Ultra light gear

[TBS]

Or another way of saying that I am getting old.

I was wondering If warwick has ever thought or is thinking about making their heads lighter, to finish the job they started with neo cabs (a 2x10"+ tweeter neo cab would make my day by the way.

I have seen heads below 8 pounds sounding quite good, and my rack is getting heavier each month

I would love to see a head which packs the warwick sound in a light package... at least as light as it can be.

Any news into this anybody? or is it one of those things that we will drool over after NAMM?

 

[Florin]

Unfortunately, for powerful heads, the transformer weights a ton, and there is nothing much we can do about it...

 

[odominguez]

We can help you a bit with Cabinets though. The new Neo cabs from Warwick are very lightweight compare to the Pro cabs.

 

[TBS]

I was thinking about class D power amps wich are near to 90% efficient and depending on power rating and casing design don't require fans.

And of course SMPS or switching mode power supply which gets rid of the transformer.

The new F1 from markbass is 500 watts into 4 ohms, and it is a loud 500 watts it is not one of those exaggerated power ratings.

That head is 1 rack space and weights a bit over 2 kgs.

 

[TBS]

We can help you a bit with Cabinets though. The new Neo cabs from Warwick are very lightweight compare to the Pro cabs.

Thanks for the info Ollie, I was well aware of the neo series the 12" looks sweet. But I am not old enough to faint under my W221PRO

My rack near 50 kgs is another complete different story when I have to move gear alone.

 

[odominguez]

We can help you a bit with Cabinets though. The new Neo cabs from Warwick are very lightweight compare to the Pro cabs.

Thanks for the info Ollie, I was well aware of the neo series the 12" looks sweet. But I am not old enough to faint under my W221PRO

My rack near 50 kgs is another complete different story when I have to move gear alone.

Yeah, I totally get what you mean .

 

[Florin]

I was thinking about class D power amps wich are near to 90% efficient and depending on power rating and casing design don't require fans.

And of course SMPS or switching mode power supply which gets rid of the transformer.

The new F1 from markbass is 500 watts into 4 ohms, and it is a loud 500 watts it is not one of those exaggerated power ratings.

That head is 1 rack space and weights a bit over 2 kgs.

We've toroidal transformers in all our Amps. Furthermore the Jonas Hellborg power amp system has also output transformers. On one hand it sounds really good and incredible. On the other hand these power amps are really heavy. It's not so funny to transport them.

But in the future we'll have switch power supply for weight reduction, so... soon we'll have the light amplifiers too ;-)

 

[TBS]

I know about the sound and characteristics of Warwick amps I have owned a quadruplet, a protube IX (at 24 kgs) and currently a Tubeptah 5.1.

That is why I inquired about light warwick stuff, It would rock to have the killer sound into a portable solution.

I'm happy to hear about a possible future for it

 

[Florin]

Yeah, I Understand you very well
But I guess, in the end anything good has a price. For example I've tested today more the cabinets. Pro series vs ND

The pro series have a very clear punchy sound, still with enough bottom end. Still, in a band situation I like the 411 pro more... for my taste. It was like... With ND series I hear better, with Pro series I feel better.

So... one more reason for my roadies to hate me

 

[Casey]

I find the markbass amps/cabs to be EXTREMLY light... But this is the Warwick forum... So maybe I shouldnt mention that

 

[saxonbass]

The Mark Bass stuff is very light... but I reckon now there is a "NEO" sound which you need to be aware of before you part with your cash. The sound is not entirely for me, but I needed the light weight!

In any case, the amps are just for my monitoring... heavily modified by an EBS microbass II (what a piece of kit!). My FoH sound comes through a bloody big PA!

 

[TBS]

I find the markbass amps/cabs to be EXTREMLY light... But this is the Warwick forum... So maybe I shouldnt mention that

Well If our amps are light we can carry more Warwick basses to the shows so those are good news for warwick actually

I don't think there is any problem talking about a certain brand, as these forums are quite open minded and reasonable. Of course as long as you don't go the "Warwick is pure sh*t and (insert your brand here) rlz!" way.

