Comparing four Celestions - Metal clips added

ZEN Amps

ZEN Amps

Well-known member
Saw an empty Recto cab up for sale locally. Pretty unusual around these parts so grabbed it for kicks, and ended up with the below mix for recording purposes only. Can get pretty much any metal tone required with these options, although I do like G12M's too.

So question - would anyone be interested in a comparison video of these 4? I have very little spare time for YT these days so will only bother if it has the potential to be actually useful to the viewer. Till now we haven't really done any speaker shootouts as there are so many variables, and you really need to use the same cab.

Thinking one or two riffs through each speaker with as consistent as possible miking might be helpful to some? The lower speakers always sound a little different but not sure I could be bothered shuffling them around.

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Those are all of my favorite speakers. I believe that the K-85 is just an earlier K-100 that was changed to quell fears of use in high output amps, but I don't think there are any real differences other than the usual from one run to another.
 
i have a couple cabs with different speakers like this for recording, was thinking i need to do a new speaker comparison with a couple new speakers ive not tried yet but you could do a better job than me.
 
Honestly there are lots of comparison videos already out there with these speakers and for me at least no “ultimate metal” speaker shootout would be complete without also featuring at least some (but preferably) all the 120 series JBL’s, Fane Crescendo’s and Altec 417C’s and B’s. I love my celestions too, but they’re not the only great flavor. My personal favorites are 20w GB’s for Celestion. Love your guys content either way and I’m sure you could do something cool with speaker shootouts
 
You’re a formal studio with talent at your fingertips, Id like to see you run these against equivalent IRs everyone keeps referencing to see if commonly used IRs are actual direct representations or not. We would get the speaker recordings for free anyway.
 
braintheory said:
Honestly there are lots of comparison videos already out there with these speakers and for me at least no “ultimate metal” speaker shootout would be complete without also featuring at least some (but preferably) all the 120 series JBL’s, Fane Crescendo’s and Altec 417C’s and B’s.
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EV stuff too, IMO. Probably an EVM, since the SRO's seem like they don't get a lot of use in heavy stuff, though they do sound awesome in that use case.
 
7704A said:
EV stuff too, IMO. Probably an EVM, since the SRO's seem like they don't get a lot of use in heavy stuff, though they do sound awesome in that use case.
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Yes for the purposes of comparison it would be good to include them too, but I was never the biggest fan of them. I found them too smooth and kinda bland for my taste, but I may revisit them out of curiosity. Of course they have all that power and range, but so do the JBL E120’s and Fane Crescendo’s with more character and aggression imo
 
braintheory said:
I found them too smooth and kinda bland for my taste, but I may revisit them out of curiosity.
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Try the 12S if you haven't (and make sure it isn't beat to crap, or if it is get a good recone done). To my ears it has more character than the 12L. Meaner. It is smoother than the 12L though.
braintheory said:
JBL E120’s and Fane Crescendo’s
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The demo's I've heard of those sound pretty great, hopefully at some point I'll get to try 'em.
 
7704A said:
Try the 12S if you haven't (and make sure it isn't beat to crap, or if it is get a good recone done). To my ears it has more character than the 12L. Meaner. It is smoother than the 12L though.

The demo's I've heard of those sound pretty great, hopefully at some point I'll get to try 'em.
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Cool, will look for those. I think I only tried the L versions iirc

Yes, JBL's and Crescendo's have been some of my favorites, especially for higher powered speakers. They have gotten expensive and rare though. Sometimes they can be found in '70's Fender combo's and I even found a crescendo once in this cheap '70's solid state amp
 
I’d be super interested in the results of this video but it does sound like a lot of work to produce. Hope you find the time to do it.
 
Techdeth said:
The ultimate metal cab is the Randall Warhead Cab 4x12.
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I have the warhead full stack. The 4x12 on top and 2x15 on botton with the built in crossover. With my randall thrasher 120 boosted it is my current favorite metal tone that I have just about ever had. My ears have been ringing for 4 days straight!!!
 
You did an excellent job. The v30 constantly yelling 'shhhhh' at me reminds me of the love/hate relationship i have with them; and why i no longer run them. I think redbacks will probably stick in my cab for years to come
 
Smash said:
The v30 constantly yelling 'shhhhh' at me reminds me of the love/hate relationship i have with them; and why i no longer run them.
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Ditto. I did a shootout in my patio between a Marshall V30 (a '92 one at that) and my (then) newly acquired EVM12S speakers. Took some meditating, but I settled on the EVM's and sold the V30. Later I discovered the main EVM I used to do the comparison was busted. Guess I really don't like V30's.
 
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demondestroyer said:
I have the warhead full stack. The 4x12 on top and 2x15 on botton with the built in crossover. With my randall thrasher 120 boosted it is my current favorite metal tone that I have just about ever had. My ears have been ringing for 4 days straight!!!
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I use to have the Satan and did the same ! Good choices !
 
Agreed, with other on the redbacks. My favorite of the recent celestions. I’m a newb with recording, but they also seem more forgiving with close mic’ing than other speakers for me at least
 
ZEN Amps said:
Ok I know it's far from an exhaustive comparison, but it at least shows the tonal difference between each speaker with one bonehead repeated riff:

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Ok what the hell. Here's a Zilla Cab demo showcasing the V30 vs Redback. This video makes the Redback seem like it has a lowpass filter on at like 900 Hz or something, while your Redback sounds more like a great mix of the best parts of a V30 and T75.



Because of this Zilla video, I thought Redbacks had zero presence or any highs whatsoever. @ZEN Amps your video makes the Redback sound miles better. The Redback in your video actually has content above 1 kHz and sounds huge and balanced, and is my favorite speaker out of the four.

Makes me wonder what in the world is going on with the Redback in the Zilla video.
 
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