Markbass Combos..not as loud now?

brianvp

brianvp

Nov 13, 2009
19
2
4,571
39
Hamilton Ohio
#1
Ok so hear me out. I've owned 2 MB combos, a 2013 Jeff Berlin , and my current 2007 CMD102p. I go to Guitar Center periodically to annoy the heck out of the whole place by playing every head and cab I can in the short time I'm there. Oh and yeah I try them all at gigging volume of course, but only for a short time. So I've been trying combinations of the combos they have on the floor, with the 8ohm cabs they have laying around, and I have noticed something really strange. Not only are the combos kind of neutered sounding in the first place, but when I add x cab to the combo, thereby utilizing the full 500W of that little mark III in there, it's just...like..eh. I mean like, I'm here wondering if it's even pushing sound right? Let alone using 500 Watts, it feels like MAYBE 300 watts. I brought mine in, and...holy crap it seemed like it was twice as loud by itself, it was rattling the roof...I even had the bass guy comment how loud it was. Then I plug mine into the same cab as I tried with their CMD102p...and it's like...double the volume. I tried this on every combo they had except the Jeff Berlin, I just played it by itself, and it seemed to be decent at least. I played a CMD 121p with a NY 121 extension...meh, I played the Ninja head with the ninja 2x12 cab.... WHOA, night and day. Guess what the ninja runs at 8 ohms? 500w.. So, now I'm no expert here, this is my experience the few times I've really pushed this new MB gear. But shouldn't a 1x12 300/500 watt combo paired with a NY 1x12 cab at 500 be comparable to a Ninja Ny 122 and it's 500 watt output at 8 ohms? The Ninja at 10 O'clock was louder than the combo stack at 4 O'clock. I was absolutely floored. Now I have serious GAS for this NY122 cab. I'm just running an old yellow combo head (LMII) through the good B&C milled magnet drivers, but maybe all this weight reduction ( LMIII is now 5.07LBS instead of 6.4!) and these Mark World yellow line drivers are really hurting all of the new gear? I'm a concerned Markbass fan, I just wanted to share this, and see what I get. Thanks guys, again I'm just starting a discussion here, anyone else notice this?
 
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#3
The taper on the volume pots may be more linear on the newer models and/or some change in the speaker design and/or cab may have reduced the efficiency. I'm not a Markbass user so I don't follow their product updates, but off the top of my head those are the two most likely things in my mind that could account for what you noticed. It sounds like you go to the same store and are listening to the products positioned in the same area/location of the store, so that variable is probably not in play.
 
#6
Cab sensitivity definitely plays a part, I noticed a huge volume increase, and as I said, I'm moving to that cab as soon as I can afford it. I like my combo, but the tweeter is not for me, I like the compression drivers alot better from Markbass. I fell in with MB with a JB combo, and that has no tweeter, but has a 5khz voiced 15'' driver, which I thought was very nice. Rather than go back to that, I think this NY 122 cab is just amazing for what it is, and that loudness is just insane. Now for the other CMD 102p they had there compared to mine? it feels like mine is as much louder as the NY 122 was to the CMD121p stack was to it. So maybe my old combo is rocking a few more DB sensitivity wise? I don't know, but I hooked my combo up to the same cab in the same spot, so the room dynamics were the same. BTW isn't +3DB twice as loud at 103 than at 100? isn't that how that works?
 
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