Anyone using the new Friedman ASM 12 FRFR monitor. Reviews on that.

nznat

Experienced
Ok, i do not like my CLR active wedge a lot, so i sold it. It was good for a bunch of tones, and yet it had this strange nasel tone to it, and slightly woofy bass response even after a lot of bass tuning in my Axe FX 2 XL+. I have heard some people say the CLR can be a little woofy / flubby on the bass sometimes, and yeah, seemed to be the case i was having, so its gone. All good, everything is replaceable right! So I'm wanting to see if anyone else has the new friedman FRFR. Love some info on that. I may buy one and try it
 
I recently bought 2 and they are nice. Running 2 in stereo I have noticed if you move around much you loose the highs here and there because of the speaker and horn being separate. They will thump and you can feel it like a real cab. They are heavy and the handle is not friendly at all. I haven't taken them out to gig yet and I already have a dent in the edge so I don't think the finish will hold up very good unless you leave them at home. They get pretty loud. My QCS K-12's get louder but these aren't as harsh sounding. They work best for me in the wedge position and spread out about 3 feet apart and slightly angled in to each other. I was thinking about getting the CLR's also because of the coaxial design and the smaller size but as of right now the Friedmans are doing a good job and I worry about not liking the CLRs like you and some others have said.
 
Ok, i do not like my CLR active wedge a lot, so i sold it. It was good for a bunch of tones, and yet it had this strange nasel tone to it, and slightly woofy bass response even after a lot of bass tuning in my Axe FX 2 XL+. I have heard some people say the CLR can be a little woofy / flubby on the bass sometimes, and yeah, seemed to be the case i was having, so its gone. All good, everything is replaceable right! So I'm wanting to see if anyone else has the new friedman FRFR. Love some info on that. I may buy one and try it
With all my speakers I use, I almost always have to use the cut switch and back the bass or depth down a little so I don't get flubby or woofy sounding. I'm mostly high gain though. Did you do this with the CLR?
 
I recently bought 2 and they are nice. Running 2 in stereo I have noticed if you move around much you loose the highs here and there because of the speaker and horn being separate. They will thump and you can feel it like a real cab. They are heavy and the handle is not friendly at all. I haven't taken them out to gig yet and I already have a dent in the edge so I don't think the finish will hold up very good unless you leave them at home. They get pretty loud. My QCS K-12's get louder but these aren't as harsh sounding. They work best for me in the wedge position and spread out about 3 feet apart and slightly angled in to each other. I was thinking about getting the CLR's also because of the coaxial design and the smaller size but as of right now the Friedmans are doing a good job and I worry about not liking the CLRs like you and some others have said.

wow, it is indeed strange when people state, "it doesn't sound so harsh or as harsh as my ....other FRFR cab". When i hear that, i state to myself, WHAT THE FUCK!!! lol Reason being, i thought FRFR means flat bloody response. hehe, I mean, aren't all these FRFR cabs supposed to have no such thing as "too much bass", or" no highs that are any higher than whats fed into it, or mids and so on? I mean, sounds like to me that everyone is getting so called FRFR cabs and stating that this one has better bass response or mids or highs. WTF!!! That is supposed to be only what happens with normal guitar cabs isnt it? Isn't FRFR supposed to mean DEAD FLAT FROM ALL ANGLES! lol Sounds like none of the makers of FRFR have got it right yet by a long shot maybe? I mean, some FRFR have more bass, i mean :MORE BASS!!!! they cant have MORE BASS, they are FRFR, not supposed to have any bass response other than FRFR. Im no Noob, but i are to FRFR cabs, and this is getting strange indeed. Yeah, it ends up being what sounds good to your ears, but FRFR means DEAD FLAT. Thus, how can one sound better than another anyhow. They must not be Dead flat after all. FAIL!?
 
wow, it is indeed strange when people state, "it doesn't sound so harsh or as harsh as my ....other FRFR cab". When i hear that, i state to myself, WHAT THE FUCK!!! lol Reason being, i thought FRFR means flat bloody response. hehe, I mean, aren't all these FRFR cabs supposed to have no such thing as "too much bass", or" no highs that are any higher than whats fed into it, or mids and so on? I mean, sounds like to me that everyone is getting so called FRFR cabs and stating that this one has better bass response or mids or highs. WTF!!! That is supposed to be only what happens with normal guitar cabs isnt it? Isn't FRFR supposed to mean DEAD FLAT FROM ALL ANGLES! lol Sounds like none of the makers of FRFR have got it right yet by a long shot maybe? I mean, some FRFR have more bass, i mean :MORE BASS!!!! they cant have MORE BASS, they are FRFR, not supposed to have any bass response other than FRFR. Im no Noob, but i are to FRFR cabs, and this is getting strange indeed. Yeah, it ends up being what sounds good to your ears, but FRFR means DEAD FLAT. Thus, how can one sound better than another anyhow. They must not be Dead flat after all. FAIL!?
Lol most of these manufacturers do not make true FRFR. Think about it? There are $200 alto powered speaker and $5000 Myers wedges. Needless to say they can't all be FRFR. Manufacturers hype frequencies to make things sounds fuller/ fatter. They are not exactly looking for FRFR to mix down records. They are are looking to make the room thump
 
Atomic has the worst customer service of all time though. It's too bad because I liked the size of the wedges but Tom King didn't answer my phone calls or emails for an entire summer until I got fed up and called him out on Facebook for it. Then he deleted it so I posted again. Oh, then he gets around to helping me. Comical.
 