The Mark Bass stuff is very light... but I reckon now there is a "NEO" sound which you need to be aware of before you part with your cash. The sound is not entirely for me, but I needed the light weight!

I failed to hear that NEO sound thing on markbass stuff, I remembered hearing it with the first generation NEO speakers though, which were heavier and sounded worse.

But I haven't used their stuff in a good isolated studio room, or at least a quiet environment so if it is very subtle I could have easily not noticed.

 

[DIZ]

We can help you a bit with Cabinets though. The new Neo cabs from Warwick are very lightweight compare to the Pro cabs.

Is that the only difference between the two series?

 

[Stroud]

not really. i tend to think of it like this. the pro series cabs are traditional bass cabs (i have these). they are built like tanks, and the sound has a lot of bollo*ks. they transfer a deep powerful sound very well and will handle everything you throw at them without trying. however they are big and heavy and a little unweildy.

although i've never tried neo cabs i'll describe how i perceive them and let everyone else correct me. neo cabs wont shake the floor like the pro cabs and wont transfer loads of low end like traditional bass cabs do. they're voiced more for punchy attack/high mids. this makes them ideal for a more modern bass sound (articulate and powerful but without the huge ammount of low end) and percussive sounds. they are also smaller and lighter than their pro series counterparts. so easier to transport and less of a hassle

 

[Florin]

You are right Alex. I think they have more than enough bottom end anyway, they don't shake the floor like the pro series, but you feel the in the stomach better.

 

[odominguez]

not really. i tend to think of it like this. the pro series cabs are traditional bass cabs (i have these). they are built like tanks, and the sound has a lot of bollo*ks. they transfer a deep powerful sound very well and will handle everything you throw at them without trying. however they are big and heavy and a little unweildy.

although i've never tried neo cabs i'll describe how i perceive them and let everyone else correct me. neo cabs wont shake the floor like the pro cabs and wont transfer loads of low end like traditional bass cabs do. they're voiced more for punchy attack/high mids. this makes them ideal for a more modern bass sound (articulate and powerful but without the huge ammount of low end) and percussive sounds. they are also smaller and lighter than their pro series counterparts. so easier to transport and less of a hassle

I have a bunch of both cabs styles... and I tend to use the neo cabs mostly for live applications. When performing live show, very rarely I use my amp by itself, normally I end up giving a direct line to the FOH engineer from my amp and I set to be in "post" mode. This means that the cabs there are actually there only for my personal reference and the band's. I use my pro cabs when recording in the studio, since I'm actually going to mic them and get a different sund from them, that's why I do this. But in terms of sound, they are not THAT different. Of course you can tell that when you use lighter magnets for a speaker the sound will not be the same, but they do the job quite well and sound quite amazing in almost any situation, besides they're really easy to carry around with you anywhere you go.

 

[saxonbass]

Now I'm not an expert on this, but...

I imagine the difference is in the mass of the magnets. The neo magnets have less mass, so they will move quicker, and their inertia will be less, so they'll come to rest quicker. This would give a much more "snappy" responsive sound... which seems to fit in with a lot of the comments made.

But then again, I failed the only Physics exam I took many years ago!

 

[TBS]

There are a lot of factors into speaker design, a friend fo mine tried to explain me in the past, but it was too much information

But there is according to him one common trait among all good designs, it is that the final device will sound as the designer pretended no matter what components where used.

The first generation NEO speakers failed a bit in this department, but next generation designs are much better.

Final price to the purchaser, size and weight are always limiting factors, but according to my friend is possible to make very different voiced cabinets with the same speakers, thus making possible for example old school vintage sound with a NEO modern design, or a relatively modern sounding cab with vintage speakers (and possibly other components as tweeters/horns).

I came to the conclusion some years ago that specsheets, or terms such as tweter loaded, NEO speaker, Front/Rear ported don't always give you a correct clue to the cab real sound.

The best you can do is try the gear.

Of course there are some characteristics inherent to some designs, the tweeter loaded cab is going to have a certain high end extension over a tweeterless, the rear ported is going to react differently from a front ported cab both placed against a wall, and the NEO loaded cab is going to be lighter for sure.

But as I always say, sound is so subjective and affected by so many variables...