EV 15b into Fender Rumble 150

#2
Bassquest said:
I have a spare EV 15b 4 ohm and want to replace the stock speaker in the Rumble 150 combo. Will there be much difference in sound? Thoughts?
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"Much of a difference..." is a pretty broad and not very descriptive statement.
Perhaps it would be helpful if you were to discuss the why's and the wherefore's in wanting to do this in the first place.
What are your reason's for the speaker swap?

I assume you are aware that in most cases, the cabinet is designed to work with the speaker that is intended to be in that cabinet?
It might sound quite different. And the chances of "different" being worse are much better than the chances of "different" being better.
 
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#9
Years ago I replaced the Sunn Transducers in my Sorado cab with EVM-15B's. The improvement was very noticeable. I still use these speakers today and are still my favorite. The have a better mid-range than any other 15 I've played. I think you will like the improvement.
 
#13
The performance specs of the EVM15B changed a bit over the long life of the product. The original version was 100 watts; the one that was the most popular was 200 watts continuous, 800 watts peak; the 15B pro line version was 400 watts continuous, 1,600 watts peak.

EV's power handling specs were very honestly stated. Those speakers were tested using EIA-RS 426A, which uses broadband noise as a signal source. The continuous rating is the least amount of power that was fed to the speaker being tested. Four times per second, the signal was increased to four times the continuous rating. The test's duration was for 12 hours minimum.

The tests were conducted in a purpose built room in the basement of the engineering building on Front Street in downtown Buchanan that monitored the temperature and impedance of the voice coil.

I worked for EV for well over 12 years and we made some solid good sounding stuff. I'm still using a couple of systems from that era and they continue e to sound good and work well
 
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#14
If you own a hand saw, a tape measure, a caulk gun, a hand drill, and not much else, you could cobble together an EV tl606 cabinet to house that speaker, (even better if you had an EVM15L).

That is the box EV designed to work with that driver.

I have two Mesa Boogie Road Ready tl606 cabs with EVM15Ls and they give me a nice old school tone.
 
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#16
Gizmot said:
The performance specs of the EVM15B changed a bit over the long life of the product. The original version was 100 watts; the one that was the most popular was 200 watts continuous, 800 watts peak; the 15B pro line version was 400 watts continuous, 1,600 watts peak.

EV's power handling specs were very honestly stated. Those speakers were tested using EIA-RS 426A, which uses broadband noise as a signal source. The continuous rating is the least amount of power that was fed to the speaker being tested. Four times per second, the signal was increased to four times the continuous rating. The test's duration was for 12 hours minimum.

The tests were conducted in a purpose built room in the basement of the engineering building on Front Street in downtown Buchanan that monitored the temperature and impedance of the voice coil.

I worked for EV for well over 12 years and we made some solid good sounding stuff. I'm still using a couple of systems from that era and they continue e to sound good and work well
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Since I was servicing EV products for OEM manufacturers during this whole time span, let's be a little more accurate about why there was a difference between the series 2 (200 watt) and pro line (400 watt) drivers.

The drivers are in fact identical in every way except the voice coil. The voice coil wire was coated with a form of protective coating that helped hold the wire together and on the bobbin under higher crest factor mechanical loading.

The power rating was the size of the power amp that could reproduce a signal with a crest factor of 6dB, which is exactly double the RMS (continuous) rating. There was no "program" or "peak" ratings provided by EV for these drivers. (3dB for a sine wave, another 3dB which is a signal with twice the peak amplitude), the signal being band limited white noise (later changed to pink noise for some applications)

So in fact, the rating difference was due to a change in rating method, the increased crest factor made possible by the coating and improved adhesives in the voice coil assembly.

While the s2 was more or less a 200 watt "RMS" rated driver, the same can not be said for the pro line, only because of the change in rating method.

In fact, this crest factor change within the industry was what was behind the whole program power designator.
 
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#17
agedhorse and Gizmot.

I own three cabinets that have the EVM15L driver installed, (one 1970s Ampeg B15T, and two Mesa EVTL606 cabs), and I also have two spare reconed drivers, (one of which looks like a B cone). Among these five drivers, they differ in year of manufacture and labeling. Should I consider the thermal rating on all of them to be about 200 Watts to be conservative on the power handling capability? I know that my ears are the best meter to know when a speaker is in danger of of being damaged by too much power. I am just curious what the real power handling rating for these speakers might be. The ones that have a power rating on the label are Series II, which say 200 Watts. The older reconed ones might have a non-original voice coil installed, making them able to dissipate more than what I expect was the original 100 Watt rating. I'm not likely to blow speakers with the way I use my cabinets, so I just want to understand what I have.

Would it be likely that a recone of an older motor would have been done with a newer voice coil that would be rated higher than the original 100 Watts? Does the sensitivity remain the same?

Thanks guys.
 
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#18
I would consider all of them to be 200 watts "RMS", and if you believe in program power, then 400 watts "program".

Because of the band limiting user in the later rating, I would be especially cautious for bass guitar use without a proper high pass filter.

The 100 watt rated parts kit hasn't been available for a couple of decades at least. Going from memory, these were originally from the SRO line.

These days all the kits use more advanced adhesives and insulation compared with the s2 parts.
 
#19
Thanks for the response.

I mostly use low power tube amps, (but I do have an amp estimated by the designer back in the 1970s to be able to put out 290 Watts), (see the mighty Eros Bass Master on page two of this thread: NAD You Dont See These Very Often! (Dynaco/Eros) ) which I expect could produce enough power to damage an EVM15L even with two connected. I only own the Eros amps for nostalgic purposes.

I have no need for that much power. I run 30 or 50 Watt bass amps, and 5 to 15 Watt guitar amps, so I expect to never damage a speaker by overdriving it.
 
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