Stone
Rock Star
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- 4,859
Howdy all, so I finally received my 112 Powercabs, unboxed, placed them in the corners & connected them, noticed the kickback stands are too angled for my sitting position, they are great for standing up though, so I made some make shift wedges to get the proper sweet spot angle for my siting position, worked out perfectly.
Next was to calibrate the input I can’t stress how important this step is, adjusted the output (about 6.3-7db) so that it occasionally clips into the red (but no perceived audible clipping is heard) Note for this review I’m using it as a conventional "FRFR". So putting the PC through its paces I played my current song that I will be covering next (Motley Crue Live Wire) and yes it did require some tweaking to my patch, the new cabs and Mic placement have a far more noticeable impact on the tones than the Headrush did.
Seeing as I can only compare it to the tones I was getting with my Headrush "FRFR"-108’s
noticed right away a much less veiled tone, more presence in the midrange and a better punchy Mid bottom not boomy or muddy , and the highs were very smooth compared to the FRFFR-108’s, a bit more tweaking and I had a really big smile on my face, even in "FRFR" mode it does sound more like an Amp in the room compared to the Headrush’s, they sound a lot more Guitar’ish as opposed to Hi-Fi’ish (for lack of a better term to describe the tones) compared to the Headrush, mind you it’s not moving air and my pants like a 4x12 at ear shattering levels but there is a difference, also the overall tone was much more dynamic, highs and lows also more defined, of course this is to my ears.
Which brings me to this, seeing that the tones were very different and patch had to be tweaked, this must be the reason why when you download someone else’s patch it never sounds the same.
Same thing if I run patch through my 5 inch monitors or my headphones it all sounds different, that being said I recreate an artist tone based on what I hear from my output device, in my case was the Headrush and now the Powercabs, but it will not sound the same on someone else’s setup.
Conclusion: as mentioned I only have the HR "FRFR"-108’s to compare it too so I can’t speak of any other type of "FRFR" Cab, but the Powercabs sound better to my ears. So are the Headrush cabs crap? No not really, they are very good considering it’s a budget entry level offering so its great price performance, I didn’t have the budget for higher end rigs at the time, was I happy with them? Yes, but always felt something was off & something missing and they didn’t completely sound right to my liking. Am I happy with my Powercab purchase? Yes very much, this was the best solution I could get at this time within my budget, will I recommend them? No, as I would never recommend anything, because the gear I choose are suited for my needs, purpose & budget, It does not mean would be for others, we all have different criteria’s and not to mention we all have different tastes in how we hear tones, tone is very subjective. I’ll eventually be testing out the built in cab Sims sometime later in the future, but I believe this option is aimed more to live gigging, and really it’s not the reason why I bought the Powercabs I like my Helix Cabs and Mic’s.
Pictures to follow
Cheers
Mike
Next was to calibrate the input I can’t stress how important this step is, adjusted the output (about 6.3-7db) so that it occasionally clips into the red (but no perceived audible clipping is heard) Note for this review I’m using it as a conventional "FRFR". So putting the PC through its paces I played my current song that I will be covering next (Motley Crue Live Wire) and yes it did require some tweaking to my patch, the new cabs and Mic placement have a far more noticeable impact on the tones than the Headrush did.
Seeing as I can only compare it to the tones I was getting with my Headrush "FRFR"-108’s
noticed right away a much less veiled tone, more presence in the midrange and a better punchy Mid bottom not boomy or muddy , and the highs were very smooth compared to the FRFFR-108’s, a bit more tweaking and I had a really big smile on my face, even in "FRFR" mode it does sound more like an Amp in the room compared to the Headrush’s, they sound a lot more Guitar’ish as opposed to Hi-Fi’ish (for lack of a better term to describe the tones) compared to the Headrush, mind you it’s not moving air and my pants like a 4x12 at ear shattering levels but there is a difference, also the overall tone was much more dynamic, highs and lows also more defined, of course this is to my ears.
Which brings me to this, seeing that the tones were very different and patch had to be tweaked, this must be the reason why when you download someone else’s patch it never sounds the same.
Same thing if I run patch through my 5 inch monitors or my headphones it all sounds different, that being said I recreate an artist tone based on what I hear from my output device, in my case was the Headrush and now the Powercabs, but it will not sound the same on someone else’s setup.
Conclusion: as mentioned I only have the HR "FRFR"-108’s to compare it too so I can’t speak of any other type of "FRFR" Cab, but the Powercabs sound better to my ears. So are the Headrush cabs crap? No not really, they are very good considering it’s a budget entry level offering so its great price performance, I didn’t have the budget for higher end rigs at the time, was I happy with them? Yes, but always felt something was off & something missing and they didn’t completely sound right to my liking. Am I happy with my Powercab purchase? Yes very much, this was the best solution I could get at this time within my budget, will I recommend them? No, as I would never recommend anything, because the gear I choose are suited for my needs, purpose & budget, It does not mean would be for others, we all have different criteria’s and not to mention we all have different tastes in how we hear tones, tone is very subjective. I’ll eventually be testing out the built in cab Sims sometime later in the future, but I believe this option is aimed more to live gigging, and really it’s not the reason why I bought the Powercabs I like my Helix Cabs and Mic’s.
Pictures to follow
Cheers
Mike
