Stuart's Rig |
The following article is a mild edit of a post submitted to our online forum by Stuart Holme. It is an unsolicited review of the D-112XLT. Our thanks to Stuart for allowing us to reprint it here.
Hello my fellow low-frequency fundamentalists . I have been using an Eden Metro (one of the older, less powerful ones- 200W into 8 Ohms, 400 into 4, 600 into 2) for about a year and a half and I really love it. The manual says it's a DC-550 amp loaded into a D210XLT cabinet.
Sometimes I have found myself in situations where the band gets louder and my Metro has trouble keeping up - I have to push the power amp and I lose my headroom. For some bigger gigs I would use the 15 inch speaker in another combo amp I have as an extension, which would get me the volume I needed, but at a loss of clarity and 'hi-fi' quality.
So I took my earnings from my New Years gig (gotta love that holiday!) and went shopping for a portable 8 Ohm extension cab to let my Metro push 400 Watts. Right from the get-go it seemed like a 1x12 might be just the ticket for me. I have been pouring over many manufacturer's websites (all the big names, and some real hi-fi expensive stuff), as well as many reviews, including Bass Player mag's 1x12 cabinet shootout, and it seemed to me that I would be buying Aguilar's celebrated 1x12 cabinet offering.
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I went to the music store and did an A/B test between the Aguilar and Eden's D112XLT, using the store's Metro and my basses. I was pretty surprised at what I found out. Given the specs of the two cabs one might believe they would sound quite similar, but that is not the case at all. I quickly realized a number of things:
- Eden's cabs are much more sensitive than anyone else’s. Not only does this make them louder (for a given gain setting), it increases their dynamic range making them more responsive to your touch. The Aguilar GS112 was rated only 1 dB less sensitive than the Eden D112XLT, but my ears seemed to hear a much bigger difference in apparent volume. I found that the Aguilar could not keep up at all with the Metro's internal D210XLT (also rated at 103 dB sensitivity, like the D112XLT); it always sounded like an afterthought. When I cut the D210XLT off, the Aguilar took much higher gain settings than the D112XLT to generate a good sound, which may make a bit of sense since it is rated to take 50W more power than the Eden. While the Aguilar was not a good match to the D210XLT, the D112XLT was an excellent match volume-wise and tone-wise.
- Soloed the D112XLT sounded very much like a studio monitor. It is flat, flat, flat- both in frequency response, and as a description of the tone, although perhaps 'dry' is a better description of the tone. It is definitely not bass-heavy, although not bass-shy, has great mids with lots of growl and character and no discernable scoop, and sweet highs. The Aguilar could not have been more different- it had a significant bump in the lows and a scoop in the upper mids with effective but somewhat tame highs. The problem for me is that this is what the D210XLT gives me- a nice bump in the low mids to upper lows, but a scoop in the upper mids- so the Aguilar didn't add anything to the character of my bass tone, even if it had been loud enough to make a contribution. It was no contest, I bought the D112XLT.
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This past weekend I tried out the new cab at a gig with the rock band I play with. I found that I could match my usual playing volume and maintain more presence and hear myself better even when it got loud, I guess partly because I had more speaker surface area, and also because the enhanced mids from the D112XLT helped with clarity and definition. Also the extra headroom from not having to run my output gain so high allowed the amp to handle my harder plucks much better.
Last night I played with my funk band, and enjoyed more of the same impressive clarity. I never felt like I was getting covered up, and I didn't have to blast out the front row just so I could hear myself. Even better, when the band’s stage volume started to go up in the second set, I mentioned that I might need to turn up and unleash all 400 snarling watts to stay fat in the mix and that got everyone to turn down a bit- after the sax player pleaded, "No, no, don't turn up, everyone else should turn down!"
So all in all I am very happy with the D112XLT and would recommend it, but not without reservation. Definitely listen to it before you buy it. In spite of its awesome frequency response specs (down to 36 Hz) it is not a particularly deep cabinet- think of it more as an extremely flat cabinet, flat all the way down to 36 Hz. I don't feel that it pumps nearly as much bass in the 60 - 80 Hz range as the D210XLT does, but the D210XLT's low-end cutoff is at 48 Hz. So this proves to me once and for all that the spec sheet can't tell you how the cabinet will sound! You must hear it for yourself!
If you are looking for a stand-alone box or you want to add bass extension to your rig, you may want to stick with the D210XLT/XST. But to add mid-range punch, growl, and character to an existing rig, I 100% endorse the D112XLT. It would also probably be great for upright bass, where you really don't want a boomy cabinet. The D112XLT's studio monitor character would probably serve many an upright player well.
So after extensive testing in the face of my pre-existing prejudice for the Aguilar, I find that I remain quite addicted to that Eden sound! Cheers.
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