BBN
Fractal Fanatic
Most of these speakers were auditioned in my basement, but a couple were at a pro audio dealer. The pro audio dealer had a back room with a stage, where they let me set up their speakers and some of mine….and crank them up.
Please remember, this is just my opinion. There is no science going on here….just my ears and my patches. I don’t make a living playing music, but I have been playing guitar for 20+ years, I play 120+ gigs a year. And like most folks on the forum, I’ve owned an array of tube amps over the years. My style is hard rock…Zakk Wylde/Disturbed tone.
My Rank (from best to worst):
1) FBT Verve 12ma
2) Tie QSC HPR 122i and Atomic FRFR
3) FBT Verve 8ma
4) Tie QSC K12 / JBL PRX612
5) RCF ART200a
6) JBL MRX515 (powered by Crown CE4000)
7) Carvin 1542a
Here’s what I liked and didn’t like (I’ll go from worst to best):
Carvin 1542a – no matter how much Eq’ing I did, it sounded like razor blades to my ears. The horn in these are just not pleasing with guitar signal. I use this as a cheap vocal monitor, and that’s where it’s going to stay. If I didn’t need these for vocal monitors, I would use them to chalk the wheels on my van when unloading gear.
JBL MRX515 – I was very disappointed with this speaker. For $700 (un-powered), I expected a higher quality sound. The JBL boxes seem to have harsh top end. Maybe this is part of the design to help vocals cut through a mix. Anyway, for a 15” driver, this had the least amount of low end handling. As soon as I did any palm muting, it fell apart.
RCF ART200a – this is not a bad speaker at all. Held together pretty well on the low end and had a decent top end tone. My only complaint is that it didn’t have enough volume and girth. But it’s a 200 watt box…so it puts out what I would expect. This is one of the older model RCF’s, so I would think the new models (with higher wattage) would be great. I’m a big fan of RCF.
JBL PRX612 – This is the new JBL powered series. I wish I spent more time auditioning this box, because it had potential. This had a ‘less’ harsh top end than other JBL speakers I’ve tried and a solid low end. The top end seemed like it could be tamed pretty easily with some parametric Eq. This box is worth checking out if you’re in the market, because they’re not as expensive as the QSC K or KW series.
QSC K12 – I know a lot of people love this box, but it didn’t have enough girth for me. The top end was smooth and I liked that quite a bit. But for low end, the chugging/palm muting made this box crap out when I got to a decent volume. At the time I had it side by side with my QSC HPR122i…and the K12 just could not keep up at high volumes. I had the box set flat…no ‘Deep’ button…and I Eq’d it separately so it was not being ‘expected’ to handle the low end that the HPR was. I was feeding it less low end and it still couldn’t handle it.
FBT Verve 8ma – I demo’d this box because the local FBT dealer wasn’t able to get me a 12ma to try. Well as soon as I plugged into the 8ma, I ordered the 12ma. This little box sounded beautiful. Very clear mid range, smooth top end. It didn’t respond as low as the 12” boxes, but the low end it did have was tight..tight..tight. Great little box.
Atomic FRFR – sounds great! Very good match with the Axe. The only reason I didn’t buy one is because they were out of stock for too long. (yes, I know they’re available now). The only thing I’ll say on the down side about the Atomic, is that it could not keep up volume wise to my QSC HPR122i. When they were pushed to ‘louder’ than gig level volumes, the tweeter on the Atomic started breaking up. The QSC did not break up. Atomic is still plenty loud, but just pointing that out.
QSC HPR122i – I used this as my gig speaker for a while. This box has a spectacular low end thump to it. Really pounds for heavy rhythms. The only reason I went looking for a different box is because there is just something a little grainy about the high mid freq range. I always fought with getting that just right on my patches…and I did have it sounding very good….but then after hearing the top end on the K12’s, Atomics….I knew that although the HPR had a punch like no other, I needed something that also had great top end clarity (this led to me to the search for a FBT dealer).
FBT Verve 12ma – this is the FRFR solution for me. After reading all the raves on the forum, I knew I had to hear one of these. So I contacted FBT USA looking for dealers in New England. They put me in touch with a store in Brockton, MA. The store was able to get me a Verve 8ma to try in the store, but could not get the 12ma until I put money down. Well, the 8ma absolutely rocked (I almost left my HPR122i in the store and ran out with the Verve 8ma)….but instead I ordered a 12ma. The 12ma sounds like the 8ma with a little more girth. The HPR122i responds slightly lower than the Verve 12ma….just a little. But after dialing the low end a bit, the two are very close. The mid and top end is no contest. The Verve sounds more open, clean and pleasing.
Jay Mitchell is always talking about how if you have clean solid state power and a true flat response speaker, and your tone still sounds bad….then it’s what you’ve dialed in that is bad. Well when I listened to my patches (created for my HPR) on the Verve, I heard all kinds of nasal and unpleasing tone that I had dialed in to get my QSC to cut in the high/mid area. Now that I can hear them…I pulled those rogue frequencies out (that I dialed in with PEQ) and boom…nice and clean. I can really just use the Axe amp controls and get a tone I like. Not as much need for GEQ or PEQ. I no longer feel that I have to dial in a lot of “corrective EQ”.
This may sound stupid but – all of the amp controls now have much more ‘control’. When I turn up the Presence….it gets brighter….when I change amp models, it’s a big difference. This wasn’t the case with a lot of the other FRFRs I tried. A lot of the amp models sounded similar, and no matter how much I dialed, the top end never really cleaned up nice.
Not any more! For my purpose, the Verve seems to be amplifying the Axe FX more appropriately…or more the way I would expect.
Please remember this is my opinion…your results may vary.
Any questions, please ask away.
