Bass Gear Issue 9 : Page 47By Alan Loshbaugh During my tenure at Bass Gear Magazine , I’ve laid hands on a lot of speaker enclosures. Over the last 30 years, as a player, I’ve played through many more, always looking for that one setup that will do all things at all times. Vintage tones, modern tones, electric bass, double bass; this cab with that head; that cab with that bass; yet something else for double bass. Sealed cabs, ported cabs, ceramic cabs, neo cabs, one-way cabs, two-way cabs, three-way cabs! Aiiieeee!!! It’s enough to make your head spin! Having so many choices has been both a blessing and a curse. Just about the time I think I had some things figured out, Eminence releases their line of lightweight “super drivers,” and everything changes, again! Their LF and HO-series of neo drivers now means not only lighter weight cabs, but higher output from smaller boxes. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure how this is a bad thing, until I tried two very good flavors of LF-loaded “Super Cabs:” the AudioKinesis TC112 and TC115 cabs; and several variants of David Green’s “fEARful” designs. While these two designs share some similarities, they ended up being more different than similar to each other. David’s designs use “off the shelf” components, and have big lows, high highs, nicely present mids; and are a distinctly different flavor than the AudioKinesis products, which use custom-tweaked components, have tighter lows, highs that don’t range as high and are, overall, very even and more “reference monitor” sounding. I had hoped one or the other would be the “end-all” for my needs. Instead, they’re two distinctly different flavors of great – neither of which meets all my many needs, all the time, and neither of which “sound like a traditional” cab when pushed hard. These new-fangled lightweight drivers sure do make for some nice, lightweight, high-output speaker cabs, but they just don’t break up and add harmonic content when pushed, like more traditional drivers do, and I miss that at times... Dang!!! So, I called up Boss Man Bowlus and whined: “Oi! Boss, I’ve got such a headache! I thought one of these new-fangled ‘Super Cabs’ was gonna be ‘The Final Solution!’ They’re both great cabs, but neither is every last thing I want it to be. They each sound great in their own way, but something about this new generation of drivers just doesn’t sound the same as a more traditional cab... What’s a boy to do?” Bayer!” Boss-man done sent me an answer to my question! Time to get to work... “I Looove New Gear Day!” or, “What’s Behind Door Number Three?” I love new gear day! I couldn’t wait to open those two boxes and see what was inside; so I set down my coffee, hauled ‘em in, and opened ‘em up. What would Contestant #3 in the Battle of The Super-Cabs look like? Four-way? Five-way? Would it have dilithium crystals, and be robot-powered? As it turns out, no, not so much... Out of the box, the ML112’s look pretty normal. A very, very nice normal! The padded covers were the first thing I noticed while taking them out of their boxes. They’re very nicely made, and even have a spiffy Baer logo on them. The Baer’s immediately impress with a His answer was as brief as it was obtuse: “Take two Bayer and call me in the morning.” And click, he was gone; leaving me wondering, what, exactly, was he talking about... Oh: Now I Get It! Not knowing what else to do, and, The Boss being The Boss, I did as instructed, and took two aspirin, and went to bed. I woke up the next morning, shook the cobwebs out of my gig-addled brain, started some coffee, and was re-hashing my conversation with Mr. Bowlus when the doorbell rang: it was The Big Brown Truck, delivering two large boxes labeled “Baer Amplification.” Ahhhh: now I get it: “Baer,” not super level of fit, finish, and attention to detail. The lightly “pebbled” tolex is very high quality. The carry handle is nicely contoured for comfort, and held down with two fasteners per side. Even though the ML112 is a large box for a 1x12 –measuring 23.25”w x 16.25”h x 16.625”d – it weighs only 36 pounds and is a very easy one-handed carry. The grill is a nice solid piece with rolled-over edges, and its retention screws have covers on them. The mid driver is contained in its own built-in chamber. Even the Baer badge on the grill is nicely made and looks classy. The Baer’s twin triangulated ports serve not only to tune the cab, they also promote even airflow across the driver during severe duty, and serve as internal bracing – nice touch. bass gear 47 Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
