounded great in that amp. I used it as a mod plattform and it ended up with channel switching, el34's solid state rectifier, triode switch, bluesmaker mod with reverb. Completely butchered (inside) outside it looked mint. Hey, we were all doing that crap back then, those amps were 400$.

It was stolen from my bands practice space in 1996( Somebody has it out there, I check each one on ebay that I see!

[Alan0354]

Let me try for the word describing the sound. I think what I tried to describe about the Celestions sounded like they are in a tube is "Throaty". The sound does not sound wide open like the Utah or the speaker from the Fender Rock Pro ( Legend GB128 equivalent). Even though the GB128 has a slight throaty, but it's a lot less than the Celestions.

The Celestions both have mid scooped, throaty sound, booming bass that I dislike.

I think even some hifi speakers have that throaty sound that almost sounds like boxy. One Germany brand I had long time ago called Heco had that throaty sound or boxy sound even though it is a good brand. I never seen this brand since I came to US. I wonder whether they are still around.

[cyclone]

Some do, some don't. I don't happen to like the greenbacks much or v30's but I love the 65 watters, seem to be more balanced. Not as barky or boomy and less cone distortion at high volume. Thats been my experience anyway. I tried an et65 in one cab and a veteran 30 in the other, the et65 is hands down the winner. I offer both but the et65 cabs I sell 4 to 1, eveybody likes it better. Its in a ported 1/12 ax84 cab designed for a v30 to sound like a marshall 4x12. I wouldn 't say it actually does sound like a 4x12 due to the complexity of a multi speaker cab.

[Alan0354]

The 1258 sounds really good right out of the box. A little rolled off on the top end for me. I might use them anyway except that I figured they would be too dark broken in. That happened to me with a Cannabis Rex. Which was really great when I first installed it and bordered on "muddy" after a year.

I have been listening so many video demo lately, I think I am starting to train my ears. I like the lows and mids of the 1258, but I can hear and see in the frequency plot that the 1258 roll off the highs very quick beyond 2.5KHz. You can hear a little muffled on the chime and glassiness.

The British seems to be more mid scooped with more highs and lows, they all sounded a little throaty or boxy to a different degree.

Since I have an equivalent of Legend GB128 which is a British sounding speaker, I have a much better reference to base on when listening to demo. The sound clips from Eminence is quite good, I kept listening between GB128, 1258 and 1218. Too bad they don't have a clip for Red White and Blues.

Tell me what do you think. I think GB128 is too British even though it sounds pretty good. The Legend 1258 is very open, but the highs are a little muffled like you said about it getting too dark after broken in. Legend 1218 seems to be right in the middle as described by Eminence that it is an American speaker with a little British flare. It seems to have the openness of the American sound, but a little extra highs of the British and a bigger bottom than both 1258 and Utah.

[Chuck H]

Well hopefully someone with direct experience with that model will chime in. I don't have that. I will say that the 1218 is a lower efficiency speaker than the others and I tend to prefer the liveliness of more efficient speakers. Louder, yes, but that's not it. More efficient speakers just seem to jump and pop more with greater sensitivity to playing nuances.

Talk to the guys at Eminence. Tell them what you want. An American voiced speaker with all the normal highs and ample low mids. Tell them what you've heard and compared and what you think. I'm sure they'll suggest a model or two and you can re-review them on the clips to see if it catches you this time.

[cyclone]

You can't tell much about the sound of a speaker over the internet, you have to consider the cab too, million other things. You should just make an educated guess, buy a couple and test them yourself, thats the only thing that matters is what it sounds like to you, with your rig, on that day and time. You are getting too far away from the music aspect of things and too technical. Whose to say how different two speakers of the same type will sound in a blind test. I know all four of the celestions in my marshall cabs sound a bit different. I loaned a cab to a guys guitar player that wears a kerosene hat for a tour, his favorite speaker was not my favorite speaker. I wish he hadn't put a chalk mark on the grille cloth by his) BUT, when my band played his hits from that record, I damn sure miked that speaker

[Alan0354]

Well hopefully someone with direct experience with that model will chime in. I don't have that. I will say that the 1218 is a lower efficiency speaker than the others and I tend to prefer the liveliness of more efficient speakers. Louder, yes, but that's not it. More efficient speakers just seem to jump and pop more with greater sensitivity to playing nuances.

Talk to the guys at Eminence. Tell them what you want. An American voiced speaker with all the normal highs and ample low mids. Tell them what you've heard and compared and what you think. I'm sure they'll suggest a model or two and you can re-review them on the clips to see if it catches you this time.

I just ordered the 1258. I like the sound on the demo better than all the others, I don't think I worry too much about not enough highs. I just cannot take a chance of all the others that have a hint of British sound. Most likely I am going to buy another one soon anyway. The GB128 type speaker I have sounds good for clean, but it really sound strange with my distortion channel. My distortion channel sounds throaty already, using a throaty British sounding speaker really does not help at all.

Also you mentioned about the higher efficiency speaker has more of the sensitivity and jump out more. Thanks for the help.

I was also considering Jensen C12N which is close to 1258. But I saw a lot of used ones on ebay for cheap, that makes me worry why there are so many used on ebay while I did not see a single used Legend 1258 in the last month I checked on ebay. There must be a reason people getting rid of the Jensen!!!