Re: OT: Small/Light Acoustic Guitar Amps

[mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 2:26 PM -0600 8/10/06, Krispen Hartung wrote:
>50-20 KHz (actually they say response, but this is stated as a 
>range...a response has to have a +/- figure...that is suspicious, 
>but I'll assume +/- 3db)

Hrm, nice catch.  I should have noticed that before.  I can say that 
there seems to be a slight bit of non-linearity in the mids on the 
GX-250, but not unflatteringly so.  The 10"s actually seemed to add a 
little extra character to many of the guitar patches which I tried it 
with.  That's why I made a mental note that these should work well 
for any guitar-oriented musicians.

>Gemini beats both JBL and Mackie on this spec, but I'd like to know 
>how quiet they are. I have two powered EV speakers, which sound 
>great, but they have a little bit of a hiss.

This is going to be entirely subjective, so you really need to try 
one for yourself.  However, I'd say that the noise level is pretty 
good.  If I'm just using it myself in my living room, I can fill up 
the space and practice adequately without hearing any hiss, unless I 
put my ear all the way into the speaker.  If I have my GX-350 turned 
up to about half-volume (loud enough for most venues), I can make out 
a little hiss when I'm sitting right next to it and not playing.

If you try one out, you should know that the gain staging is a little 
weird.  For the least amount of hiss, I'm used to turning the Master 
Gain as far up as possible before hearing hiss, then very gradually 
bringing the Preamp/Individual Channel Gain up from zero until I get 
to the level I want.  The Gemini's are the first monitors I've used 
that are actually the exact opposite: Set the Master to zero and 
bring up the Channel Gain to about 3 o'clock, then gradually increase 
the Master Gain until you get to your desired level.

Also, you might want to A/B the hiss between the GX-250's and 
GX-350's.  I seem to remember the 250's as being a tiny bit noisier, 
but that may just be because the 350's are more powerful and don't 
need to be turned up as loud to obtain the needed SPL's.

        --m.
-- 
_______
"Somewhere between anticipation and nostalgia we should have been happy."