The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

[drew_half_empty]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

Damnit, I want a Eminence Wizard equipped 2x12 cabinet :yell:

I have one, it rules

but yeah, as long as i play guitar i will only buy eminence speakers, i like them THAT much

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

Lew...i just won a 50w plexi reissue on Ebay and I want to put together a 2x12....which of these speakers or combination thereof would you recommend?

yeah so i'm not lew but I think you should go with wizards, reason being they have a slightly higher SPL and sound more "full" than v30's or governors

as far as the best of both worlds thing, i find that that works best in 4x12's, and an X of govs and wizards in a 4x12 sounds nothing short of amazing, but for a 2x12, if you're doin light to medium crunch, it's just really really hard to beat wizards

they're THE 70's rock speaker

 

[jeremy]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

i was curious as to what lew thought of the cannabis rex. i have one and once i finally broke it in, i like it alot.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

So is this aproximately right?:

Private Jack=G12M
Red Fang=Alnico Bulldog
Wizard=G12H
Gov=V30

I really like the Red Fang price range compared to even Webers. If they are as good as blues or bluedogs, then this may be the hoped for solution to loading up my 4x12 with alnicos.

 

[SlyFoxx]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

link to some specs.

http://editweb.iglou.com/eminence/eminence/pages/products02/redcoat/redfang.htm

Seems the red/blue series are pretty damn loud. The four Lew mentioned are 103, 102, 99 & 103.

 

[jeremy]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

those numbers are a little misleading. i dont think the 103db speakers are any louder than a 100db celestion

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

Regarding the Cannabis Rex, I like a little brighter and more articulate tone than I heard from that speaker. Like the Tone Tubby, it's an excellant speaker...I didn't dislike it. But I like a little brighter, sparklier, chimier tone...especially when I'm playing clean.

When Curly and I went into the booth, Smitty asked me how much distortion I liked from my amp and I told him I didn't tend to use overdrive and distortion...I'm a "guitar and a cord" kinda guy and like to do most of what I do with my touch, the guitar's volume knob and a nice touch sensitive amp.

I'm a big fan of the Vintage 30 and G12H30, so it's not surprising that I preferred the Emm models that emulate those two speakers.

The other one I liked alot was Private Jack...that's kind of a take on the G12M25 Greenback. It didn't strike me as being as crunchy and honky as a Greenback, but it had nicer lows and a more "natural" tone to my ears. I would have ranked it as #5 in my list of favorite Emm 12's.

BTW, the breakdown of the new Eminence models and the Celestions they emulate are as follows:

Red Fang = G12 Alnico Blue
Wizard = G12H30
Private Jack = G12M25 Greenback
Governor = Vintage 30
Tone Spotter = G12T65
Red Ryder = Classic 80
Commenwealth = JBL D120
Tonker = 80's "The Twin" Fender speaker
Texas Heat = A blend of all of the great USA 12's rolled into one!

Personally, I liked the Wizard and Governor best...I'm looking at my notes from the show and at the time I rated the Wizard (G12H30) #1 and the Governor (V30) #2. I may have gotten them out of order in my first post at the top of this thread. In terms of favorites, I ranked the Red Fang #3 and the Texas Heat #4. Those were my four favorites of all the Emm 12's I playe through.

And as Curly noted, I liked the Ragin Cajun best over all the other 10's. Reminded me a bit of a souped up '66 Jensen C10N or Ted Weber's C10Q that is a ctually alot more like a souped up C10N than a Jensen C10Q.

Regarding the Texas Heat: it's an American voiced speaker but it does have a bit of that British character. Truthfully, I would say the same thing about the British voiced Emm's: even the Governor, Wizard and Private Jack have a little of an "American" voice mixed in there and, IMO, they are not a purely "British" voiced speaker...they have a little less crunch and honk to the mids than the Celestions they are inspired by. They are wonderful speakers though!

Lew

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

those numbers are a little misleading. i dont think the 103db speakers are any louder than a 100db celestion

Didn't have Celestions in the room to compare them to but the speakers I liked best were pretty loud. Very efficient. Lew

 

[jeremy]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

i have a texas heat and cannabis rex as well as g12m, g12h, and v30. obviously there is quite a bit of tonal difference but standing back 15' from them the cannabis rex is about as loud as the g12h or v30, where the texas heat is about the same as a greenback.

when i first got the rex i thought it was a little dark, but after oh, about 200 hours of abuse it started to open up and now i really like it in my dr, which tended to be bright anyway.

 

[Curly]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

i was curious as to what lew thought of the cannabis rex. i have one and once i finally broke it in, i like it alot.

I thought it sounded a little soft and dull. I wanted to ask Lew to crank it to see if it opened up, but I didn't. I've wondered what the Rex would sound like paired with a Red Fang, or even some of the other ones.

One thing good about the demo speakers is that they should be well broken in.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

I thought it sounded a little soft and dull. I wanted to ask Lew to crank it to see if it opened up, but I didn't. I've wondered what the Rex would sound like paired with a Red Fang, or even some of the other ones.

One thing good about the demo speakers is that they should be well broken in.

That was my impression playing it too: a little soft and dull. Probably could have tweaked the amp a bit and improved the tone just by turning up the volume and treble a bit.

One thing about these tests is that in the real world you'd set your amp up a little differantly for every speaker. When we're doing these shootouts, we tend to leave the amp set up one way and that setting may compliment one speaker but not compliment another. It allows us to hear the diff's between two speakers but because we're using one volume and tone setting on the amp and not changing it to compliment each speaker, we may not really be giving each speaker a totally fair test.

Lew

 

[Humbucker]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

The Governors and Wizards are GREAT sounding speakers. I'm kind of interested in trying out the Private Jacks.

BTW, I've got a couple of Wizards for sale in the Trading Post.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

I was kinda hoping that they are less loud than the Vintage 30 actually. I always like how some of the old classic lower effiency speakers allowed you to get on the power amp a bit more.

What about the power handling ratings? Are they a bit over too? I kinda like to end up with cabs that are RMS rated closer to the RMS output rating of the amp.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

Yes, generally it seems that the Emm versions handle more power than thier Celestion counterparts.

I LOVE Celestions...those and old Jensens from the 50's and 60's are all I ever play through.

But the new Emm's are superb speakers too and they are MADE IN THE USA...not China.

 

[Curly]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

What about the power handling ratings?

I've noticed that most of the newer Eminence are higher powered, high efficiency speakers.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The best speakers I heard at NAMM:

I've noticed that most of the newer Eminence are higher powered, high efficiency speakers.

Yep...at least the ones we liked best were!

Don't forget that Emm Commenwealth speaker: it's a take off on a JBL D120.

I'm not a huge JBL fan but if a player is looking for that tone the Emm is a nice take on that tone. Uses a ceramic magnet though...not the alnico used in the JBL's. Alot less expensive though and seemed to have a smoother less metallic, and less hi-fi tone than the JBL's I've owned.

Lew