Acoustic anyone?

madmike wrote:

Backline 600. Its 300W @ 8ohms (and to me ... that's 150W at 4 and GK trying to make their head sound better....)

Wait....I'm confused. I read the specs from the GK site for the Backline 600 as 300 watts into 4 ohms, so did you mean to say that, to you, it's 150 watts into 8 ohms?

EricHaven wrote:

madmike wrote:

Backline 600. Its 300W @ 8ohms (and to me ... that's 150W at 4 and GK trying to make their head sound better....)

Wait....I'm confused. I read the specs from the GK site for the Backline 600 as 300 watts into 4 ohms, so did you mean to say that, to you, it's 150 watts into 8 ohms?

Looks like we've come full circle since I started posting in this thread

EricHaven wrote:

madmike wrote:

Backline 600. Its 300W @ 8ohms (and to me ... that's 150W at 4 and GK trying to make their head sound better....)

Wait....I'm confused. I read the specs from the GK site for the Backline 600 as 300 watts into 4 ohms, so did you mean to say that, to you, it's 150 watts into 8 ohms?

Yeah, I think that's what he meant.

As you can see, Big Mits, everyone gets confused when it comes to impedance and wattage...it isn't easy to keep it all straight.

True enough. The only reason that I know as much about it as I do is because I've been a licensed amateur radio operator since 1979, and I had to learn basic electronic principles in order to pass the tests. So when I started playing bass in 1982, I already understood the relationship between impedance and wattage.

i see, i see.

this is whats on the back of the amp .........



it just sez minimum 4 ohm load. does that mean its running 300W at 4 ohms? thats not what it sez ... it sez 300W output, 4 ohm minimum load.

if that truely is what gk states on their website, that it puts out 300W at 4 ohms (and it is ... i checked), i'm lead to believe NOT that its not true ... but theres some element not taken into consideration here.

i'll tell you flat out, that my 150W at 4 ohm peavey mach III is louder than this thing. sounds better too. there is no way that the levels that come outta this gk are 300W ... not even close.

if you wanna have discussions back and forth about wattage and impedance, i'm not gonna do it. i'm just gonna tell you what my experience was with this particular head. i bought it cause it boasted 300W ... i'm telling you it didnt fit the bill. i expect more for 300W. so explain to me whats going on with that!

either way ... it doesnt matter to me. as soon as i get the carvin, the peavey will be my backup and the gk is f/s. i didnt like the gk since i bought it and i am extremely dissapointed with the new, lower end stuff that gk is putting out these days. it is no comparison to the stuff they put out 8 or 9 years ago and on that reputation ... why i bought this thing. i feel like i was had because i needed to purchase and rely on a backup head on the spot and this is what gk sold me.

if you think this is a 300W amp and will crank for you ... buy all means, buy it when i put it up for sale in a few weeks. its only gonna be $100 + shipping, so any dissapointment would be minimal compared to what i paid for it new ... and i hope that you would proove me wrong so you dont suffer the dissapointment at all.

yes, i did misstate ohms law. iddid be 150W with one 8 ohm cabinet and 300W with 4 ohms load. less load the amplifier puts out more watts.

sorry ... diddnt have the gk owners manual in front of me. just making a statement based in what my unsatifactory results were ... that this head doesnt do what its advertised or specd to do. like i said ... dont belive me, then buy it and prove me wrong.

its still a decent amplifier for personal practice use.

What the specs on the back of the amp mean is that the amp is rated to put out 300 watts into 4 ohms, just as you have confirmed what the GK site says about the Backline 600. And if the amp is rated to run 300 watts into 4 ohms, there is no way it is putting anything more than 150 watts into 8 ohms.

As far as whether or not it actually does this is another matter entirely. One of the most persistent issues I have heard over the years is how GK over-rates the power output of their amplifiers, and I would be willing to bet this is true of the Backline 600. Your ears are not deceiving you. The Backline 600 is probably only putting out closer to 200 watts into 4 ohms, and about 100 watts into 8 ohms.

One of the other major complaints I get about the Backline series in particular is how unresponsive the tonal shaping is on these amps, which can contribute heavily to how much oomph the amplifier will produce. The amp might very well spec out at 300 watts in terms of how much voltage and current is flowing, but that doesn't mean that the sound traveling in that signal has the range or kick you would expect it to.

Peaveys on the other hand have a long history of under-rating their amplifiers. So your 150 watt Mach III is probably closer to 200-250 watts. I have owned a couple different Peaveys over the years, and they sounded a helluva lot louder than they were rated for. And again, this had as much to do with the tonal shaping capabilities of the amp as it did with the wattage.

I completely hear what you are saying, MadMike. All I'm saying is the amp is rated at 300 watts into a 4 ohm load according to GK, and obviously it isn't producing the results you want.

It's happened to me before, too. My Behringer 4x10 combo amp was supposedly rated at 450 watts, yet my 200 watt Peavey head was twice as loud. Go figure.

thanx eric.

that makes a whole lot more sense to ME now. when i experience stuff like that ... i have no idea whats going on. thanx for the confusion GK.

bass northwest sold the redline 1000. doh!

i'm picking up a bx 1200 wed. night. nice head but no tube preamp. the crossover option is awesome!

a decent tube preamp is next on the list now.

Awesome! Keep us posted, Bro!

Yeah man. Let us know how you like it when you've got it!