Getting a couple new V30's

anomaly

anomaly

Well-known member
Hopefully these new V30's are as good as some people say they are, or if it really just is like winning the lottery?? I shall give my judgement when they come. I guess it's the 5 - 6k region that is a little tamed in these new ones which can sound a bit fizzy with the wrong amp, also if they're anything like the old 2000 - 2004 speakers there should be a bit of a bump in the 2-3k area as well, I think?

I got a pair of 2006 V30's in my Avatar cab that I'm going to match with these. They're actually really good sounding V30's despite the bad year, i've got a couple more V30's in that cab from 2007 which definitely have that 5-6k spike. They seem to sound a bit messy and undefined compared to the 2006 speakers.
 
Techdeth said:
I try others and just always hear something I don’t like . But I tried lol
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Same, I didn't like the G12T75's I had mixed with the V30's in the Avatar cab, so I went all V30 and the sound felt much more alive and in your face. Hopefully these new ones bring it to another level. Or maybe I should throw them in my recto cab? The only problem with that is they're soldered in, and I find that a bit of a pain. Also the back panel on my recto cab is a real bitch to take off.
 
anomaly said:
Same, I didn't like the G12T75's I had mixed with the V30's in the Avatar cab, so I went all V30 and the sound felt much more alive and in your face. Hopefully these new ones bring it to another level. Or maybe I should throw them in my recto cab? The only problem with that is they're soldered in, and I find that a bit of a pain. Also the back panel on my recto cab is a real bitch to take off.
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I have an Uber cab that sounds great with my wizards and it’s a really cool tome . But that’s only can with 75s I’ve liked . But v30s in it too of course mixed
 
anomaly said:
Same, I didn't like the G12T75's I had mixed with the V30's in the Avatar cab, so I went all V30 and the sound felt much more alive and in your face. Hopefully these new ones bring it to another level. Or maybe I should throw them in my recto cab? The only problem with that is they're soldered in, and I find that a bit of a pain. Also the back panel on my recto cab is a real bitch to take off.
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The trick to get the backs off of those easily is to take one of the handles off and use something like a piece of broom-handle/club/dowel ect.. to tap it around the edge from the inside,,,,,gently tapping it outwards with a hammer/mallet will pop it right out, even the older glue seal stuff mesa used.
 
It is all hit and miss with the 6k tamed or not. The guy that did the massive comparisons got new ones that sounded great. Then he bought another new one 6 months later. It had some of the fizz again, but not as much as his worst v30 in the collection. He compared the batch number on the speaker cones of both newer ones which were different. He concluded it’s more the batch of the cone material than the year that matters
 
BesaMoogie said:
It is all hit and miss with the 6k tamed or not. The guy that did the massive comparisons got new ones that sounded great. Then he bought another new one 6 months later. It had some of the fizz again, but not as much as his worst v30 in the collection. He compared the batch number on the speaker cones of both newer ones which were different. He concluded it’s more the batch of the cone material than the year that matters
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This. (The Other) John Browne is the guy mentioned. Current production run appears to be back to sounding like the "bad" ones, if I recall the results of his test.
 
You can also order Mesa V30's off their site. I think they're even cheaper than the usual V30's you get ordering off someplace else. I'd order the Mesa ones if I were in the US, TBH.
 
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anomaly said:
Hopefully these new V30's are as good as some people say they are, or if it really just is like winning the lottery?? I shall give my judgement when they come. I guess it's the 5 - 6k region that is a little tamed in these new ones which can sound a bit fizzy with the wrong amp, also if they're anything like the old 2000 - 2004 speakers there should be a bit of a bump in the 2-3k area as well, I think?

I got a pair of 2006 V30's in my Avatar cab that I'm going to match with these. They're actually really good sounding V30's despite the bad year, i've got a couple more V30's in that cab from 2007 which definitely have that 5-6k spike. They seem to sound a bit messy and undefined compared to the 2006 speakers.
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Good luck-- I like v-30's but I have to here them first . I've never owned a speaker I thought was more all over the place depending on year and build location than them.
 
From my research it seems that the cones used in the V30s between roughly mid 2021 to again roughly mid 2022 generated less 5 to 6 kHz content making them sound smoother and a lot like the V30s from 2000 to 2003 which had a similar character. Not sure what exactly caused that. I suspect it could have to do with the stiffness of the cone. It could be that the cellulose for those cone batches came from some other source or maybe KM changed something about the production process briefy. We can only speculate. Two later 2022 V30s I had sounded pretty much like the ones I tested from 2008 to 2020.
For what it's worth, I think the "new V30" as well as the 2000-2003 V30 thing has been somewhat overhyped. Of course, I myself have profited from this hype but still. The non "smooth" V30s that make up the majority of V30s out in the wild still largely sound pretty great to me and loads of great sounding records have been recorded using them. I am absolutely guilty of going down these kind of rabbit holes but at the end of the day, does it really matter that much? Probably not.
 
the other John Browne said:
From my research it seems that the cones used in the V30s between roughly mid 2021 to again roughly mid 2022 generated less 5 to 6 kHz content making them sound smoother and a lot like the V30s from 2000 to 2003 which had a similar character. Not sure what exactly caused that. I suspect it could have to do with the stiffness of the cone. It could be that the cellulose for those cone batches came from some other source or maybe KM changed something about the production process briefy. We can only speculate. Two later 2022 V30s I had sounded pretty much like the ones I tested from 2008 to 2020.
For what it's worth, I think the "new V30" as well as the 2000-2003 V30 thing has been somewhat overhyped. Of course, I myself have profited from this hype but still. The non "smooth" V30s that make up the majority of V30s out in the wild still largely sound pretty great to me and loads of great sounding records have been recorded using them. I am absolutely guilty of going down these kind of rabbit holes but at the end of the day, does it really matter that much? Probably not.
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Completely overhyped, totally agree. While I agree that the speaker is crucial, way more crucial than me people believed until recently, the hype train on the v30s from different eras thing is drastically overhyped. I can tell you for those that listened to literally any record out of audiohammer from 2004 to present, none were done with these supposed “golden era” v30s. Many were done with 2010 and 2011 and 2008 era Mesa cabs: the exact era that people think “sucked”… it’s just vastly overhyped.

I firmly believe it’s a lottery. This is why I’m not against buying IR’s of the same cab from different eras, or buying the same speaker and multiples of them to see which I like best. THIS Is the way to do it. Sometimes you get lucky, other times you don’t. In the IR world, I wish plugins like nollys Cali cab plugin with multiple cabs from different eras is a GREAT idea. Whether or not that “era” is better, who knows, but it’s nice to have different flavors of the same speaker, becsuse they DO all sound drastically different at times. Josh Middletons IR pack is another great example of this. You get 4 Mesa cabs that stretch from 2000, to 2012 or so, and they all sound GREAT.

On that note for whatever it’s worth, I generally feel for whatever reason Marshall celestion vintage speakers are far more consistent. Could be wrong, but I think they are. The early ones from 87-89 seem to be pretty consistent, and then around 91-92 they seem to all be different, but the same up until now if that makes sense.
 
thegame said:
Almost? Please do elaborate!
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I don’t even think Glenn knows it almost happened, or how close it was to being an actual thing. But I can tell you a rep that is pretty well established for celestion and does tons of orders for well known engineers, was pushing for it hard, and was talked about for the first month or two after that video.
 
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