Atomic has the worst customer service of all time though. It's too bad because I liked the size of the wedges but Tom King didn't answer my phone calls or emails for an entire summer until I got fed up and called him out on Facebook for it. Then he deleted it so I posted again. Oh, then he gets around to helping me. Comical.
That is crazy. I have never had issues with Tom. He is part of the reason I got a second CLR after selling my first one due to money trouble. Sorry to hear you had issues!
 
Thus, how can one sound better than another anyhow. They must not be Dead flat after all. FAIL!?

Just like different hifi speakers and studio monitors sound different while claiming to be flat. There's no perfect speaker, only very good. Of course, very bad too.
 
Just like different hifi speakers and studio monitors sound different while claiming to be flat. There's no perfect speaker, only very good. Of course, very bad too.
The Friedman's are voiced for dirty guitar tones & so are probably not really true flat. That's not a bad thing, just the way they are.
As a result, they tend to project dirty tones better than say an Atomic.
Rumour is the Atomics are slightly better are clean tones
 
I have 1 ASM-12 and I would but it again. They will dent easy and the handle is definitely in the wrong spot. I played in 80's rock bands and currently play from blues (Bonamassa style) to rock worship music and the ASM-12 does the job very well. It's the closest thing I have used yet to give me that real amp feel. I played the 80's with 2 JCM 800 heads and 2 4x12's. I have not tried the CLR but I have read many love them. A amp is as personal as a guitar. I love Les paul's and Strat's other's hate them. You can but a ASM-12 and if it's not for you you can always send it back and try something else.
 
Two comments on the Friedman asm12 (I own one).

1. I don't find it very FRFR. Rather, it seems quite heavy on the lower midrange. Maybe that's why a lot of folks like it, but I don't. I think it way overemphasize the lower register. To me it sounds muffled. It does have that "slamming" sound of a speaker cab that is driven hard, though. In the end, however, I can't get used to it.

2. How do you guys actually run this thing on stage? If its for personal monotoring, in some sense, who cares? I care more about what the audience hear. If you use it turned against the audience (say upright behind you as in with a regular cab), I find that the problems I mentioned above get worse. I tried this about a week ago in a small club and it was immediately clear that I was going to have to deal with this kind of muffled sound all night.
 
I think everyone needs to realize that one size does not fit all when it comes to speakers/amps/tone, etc. There is a reason one guy can love a Marshall amp and another completely despise it. We all have our own opinions of what works, what we like, etc.

Like clusterDuck said, I do think the amp focuses on the lower mids and that is indeed what I like. I don't hear "muffled" though and I think a lot of it depends on your preset settings. I can't stand harsh highs so for me it is perfect.

In my opinion, each FRFR solution has it's place and I think some lean more toward clean/mid gain tones and others (like the Friedman) focus on more hard rock/metal tones. It is no accident that my Friedman presets sound phenomenal thru this thing. :)

I don't gig anymore so can't comment on setups, etc. but I would think that boosting the highs in the Global EQ would take that "muffled" sound away.
 
I've got the asm-12 as well. As Roman points out, everyone has their own preference. As for mine, I like it! It is a bit dark and I find most of the stock presets won't work and also sound dark comparatively speaking with my studio monitors (Yamaha HS8 with sub). The cab has balls and once you dial in the right amount of mids/high end/presence, the thing really sings, especially at gig volume. I've had a chance to use it in a band setting and it totally rocked with plenty of clarity.

I find most IR's to sound out of phase. And what I mean by this is that every mix is different and everyones room is different, so of course picking the right IR is important. But people also need to realize all cabs are different and the distance from the mic to the speaker is imperative. I settled on running the dephase in the cab block around 7 to 9 depending on the IR. It really seems to bring the cab sound upfront and remove the "blanket". Having said all this, I am sure there are those guys that want it to be completely flat to translate to front of house. While dialing back in mids/presence I find the sound works better on both my studio monitors and the Friedman.

I totally want another one and would prefer and actual guitar cab design...along with more handles or possibly a reverse design where the cab could sit on another cab or amp case.
 
One thing I'll add, and this goes for any FRFR solution, is that I always turn the phase adj in the CAB block (can't remember the exact name) to around 4.50 or so. I do it for all of my presets. I also turn up the speaker separation, etc. and seems to sound more "realistic".
 
One thing I'll add, and this goes for any FRFR solution, is that I always turn the phase adj in the CAB block (can't remember the exact name) to around 4.50 or so. I do it for all of my presets. I also turn up the speaker separation, etc. and seems to sound more "realistic".
What's the speaker separation? I'll have to look for that.
 
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