Thomas-Hawk
Power User
First off, apologies to anyone who has been waiting for me to post this comparison. When tone pilgrim and I first met to do the comparison, we had some confusing information
(as it turned out, tone pilgrim and I made it confusing!) from Atomic about a corrective PEQ for the passive CLR. This IMO totally skewed our comparison, and I wanted to re-
do it. Trying to schedule some time for me to borrow tone pilgrim's CLR proved to be a bit challenging, but we finally made it work. So, for the new comparison, it was just
me, the CLR, the XiTone, my Matrix GT800FX power amp, and my Avatar Vintage OS 2x12 cab with V30s in my familiar listening environment at home. For all of the FRFR
testing, I used an IR that I shot of my Avatar cab.
So, upon first listening, the CLR was quite a bit brighter than my XiTone, which tone pilgrim and I both noted during our initial comparison. Now, my version of the XiTone cab
does not have the switch on it to lift the -3dB tweeter pad on the crossover. In fact, I had purchased my cabs from XiTone unloaded, as I had already purchased the Eminence
Beta CX-12 and ASD:1001 drivers, and the Eminence crossover as part of another "failed experiment".
So, I contacted Mick with XiTone to figure out how to defeat the pad.
My soldering (desoldering, to be more correct!) skills were put to the test, lol. With Mick's help, I was able to get it done. I also had acquired the other tweeter model that
Eminence suggests for use with the Beta CX-12 driver, the PSD:2002. IMO, the 2002 sounds better than the ASD:1001. Not by a huge amount, but enough to notice. So now, with
the playing field more level IMO, I proceeded with the comparison.
Shortly before I did the comparison, I contacted Atomic about the PEQ settings. Tom said the passive CLR in the wedge position is the most flat, and the PEQ settings that were
provided before were for other listening postions. So, tone pilgrim and I DID indeed goof on our understanding what the PEQ settings were for. So for the comparison, I didn't
use any PEQ settings with the CLR. Thanks to Tom for clearing that up for me.
To begin, I'll say the CLR sounds great! The mids/upper mids especially sounded very good to me. I felt the sound was very much "present" or "in your face". The dispersion,
as advertised, seems to be very wide. The XiTone, with the tweeter pad defeated, sounded pretty close to the CLR, except the bottom end was more "loose". At Mick's suggestion,
to get my cab configured and sounding closer to how he is shipping them now, I stuffed some batting material into the XiTone, and that definitely took away the "loose-ness".
(Interestingly enough, the XiTone with my Avatar cab IR sounded closer to my Avatar cab in the room than the CLR did, especially BEFORE I added the batting material). With the
batting material installed, the XiTone and the CLR now sounded VERY similar. The only difference I could really hear was that the mids in the XiTone weren't quite as pronounced
as the mids in the CLR. As an experiment to see how close I could get them, I tried boosting the mids a bit with a PEQ on the XiTone, and I got them sounding almost identical.
I mean, they still sounded a bit different... they're different drivers in different enclosures... they're gonna sound a bit different because of that... but they were very
close. The dispersion on the XiTone also compared very well to the CLR... not quite as wide, but again... very close to my ears.
Now, for a few negatives. The grill on the XiTone isn't nearly as "pretty" as the grill on the CLR. But, hey... it's a grill. It serves its purpose. I'd say overall, the
CLR is nicer to look at, but the painted wood surfaces seem to dent very easily. tone pilgrim's CLR had quite a few dents on it just from him sitting his Gator rack case on top
of it, and maybe from being moved around during transport. The XiTone on the other hand is built like a brick sh!t house! With its LineX coating, you could probably toss it
from the back of a moving truck, and it would be just fine! The weight of the CLR, I feel, is a negative. Per the Atomic web site, it weighs 44 lbs. I found it to be very
heavy. Others might not feel that way, but compared to the XiTone cab, which I believe is about 32 lbs. or so, it felt very heavy and a bit awkward to carry. Now, I'm also old
and decrepit, so that may have a factor in my opinion here.
So, now on to price/value. IMO, the Atomic CLR passive wedge at $749.95 is a great value. I know tone pilgrim is very pleased with his purchase, as well as a number of forum members here.
I think it sounds fantastic, and the build quality seems to be solid, and we cannot deny the level of expertise and engineering that went into designing and building it. The
XiTone 1x12 passive wedge at $459 (I think Mick is including the PSD:2002 upgraded tweeter at no additional cost for a limited time; please check with him to be sure!) is IMO a KILLER
value. With a few tweaks, you could get it to sound very close to a CLR, if you wanted to. As I mentioned earlier, I actually felt the XiTone without the stuffing added into
it sounded closer to my real Avatar guitar cab, using my own IR. I know the CLR has a very flat response, so I'm not sure what this means, lol, but I know I liked what I heard
from the XiTone.
As a reminder, this is all IMHO and experience. I feel very grateful to have even had the opportunity to compare these two great products side by side. Many, many thanks to
tone pilgrim for letting me borrow his CLR for this comparison. I also am thankful to Tom King with Atomic, and Mick Farlow with XiTone; they both have been very easy to
communicate with, and are very customer focused. Both of them certainly deserve our business! And, not to leave Matrix out of all this; they too have great products, and
fantastic customer support. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to have a CFR12 or a Q12 available for this comparison.
If I've left anything out, or if you have any questions, please let me know. I hope this comparison/review/opinion is helpful to someone trying to decide which way to go with
their FRFR purchase. As always, please audition these products with your own ears if you can. I know that's not always possible, but only you and your ears can ultimately tell you
which product is the best product for you.
