New Eminence speaker content

I thought you had settled on the WeberVST's? Do you like these better?

We were involved in the early testing of a couple of the Emi prototypes - they are very good speakers, sure to give Celestion a run for their money.

Randall Aiken

 

Were either of the two you tried the Red Fang?

Can you tell us anything now?

 

I haven't tried them yet, except briefly at NAMM, and they didn't stand out as better than the Private Jack, but I'll have to get some in and do some further comparisons.

Randall Aiken

 

The red fangs are pretty cool speakers. Mine need to get broken in a bit, but so far they sound good. just a tad bit of ear fatigue from the highs..

t

 

Doug,

The Two Rock boys have heard a bunch of samples recently and were blown away. They are now content with speakers and have ordered many. Great ones for less money, what a concept. They tested a bunch and found them stellar.

 

How did the private Jacks sound ?

I have a pair of Red Fangs, en route, but am also curious about
these .

 

This really pisses me off Doug....I was just starting to get speakers off the brain and put that whole idea on the back burner....then Roccaforte comes along and has to tell us that they're the bomb! Ack!

 

I just did an A/B this weekend with a Blue in one 1x12 cab and the Red Fang in another 1x12 cab, side by side. My first impression with the RF was that it sounded remarkably similar to the Blue. If I hadn't been able to immediately switch over the the other cabinet, I would have said they are quite similar (and I use Blues most of the time). Goes to show how inaccurate "tone memory " can be. Being able to switch over immediately with all else being the same however, it was quite easy to hear the differences. To me, the RF sounded a little brighter, with a little more ragged high end breakup and less low mids than the Blue. It did sound a little tighter also. The Blue still had a much creamier high end and a little looser low end. I wanted to take a little more bass out for the blue than the RF. I was actually surprised that the RF had more high end presence since usually the higher power handling speakers get progressively more muffled.

I don't think the RF is a dead ringer for the Blue , but is certainly is a very good sounding speaker and would probably get even closer to the Blue with more hours on it. I still prefer the Blue overall, but would have no problem using the RF's. I'm really curious to try one of each in a 2x12 cab, both in parallel and series configurations.

 

Is any of the new Eminences intended as a CL80 copy and, if so, which?

 

Fullerplast, just for reference could you tell us what 1x12's you were using. If they were different models then that could have largely affected the tone.

 

Although no one is disputing this .. the RFs, while not dead
ringers for the CBs, like any other speaker, will improve as they
continue to break in .

The new CBs don't sound exactly like an original CB, either; by
most accounts .

The RFs, from what I can gather, have larger magnets, so, of
course that will make them a little different, right there

Anyway, I can't wait to get mine, and I'm already thinking about
ordering 4 more to load in a 4x12 .

 

Man, it's nice having a bunch of high quality, reasonable choices in speakers nowadays. For instance, I just installed one Weber AlNiCo Blue Dog 30 watter and one ceramic Blue Dog 50 watter with 50 oz. magnet in my Demeter 2x12 about a week ago. Incredibly nice sounding speakers. Tons of swirl and harmonic content that weren't there with other speakers, IMO. Cleans are beautiful with these speakers. And they still need to be broken in!

I'd like to give some of these new Eminence models a try too.

 

I just got my Red Fang this morning and A/B'd it with a new Celestion Alnico Blue in my Traynor YCV20WR (2-EL84's). My immediate impression is that the Red Fang is very, very close to the Alnico Blue. They are similar in every respect across the tonal sprectrum, and I only detected subtle differences in the high end.

Keep in mind, that I've only had my Alnico Blue for a short while, so it's not completely broken in (10 - 15 hours of playing time), and the Red Fang has less than 1/2 hour of playing time. For sure they will both mellow and ripen with time/use, so it only gets better from here. Next, I'm going to try the Red Fang with my Fuchs ODS in a few different cabinets, including an antique pine detuned 1-12 and an Avatar 212H. Reports to follow.


Ron...

 

Just out of curiousity, when you say A/B'd in your Traynor, do you mean play for a while with one speaker, then remove the first speaker, install the second speaker, and then play thru that one? If so, it's much harder to hear the differences with that much time between samples. My first impression was the same as yours, but switching speakers within seconds made it very easy to hear significant differences. Memory of tonal nuances is not extremely accurate! I think if you were to quickly switch between them, playing the identical chord, riff, or double stop, the difference becomes much more obvious.

In my case, I used a 1x12 Jenkins open back and a DR sized open back cab. Switching speakers between cabs did not change the breakup characteristics or frequency response significantly. Ideally, two identical cabs would be best, but these were close enough. I certainly would expect different results comparing an open back and a closed back, or a detuned cab.

I played the Red Fang a couple of hours before comparing and this particular Blue had about 10 hours. Based upon my experience with new Blues, it can take 50-100 hours before they really settle in. Whether or not the Red Fangs take that long remains to be seen. I'll compare them again in a few months and see what has changed.

 

That's what I did, and I realize there are deficiencies in that approach, but there was no better alternative in my situation. My test was at least with the same amp and cabinet, so the only variables were the speakers, and changing the speakers only took a few minutes with a handy power tool.

I first played the Blue, being very specific about the chords and other riffs I played. I also played the chords using the various pickup settings of my Strat with Kinman AVn Blues. Then I quickly changed speakers. I then repeated the same playing with the Red Fang. I also switched to a Les Paul. Then I went back to the Blue and repeated the playing with both guitars. There were differences of course, but they weren't dramatic, blatant differences. They were subtle variations.

I have some experience as an engineer and producer and my home/project studio is well equiped with good quality gear, including Dynaudio BM6A monitors, so I'm used to critical listening and have trained myself as such. I noticed significant differences between the Celestion Blue, vs the Weber Ceramic Blue Dog, vs a Celestion Greenback. The differences between the Red Fang and Alnico Blue were not nearly as much as with those other speakers. So while they may not be identical, I would say at this point that they sound very close to one another. But, as you say, after a healthy break in period, the differences may be more pronounced one way or another.

All that being considered, I really like the Celestion Blue and the Red Fang hangs right in there so far. Now the next tests will be with different cabinets with my Fuchs ODS, which I wouldn't ordinarily be able to use with a 15W Celestion Blue.


Ron...

 

Hey Macaroni - sounds like you have a good resource in your home studio - what do you think of the idea of recording the two different speakers in an identical way? I know this isn't a test of how they perform live, but it might reveal tonal characteristics, and you could easily A/B the recordings.