Also, if anyone would like to do a true FRFR shootout in the Boston/New Hampshire area, let me know….I’d be willing to pull together a pile of my gear.
Please remember, this is just my opinion. There is no science going on here….just my ears and my patches. I don’t make a living playing music, but I have been playing guitar for 20+ years, I play 120+ gigs a year. And like most folks on the forum, I’ve owned an array of tube amps over the years. My style is hard rock…Zakk Wylde/Disturbed tone.
My Rank (from best to worst):
1) FBT Verve 12ma
2) Tie QSC HPR 122i and Atomic FRFR
3) FBT Verve 8ma
4) Tie QSC K12 / JBL PRX612
5) RCF ART200a
6) JBL MRX515 (powered by Crown CE4000)
7) Carvin 1542a
Here’s what I liked and didn’t like (I’ll go from worst to best):
Carvin 1542a – no matter how much Eq’ing I did, it sounded like razor blades to my ears. The horn in these are just not pleasing with guitar signal. I use this as a cheap vocal monitor, and that’s where it’s going to stay. If I didn’t need these for vocal monitors, I would use them to chalk the wheels on my van when unloading gear.
JBL MRX515 – I was very disappointed with this speaker. For $700 (un-powered), I expected a higher quality sound. The JBL boxes seem to have harsh top end. Maybe this is part of the design to help vocals cut through a mix. Anyway, for a 15” driver, this had the least amount of low end handling. As soon as I did any palm muting, it fell apart.
RCF ART200a – this is not a bad speaker at all. Held together pretty well on the low end and had a decent top end tone. My only complaint is that it didn’t have enough volume and girth. But it’s a 200 watt box…so it puts out what I would expect. This is one of the older model RCF’s, so I would think the new models (with higher wattage) would be great. I’m a big fan of RCF.
JBL PRX612 – This is the new JBL powered series. I wish I spent more time auditioning this box, because it had potential. This had a ‘less’ harsh top end than other JBL speakers I’ve tried and a solid low end. The top end seemed like it could be tamed pretty easily with some parametric Eq. This box is worth checking out if you’re in the market, because they’re not as expensive as the QSC K or KW series.
QSC K12 – I know a lot of people love this box, but it didn’t have enough girth for me. The top end was smooth and I liked that quite a bit. But for low end, the chugging/palm muting made this box crap out when I got to a decent volume. At the time I had it side by side with my QSC HPR122i…and the K12 just could not keep up at high volumes. I had the box set flat…no ‘Deep’ button…and I Eq’d it separately so it was not being ‘expected’ to handle the low end that the HPR was. I was feeding it less low end and it still couldn’t handle it.
FBT Verve 8ma – I demo’d this box because the local FBT dealer wasn’t able to get me a 12ma to try. Well as soon as I plugged into the 8ma, I ordered the 12ma. This little box sounded beautiful. Very clear mid range, smooth top end. It didn’t respond as low as the 12” boxes, but the low end it did have was tight..tight..tight. Great little box.
Atomic FRFR – sounds great! Very good match with the Axe. The only reason I didn’t buy one is because they were out of stock for too long. (yes, I know they’re available now). The only thing I’ll say on the down side about the Atomic, is that it could not keep up volume wise to my QSC HPR122i. When they were pushed to ‘louder’ than gig level volumes, the tweeter on the Atomic started breaking up. The QSC did not break up. Atomic is still plenty loud, but just pointing that out.
QSC HPR122i – I used this as my gig speaker for a while. This box has a spectacular low end thump to it. Really pounds for heavy rhythms. The only reason I went looking for a different box is because there is just something a little grainy about the high mid freq range. I always fought with getting that just right on my patches…and I did have it sounding very good….but then after hearing the top end on the K12’s, Atomics….I knew that although the HPR had a punch like no other, I needed something that also had great top end clarity (this led to me to the search for a FBT dealer).
FBT Verve 12ma – this is the FRFR solution for me. After reading all the raves on the forum, I knew I had to hear one of these. So I contacted FBT USA looking for dealers in New England. They put me in touch with a store in Brockton, MA. The store was able to get me a Verve 8ma to try in the store, but could not get the 12ma until I put money down. Well, the 8ma absolutely rocked (I almost left my HPR122i in the store and ran out with the Verve 8ma)….but instead I ordered a 12ma. The 12ma sounds like the 8ma with a little more girth. The HPR122i responds slightly lower than the Verve 12ma….just a little. But after dialing the low end a bit, the two are very close. The mid and top end is no contest. The Verve sounds more open, clean and pleasing.
Jay Mitchell is always talking about how if you have clean solid state power and a true flat response speaker, and your tone still sounds bad….then it’s what you’ve dialed in that is bad. Well when I listened to my patches (created for my HPR) on the Verve, I heard all kinds of nasal and unpleasing tone that I had dialed in to get my QSC to cut in the high/mid area. Now that I can hear them…I pulled those rogue frequencies out (that I dialed in with PEQ) and boom…nice and clean. I can really just use the Axe amp controls and get a tone I like. Not as much need for GEQ or PEQ. I no longer feel that I have to dial in a lot of “corrective EQ”.
This may sound stupid but – all of the amp controls now have much more ‘control’. When I turn up the Presence….it gets brighter….when I change amp models, it’s a big difference. This wasn’t the case with a lot of the other FRFRs I tried. A lot of the amp models sounded similar, and no matter how much I dialed, the top end never really cleaned up nice.
Not any more! For my purpose, the Verve seems to be amplifying the Axe FX more appropriately…or more the way I would expect.
Please remember this is my opinion…your results may vary.
Any questions, please ask away.
Also, if anyone would like to do a true FRFR shootout in the Boston/New Hampshire area, let me know….I’d be willing to pull together a pile of my gear.
