My Vintage 30 pile - Where is the line between enthusiasm and insanity?

  • Thread starter Thread starter the other John Browne
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You should get one of these and sweep the impedance curve of each speaker in the enclosure to see the differences and correlate them to frequency response differences:

https://www.daytonaudio.com/product/1650/dats-v3-computer-based-audio-component-test-system
It will store up to 20 different impedance sweeps, all of which can be displayed simultaneously or individually, and saved to a pdf if desired, like the sweep of my 72 Marshall 4x12 I've attached to this post.
 

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I'm surprised how much I preferred the 16ohm vs 8ohm in the clip. I think that difference that has a lot to do with the "Mesa's are smoother" notion because it's almost always a comparison of 8ohm vs 16 ohm. I like your hypothesis on the sticker!

The early 2000s did sound great and the ones with that extra pop at 5k are I think what gave the V30 a bad rep for being so mid-spiky.
 
SpiderWars said:
I'm surprised how much I preferred the 16ohm vs 8ohm in the clip. I think that difference that has a lot to do with the "Mesa's are smoother" notion because it's almost always a comparison of 8ohm vs 16 ohm. I like your hypothesis on the sticker!

The early 2000s did sound great and the ones with that extra pop at 5k are I think what gave the V30 a bad rep for being so mid-spiky.
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I think you're right about the 5k thing. Personally, I prefer the 8 Ohm versions.

The sticker theory is just dumb enough that it could be true 😂
 
RaceU4her said:
With a thicker grill cloth that 5k bump might be welcomed, but then some of my cabs have a perforated metal grill so I just don’t know wtf.
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Yup. The 1986 pair is quite bright but I dig them in my Orange 4x12. For my Engl, I'd go with the smoothest possible
 
raiken said:
You should get one of these and sweep the impedance curve of each speaker in the enclosure to see the differences and correlate them to frequency response differences:

https://www.daytonaudio.com/product/1650/dats-v3-computer-based-audio-component-test-system
It will store up to 20 different impedance sweeps, all of which can be displayed simultaneously or individually, and saved to a pdf if desired, like the sweep of my 72 Marshall 4x12 I've attached to this post.
Click to expand...
Randall, how much variation do you typically see between identical model speakers ?

Thanks in advance.
 
SpiderWars said:
I'm surprised how much I preferred the 16ohm vs 8ohm in the clip. I think that difference that has a lot to do with the "Mesa's are smoother" notion because it's almost always a comparison of 8ohm vs 16 ohm. I like your hypothesis on the sticker!

The early 2000s did sound great and the ones with that extra pop at 5k are I think what gave the V30 a bad rep for being so mid-spiky.
Click to expand...
Exo-metal said:
I always preferred 16 ohms and now I know why.
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I'm a 16ohm guy too.

Thanks for taking the time to do this Other John Browne!
 
the other John Browne said:
Well, I went and did it and almost lost my damn mind:
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Well done and thanks for sharing. I've made a bunch of 10-15mins and man they are hard work, so kudos!

I think we hear with our eyes and wallets quite a bit, not to mention what reading something online repeatedly can do to our perceptions. I love the more scientific approach you've taken, it's super useful.

And agreed on REW - a very powerful tool.
 
Looking forward to checking this out. Mad respect man! :yes:

Can you make a conclusion on any preference for Mesa branded V30's? That is what I have in my Traditional cab. 16ohm. But I'm not nerd (expert) enough to really decipher subtle differences. Although I can hear differences in tubes :D
 
ZEN Amps said:
Well done and thanks for sharing. I've made a bunch of 10-15mins and man they are hard work, so kudos!

I think we hear with our eyes and wallets quite a bit, not to mention what reading something online repeatedly can do to our perceptions. I love the more scientific approach you've taken, it's super useful.

And agreed on REW - a very powerful tool.
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Thank you very much! Yes, I worked on this every night for five weeks non-stop so I appreciate the acknowledgement. I was amused when I saw the final video myself and noticed I look and sound increasingly more tired as the video progresses :ROFLMAO:
 
311splawndude said:
Looking forward to checking this out. Mad respect man! :yes:

Can you make a conclusion on any preference for Mesa branded V30's? That is what I have in my Traditional cab. 16ohm. But I'm not nerd (expert) enough to really decipher subtle differences. Although I can hear differences in tubes :D
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Thank you! From my observations, it doesn't seem that Mesa speakers are any different to regular V30s. They may however be QC'd a little tighter or there might be a specific tolerance band for their frequency response curves. That would also possibly explain why one can still find the odd UK made "regular" T3903 or T3904 today. Maybe those are the ones that don't quite make the cut but are still good enough. However that is entirely speculation on my part.
Either way, the normal V30s can sound like the Mesa ones. I can't make out a distinctive characteristic that sets the Mesa or Marshall OEM speakers apart from the regular ones, I believe the production year/batch of the speaker cone really makes the biggest difference.
 
311splawndude said:
Can you make a conclusion on any preference for Mesa branded V30's? That is what I have in my Traditional cab.
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You'll hear it when you watch but there is a pretty big difference is between the 8 ohm and 16 ohm version. Most Mesa 4x12 that I've seen had 8ohm speakers and most Marshall were 16ohm. I know that ALL of my comparisons were Mesa @ 8 vs Marshall @ 16 and that explains why I thought Mesa versions were smoother. I also thought I liked the Mesas better but in the video I liked the early 2000 16ohm the best. Those sounded killer until he got to the 2004.

But I think I would prefer almost any speaker over those 5k spike versions.
 
Thank you for this huge undertaking, what this boils down for me is, buy 8 Ohms and loads of them, than just try which ones you like and sell the rest. Speakers are like guitars and amps, some of them sound amazing, some of them are duds. 80% is kinda the same, but nothing exceptional.
 
aftec said:
Thank you for this huge undertaking, what this boils down for me is, buy 8 Ohms and loads of them, than just try which ones you like and sell the rest. Speakers are like guitars and amps, some of them sound amazing, some of them are duds. 80% is kinda the same, but nothing exceptional.
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This is solid AF advice
 
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