Roots Lightweight Amp Shootout Southall May 2011

"the 1850s were'nt distorting, or making the Growl of death noise." smiley36 the growl of death noise i like that! :lol: (the phrase not the noise!) Yeah i agree i think the drivers could take more. I'd still go with a pair of bridge monsters over alot of the switchmodes, especially for the money.

luton_soundman wrote: (the phrase not the noise!)

it ain't nice, trust me smiley36

luton_soundman wrote: I'd still go with a pair of bridge monsters over alot of the switchmodes, especially for the money.

Yes, completely understood..

Thing is, many, many venues are only 13A socket, and 99% of them won't have supply as strong as the sports center last week.

Which means 2x pieces of heavy amp clipping early, and looking silly !?

levyte357 wrote:

nickyburnell wrote: Labs would have been nice.

BP has some.

Folks, try to advertise this in other sections next time, it got missed by a few of us in the Roots section next door.
IE> BP could have brought Labs.....

So the Matrix blew?

This in 4r bridge I'm guessing?

Congrats on a good meet smiley20

Was 4 ohm stereo mate.. Tweeter's stack was 4x maxes', Ren's was 4x '50s..

The real point of the test was, can lightweights power 4x "roots" scoops better on 13A supply, better than "juice slurping" heavy torroidials.

Ren's Mids/Tops sounded divine (Driven by Matrix Lightweights supplied by Ebony Showcase).

For some reason all the FFA/E90/LabG Owners boycotted the event..

Really needed those to authenticate test, but many rumours/chinese whispers put to bed "finally".

Test was very fair indeed, was more about warmth/sound quality, as opposed to measuring ear splitting SPL.

smiley20

nickyburnell wrote:
You know, I would neer have belived this if soemthing similar haddn't happed to me recently.

Much smaller scale, but similar:
I have had some Audiohead amps for a while, sang their praises, but I thought I'd try some heavy dub through my Gsubs, plus 45hz etc.
Now these amps have worked continuously, perfectly in normal dance/house mode for ages.
Within 20 mins power supply caps gave out on the above test.
It seems this Roots/Dub enviroment is very severe.

Reggae dudes on SP have been saying for the longest, there's a big difference between amp built to do rated spec at 1khz,
and one like JBL MPX1200 or EV P3000 designed to do it 20-20khz.

Difference usually is output trannies, transformer, amount of smoothing & BRs.

Also why many Roots monoblock amps on sub, will "murk" many modern amps rated to do zillion watts per channel @ 4 ohms...

Matt asked me (by PM) to retract statement about 2nd amp blowing, as he said the 2nd amp still worked, and was used in 2nd test of 1851 mini scoop.

Tweeter Box said they could smell burning coming from 2nd amp, and so disconnected it.

So "technically", if amp still worked on later test, I guess only one blew, and the other had to be switched off due to emitting burning smell.

Still, don't understand why no public comment yet from Matrix, if the "2x" problematic amps were production or pre-production models, and
why there were problems, as they were used/connected correctly. Also still don't understand why the large matrix amps had the model names covered.




For all the "conspiracy theorists", the test was solely for judging how well lightweight amps can drive scoops using roots music, and in no way favored any particular brand, or sought to diminish any brand name.

"ALL" Amps were judged solely on audio performance and sound quality.

levyte357 wrote: Matt asked me (by PM) to retract statement about 2nd amp blowing, as he said the 2nd amp still worked, and was used in 2nd test of 1851 mini scoop.

Tweeter Box said they could smell burning coming from 2nd amp, and so disconnected it.

So "technically", if amp still worked on later another test, I guess only one blew, and the other had to be switched off due to emitting burning smell.

Still, don't understand why no public comment yet from Matrix, if the "2x" problematic amps were production or pre-production models, and
why there were problems, as they were used/connected correctly. Also still don't understand why the large matrix amps had the model names covered.

For all the "conspiracy theorists", the test was solely for judging how well lightweight amps can drive scoops using roots music, and in no way favored any particular brand, or sought to diminish any brand name.

"ALL" Amps were judged solely on audio performance and sound quality.

Matt, with respect, you post here as advertiser, Facebook, TV Show etc.
I think the courtesy of FORUM replies to issues would be nice?

my thinking in regards to the matrix amp, as i was not at amp meet, is they are probably pre production models because of the model number being blanked out. If this is the case, this is surely a good thing that one went down. This will help in refining the amp for release.......... The sound quality from the matrix amps i have heard sounded very good indeed........ And with any new product a beta testing period is allways used to iron out the faults....... and what better than to test them at this kind of event, where the punishment they where put under is far more intense than mormall conditions that most amps are used in...... smiley33

bee wrote: and what better than to test them at this kind of event, where the punishment they where put under is far more intense than mormall conditions that most amps are used in...... smiley33

In terms of continued ragging, the amps at the shootout were pushed no where near what they would undergo at normal roots reggae clash.

Let's not even talk about Carnival, where they'll be ragged most of the day.

The point of the shootout was for people to see which lightweight amps can do the job on Roots Reggae.

Why send "specials" that that no one can buy then?

Anyway, everyone at the meet came away with their own views of what they would want in future.

sounds like i missed a good day........ sounds strange to send a special one off for testing........ a beta version maybee but why a special !!!!!!!! So are you looking into buying new amps then lev.....