Thanks for reading!
Tom
(as it turned out, tone pilgrim and I made it confusing!) from Atomic about a corrective PEQ for the passive CLR. This IMO totally skewed our comparison, and I wanted to re-
do it. Trying to schedule some time for me to borrow tone pilgrim's CLR proved to be a bit challenging, but we finally made it work. So, for the new comparison, it was just
me, the CLR, the XiTone, my Matrix GT800FX power amp, and my Avatar Vintage OS 2x12 cab with V30s in my familiar listening environment at home. For all of the FRFR
testing, I used an IR that I shot of my Avatar cab.
So, upon first listening, the CLR was quite a bit brighter than my XiTone, which tone pilgrim and I both noted during our initial comparison. Now, my version of the XiTone cab
does not have the switch on it to lift the -3dB tweeter pad on the crossover. In fact, I had purchased my cabs from XiTone unloaded, as I had already purchased the Eminence
Beta CX-12 and ASD:1001 drivers, and the Eminence crossover as part of another "failed experiment".
So, I contacted Mick with XiTone to figure out how to defeat the pad. My soldering (desoldering, to be more correct!) skills were put to the test, lol. With Mick's help, I was able to get it done. I also had acquired the other tweeter model that
Eminence suggests for use with the Beta CX-12 driver, the PSD:2002. IMO, the 2002 sounds better than the ASD:1001. Not by a huge amount, but enough to notice. So now, with
the playing field more level IMO, I proceeded with the comparison.
Shortly before I did the comparison, I contacted Atomic about the PEQ settings. Tom said the passive CLR in the wedge position is the most flat, and the PEQ settings that were
provided before were for other listening postions. So, tone pilgrim and I DID indeed goof on our understanding what the PEQ settings were for. So for the comparison, I didn't
use any PEQ settings with the CLR. Thanks to Tom for clearing that up for me.
To begin, I'll say the CLR sounds great! The mids/upper mids especially sounded very good to me. I felt the sound was very much "present" or "in your face". The dispersion,
as advertised, seems to be very wide. The XiTone, with the tweeter pad defeated, sounded pretty close to the CLR, except the bottom end was more "loose". At Mick's suggestion,
to get my cab configured and sounding closer to how he is shipping them now, I stuffed some batting material into the XiTone, and that definitely took away the "loose-ness".
(Interestingly enough, the XiTone with my Avatar cab IR sounded closer to my Avatar cab in the room than the CLR did, especially BEFORE I added the batting material). With the
batting material installed, the XiTone and the CLR now sounded VERY similar. The only difference I could really hear was that the mids in the XiTone weren't quite as pronounced
as the mids in the CLR. As an experiment to see how close I could get them, I tried boosting the mids a bit with a PEQ on the XiTone, and I got them sounding almost identical.
I mean, they still sounded a bit different... they're different drivers in different enclosures... they're gonna sound a bit different because of that... but they were very
close. The dispersion on the XiTone also compared very well to the CLR... not quite as wide, but again... very close to my ears.
Now, for a few negatives. The grill on the XiTone isn't nearly as "pretty" as the grill on the CLR. But, hey... it's a grill. It serves its purpose.
I'd say overall, the CLR is nicer to look at, but the painted wood surfaces seem to dent very easily. tone pilgrim's CLR had quite a few dents on it just from him sitting his Gator rack case on top
of it, and maybe from being moved around during transport. The XiTone on the other hand is built like a brick sh!t house! With its LineX coating, you could probably toss it
from the back of a moving truck, and it would be just fine!
The weight of the CLR, I feel, is a negative. Per the Atomic web site, it weighs 44 lbs. I found it to be very heavy. Others might not feel that way, but compared to the XiTone cab, which I believe is about 32 lbs. or so, it felt very heavy and a bit awkward to carry. Now, I'm also old
and decrepit, so that may have a factor in my opinion here.
So, now on to price/value. IMO, the Atomic CLR passive wedge at $749.95 is a great value. I know tone pilgrim is very pleased with his purchase, as well as a number of forum members here.
I think it sounds fantastic, and the build quality seems to be solid, and we cannot deny the level of expertise and engineering that went into designing and building it. The
XiTone 1x12 passive wedge at $459 (I think Mick is including the PSD:2002 upgraded tweeter at no additional cost for a limited time; please check with him to be sure!) is IMO a KILLER
value. With a few tweaks, you could get it to sound very close to a CLR, if you wanted to. As I mentioned earlier, I actually felt the XiTone without the stuffing added into
it sounded closer to my real Avatar guitar cab, using my own IR. I know the CLR has a very flat response, so I'm not sure what this means, lol, but I know I liked what I heard
from the XiTone.
As a reminder, this is all IMHO and experience. I feel very grateful to have even had the opportunity to compare these two great products side by side. Many, many thanks to
tone pilgrim for letting me borrow his CLR for this comparison. I also am thankful to Tom King with Atomic, and Mick Farlow with XiTone; they both have been very easy to
communicate with, and are very customer focused. Both of them certainly deserve our business! And, not to leave Matrix out of all this; they too have great products, and
fantastic customer support. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to have a CFR12 or a Q12 available for this comparison.
If I've left anything out, or if you have any questions, please let me know. I hope this comparison/review/opinion is helpful to someone trying to decide which way to go with
their FRFR purchase. As always, please audition these products with your own ears if you can. I know that's not always possible, but only you and your ears can ultimately tell you
which product is the best product for you.
Thanks for reading!
Tom
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