hippietim
05-10-2009, 08:03 PM
The 12ma! Ok, no surprise there really. But... (there's always a but...)
The 8ma kicks MUCH ASS.
<sidebar>
My 8ma came on Thursday but life happened and I couldn't test it with the Axe-FX until today. Yesterday I spent a bunch of time rewiring the band PA. It's now a sweet prewired rig with just a snake to the stage - 14 sends to the mixer and 6 returns to the stage (2 for the mains and 4 monitor mixes). After I finished wiring it and doing the "tap" test to see if I'm getting signals where I expect them, I wanted to test the stage returns. I looked across the room and there was the wonderfully handy little 8ma. Holy crap this thing was loud and punchy with just an SM58! Of course the real miracle is that I wired the board with those sends/returns, a couple multi-effects, separate EQs for each monitor send, and compressors inserted on the vocal and kick channels and it worked right the first time. :p
</sidebar>
Ok, now to the part that you guys actually care about. I fired up the Axe-FX and first ran Out 1 to the 8ma and Out 2 to the 12ma. I was getting very low output from Out 2 even with things cranked (WTF?) so I abandoned that idea and just switched back and forth between the 8ma and 12ma from Out 1.
At moderate volumes like you'd need at rehearsal or like an open mic jam type thing the 8ma held it's own quite well. In fact, I was totally digging the 8ma. It got loud enough to get my ears ringing and then some. Then I switched over to the 12ma and it was like "oh yeah, this is a bad mo-fo". The 12ma just has more punch in the low-end. There really is no way to get the chest thumping low-end out of the 8ma that you can from the 12ma. But here's the cool thing - the 8ma handles all the bass well - it can't render it the same way as the 12ma can at high volumes but it doesn't fart out (get flubby, etc.) at all. I cranked stuff way loud and the 8ma took it all and handled it. It did feel like there is some sort of limiter though since it just capped off at a certain volume no matter how much signal you hit it with. But it never "gave up".
My plan for the 8ma is to use it as a stage monitor and my backup amp for gigs and I'll use it with a POD X3 for grab and go situations. This is a fantastic box.
BTW, if you plan on grabbing an 8ma I highly recommend you grab the carrying bag - the 8ma doesn't have a handle. It may only be 24lbs but for it's size it is relatively heavy with a semi-slick finish and you really want a handle to carry it around.
The 8ma kicks MUCH ASS.
<sidebar>
My 8ma came on Thursday but life happened and I couldn't test it with the Axe-FX until today. Yesterday I spent a bunch of time rewiring the band PA. It's now a sweet prewired rig with just a snake to the stage - 14 sends to the mixer and 6 returns to the stage (2 for the mains and 4 monitor mixes). After I finished wiring it and doing the "tap" test to see if I'm getting signals where I expect them, I wanted to test the stage returns. I looked across the room and there was the wonderfully handy little 8ma. Holy crap this thing was loud and punchy with just an SM58! Of course the real miracle is that I wired the board with those sends/returns, a couple multi-effects, separate EQs for each monitor send, and compressors inserted on the vocal and kick channels and it worked right the first time. :p
</sidebar>
Ok, now to the part that you guys actually care about. I fired up the Axe-FX and first ran Out 1 to the 8ma and Out 2 to the 12ma. I was getting very low output from Out 2 even with things cranked (WTF?) so I abandoned that idea and just switched back and forth between the 8ma and 12ma from Out 1.
At moderate volumes like you'd need at rehearsal or like an open mic jam type thing the 8ma held it's own quite well. In fact, I was totally digging the 8ma. It got loud enough to get my ears ringing and then some. Then I switched over to the 12ma and it was like "oh yeah, this is a bad mo-fo". The 12ma just has more punch in the low-end. There really is no way to get the chest thumping low-end out of the 8ma that you can from the 12ma. But here's the cool thing - the 8ma handles all the bass well - it can't render it the same way as the 12ma can at high volumes but it doesn't fart out (get flubby, etc.) at all. I cranked stuff way loud and the 8ma took it all and handled it. It did feel like there is some sort of limiter though since it just capped off at a certain volume no matter how much signal you hit it with. But it never "gave up".
My plan for the 8ma is to use it as a stage monitor and my backup amp for gigs and I'll use it with a POD X3 for grab and go situations. This is a fantastic box.
BTW, if you plan on grabbing an 8ma I highly recommend you grab the carrying bag - the 8ma doesn't have a handle. It may only be 24lbs but for it's size it is relatively heavy with a semi-slick finish and you really want a handle to carry it around.