Ok, so for those playing along at home, we had a chance to do some great side by side comparisons of a fair number of FRFR speakers yesterday.
This was done by having 2 Axe Fx and 2 AX-8s plugged in to my DL32R digital mixer with aux buses sending to various cabs. This allowed anyone to play through any (or all) cabs.
What we compared:
Xitone 12" passive wedges + Matrix GT800FX
Xitone 12" active wedges
AccuGroove Latte 3-way passive cabs + Matrix GT800FX
Mission Gemini II passive 2x12 stereo cab + Matrix GT1000FX
Line6 LT2M (I think) active cab
EV EXL112 12" active wedge
Due to a shortage of power amps, we didn't compare the AccuGroove directly to the Xitone passive wedges. However, with the Xitone active wedges in normal mode (DSP setting) they were very close to the Xitone passive wedges.
All cabs were on the floor in an upright position (i.e., not used as a wedge) with exception of the Mission, which was mounted in a rolling case with speakers in an over/under fashion rather than side by side.
General impressions:
The consensus was that ALL options were definitely usable and the tones they reproduced were good. In most cases, any deficiency could have been adjusted for with EQing.
The top 3 results were the Xitones (both active and passive) and the AccuGroove cabs. All were very close in what they put out. The Xitone cabs had just a bit more cab-like thump.
Observations on the others:
The Gemini cab seemed to have some boominess in the bass and also lacked a bit in the sparkly top end that was present in all the other cabs.
The Line6 cab did not carry the low end as well. We did a long round of
@iaresee playing with a Mutron sound that would really thump certain low frequencies. In all the other cabs, you could really feel a thump but not on the Line6. However, it was a fairly low frequency, and a typical guitar would not go there often. I suspect this is due in part to the size of speakers used... I don't think this cab is big enough to house more than a 6" speaker.
The EV represented well considering it is a fair bit less expensive than all other options. I think it was a bit less "full" sounding than everything except the Line6 cab.
In my opinion, the Xitone and AccuGroove cabs were very similar in overall sound. Off note is the weight of the AccuGroove cabs... They are very light!
Hopefully I didn't miss anything or misrepresent anyone else's opinion... I'm sure they will chime in if I did.
Edit:
One final note: everyone agreed that everything sounded better with more speakers! You need at least 4 cabs! Blending the Xitone, AccuGroove and Mission cabs together was amazing!
