The 1st Annual NorCal Fractal FAStival

[iaresee]

...annnd , today, as I play thru my CLR Neo that was brought back from near extinction with some help from Tom King at Atomic, i'm thinking,...yup ..this absolutely lives up to the hype of best in class....8.02 is unbelievably convincing thru it.

Darn. Really want to hear one. The AccuGrooves really impressed me. Weight and sound were excellent from them.

 

[henryrobinett]

I actually preferred the Accugroove cabs. The ported enclosure gave it more range and tone. It used air which the wedges didn't have. I loved both XiTones, but the Accugroove moved slightly ahead for my ears.

 

[unix-guy]

I actually preferred the Accugroove cabs. The ported enclosure gave it more range and tone. It used air which the wedges didn't have. I loved both XiTones, but the Accugroove moved slightly ahead for my ears.

The AccuGrooves definitely have some advantages as far as weight and (I think) a slightly flatter response.

For me, I prefer the wedge design so I can use it as a monitor in front of... So for that I'd still lean towards the Xitone.

The other thing to consider is the cost differential: I believe the AccuGroove Latte is about $300 more than the Xitone.

 

[dr bonkers]

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!

Did anybody try bass through them? Really curious since I would like to get lightweight FRFR that could handle both guitar and bass without any farting or damage.

 

[unix-guy]

Did anybody try bass through them? Really curious since I would like to get lightweight FRFR that could handle both guitar and bass without any farting or damage.

No... But they are my bassist's cabs that he bought to handle bass as well as Chapman Stick and other instruments.

I have yet to hear bass through them...

 

[henryrobinett]

The AccuGrooves definitely have some advantages as far as weight and (I think) a slightly flatter response.

For me, I prefer the wedge design so I can use it as a monitor in front of... So for that, I'd still lean towards the Xitone.

The other thing to consider is the cost differential: I believe the AccuGroove Latte is about $300 more than the Xitone.

Yeah, well I wasn't concerned with the weight or size or other advantages besides the sound. I prefer the XiTones overall. I too prefer the wedge style. But sonically a wedge is going to have a disadvantage over larger baffled, ported enclosures. But I preferred the SOUND of the Accugrooves.

You know, it's VERY HARD to listen to gear and not be biased in favor of what you have. My XiTones were among the first, if not THE first shipped out, with the DSP. Mick says he's going to send me an update as he perfected the programming after I received mine. But the 5 DSP position really alter the sound. I was really preferring the other passive wedges until I put it in the first position - wedge position. They matched really well.

 

[unix-guy]

Yeah, well I wasn't concerned with the weight or size or other advantages besides the sound. I prefer the XiTones overall. I too prefer the wedge style. But sonically a wedge is going to have a disadvantage over larger baffled, ported enclosures. But I preferred the SOUND of the Accugrooves.

You know, it's VERY HARD to listen to gear and not be biased in favor of what you have. My XiTones were among the first, if not THE first shipped out, with the DSP. Mick says he's going to send me an update as he perfected the programming after I received mine. But the 5 DSP position really alter the sound. I was really preferring the other passive wedges until I put it in the first position - wedge position. They matched really well.

Another point of consideration is that we really should have compared the wedges AS wedges...but since not all were wedges, we treated them all like back line cabs.

 

[henryrobinett]

LOL! True!

 

[∞Fractals]

Thanks again @ianism for allowing us to use your studio time to host the event. You are one of my favorite people!

Thanks to @iaresee, @henryrobinett, @RonnyV and Dale for the great time and talk today. Let's do it again soon!

I sure wanted to be there… Really was missing out on the event, but for personal reasons had to stay home for the weekend and be with family.

But if you guys are ever motivated to do this again, I'll try to get there in a heartbeat. Thank you so much for the summary. Looking forward to the day when the planets align again. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

 

[unix-guy]

I sure wanted to be there… Really was missing out on the event, but for personal reasons had to stay home for the weekend and be with family.

But if you guys are ever motivated to do this again, I'll try to get there in a heartbeat. Thank you so much for the summary. Looking forward to the day when the planets align again. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Hopefully we'll do it again before too long.