What kind of test speaker do you prefer?

[mikeydee77]

Hi all,

I have been thinking about improving my test speaker set up which I use in conjntion with an dummy load.

I have various options at the moment like an Aguilar 1x12 bass cab, A mackie SRM350 converted to passive and an old 2x10" beater cab. They are good for me as I have limited workshop space (just about 10 feet by 10 feet) and they are all small. but occasionly I feel that they are not nearly as sensitive and revealing as a good quality guitar speaker cab s so I was planning an upgrade.

One idea I was wondering about was mounting speakers on baffle board suspended from the ceiling. It will free up space but would it actually work? and then be able to have speakers right above me.

Would love to hear other ideas and recommendations as I am sure they are better than my lockdown musiings

Mike

[Jon Snell]

I use a resistive load rated at 200Watts either 2R, 4R or 8R with a 2.2W 24volt light bulb feeding my 2" full range speaker, raided from a scrap Apple Mac. That guarantees is has never more than a Watt or so as the bulb lights up and increases its resistance as it heats up, keeping the test speaker a constant volume.
Regardless of how much power is produced across the dummy load, the power to the test speaker stays within a reasonable range. The light bulb is a good, rough indication of power.
Always use an oscilloscope to check wave form from your signal generator and I also use an Automatic Analogue Harmonic Distortion meter for my valve amplifiers. I can ensure there is enough 2nd Harmonic distortion to please the customers ears.

[Randall]

Speakers mounted to an overhead baffle will of course make sound, but will it be accurate? Not very. Cabs have sides, backs, tops and bottoms, and ports for a good reason.

I use a simple1x12 ported bass cab with a variable HF horn under my bench. My ears are experienced enough so that this works well enough for me. Or I use a 6 foot extension speaker cable that I made to connect to whatever cab from the chassis I have on my bench.

[nevetslab]

I grew up with 15" JBL speakers....D130F, D140F in small cabinets. I had built one of their C38 cabinets in high school wood shop back in the mid-60's, and always liked the sound of that cabinet. Sounds similar to the Ampeg B15 flip-top cabinet. Still have it tucked away in storage, though empty at this point. In my shop that's presently inaccessible, the building having been rented out, I have an Ampeg BXT-115HL4 bass speaker, 15" with the Foster-style tweeter in the bottom of the 'stack'. Above it is a not-so-great Hartke 15" 8 ohm speaker. I'll be replacing it with an Eden 210 box yet to be populated, that will also be an 8 ohm cabinet. On top of that is a JBL 2370 BiRadial HF Horn with an Emilar HF driver for use with various amps having Bi-Amp capacity. Presently in my temporary shop, I have a GK 410RBH 8 ohm cabinet, though haven't yet selected a 4 ohm cabinet to add to that. So many to choose from, as the huge inventory is right across the large aisle from where I'm set up. There's no doubt a lot to choose from in stand-alone open-back guitar cabinets. I always have a dummy load handy, ranging from 1 ohm thru 32 ohms, from it's 8 x 4 ohm/500W format. RMS metering and scope always on hand, though not always in use. I use my ears and pink noise, be it burst or 1/3 Oct filtered, as well as a shop bass (Fender Jazz).

[mikeydee77]

Some interesting ideas and thoughts... the light bulb idea sounds really useful esp. where need to minimise noise levels as well.

I suspect that my speakers are just not sensitive enough... as really they are all bass speakers of a sort. I feel that I need some typical cab speakers like from a 4x12 as otherwise missing some of the more subtle scratchy noise from old pre-amp valves and the like. I really notice the difference on things like Fender twins, AC30s when I move from the bench back to the cab. Recently I introduced a workaround in my dummy load / speaker switcher box that allows me to connect different output speakers, so I can flip (remembering to standby) between bench speaker and original cab fairly quickly. That really helps but in my limited space 2x12 cabs are not always practical.

Mike