Avatar B212 Bass cabinet

[JackANSI]

Had it for almost a week now, put about 3 hours of loud playing through it, and I'm ready to give initial impressions. Paid $419 new (shipping included in that)

The box:
First thing I did was break out the ohm meter and check for shorts. Second thing I did was pull the grill off and pop out the two 12's. You should always check the wiring unless you've already played through the cab at a store. You never know what happened during shipping and you don't want the first thing to find that out to be your power amp.

Everything was in order and I was pleased to see the internal bracing was just about what I would have done. The only sour part for me was the back plate wasn't seperately boxed (so you have two little leaks in the cabinet where the 1/4" jacks are). Even some really expensive speaker builders never seal their inputs properly. But the entire box is actual plywood, no MDF residing internally in the bracing to save costs.

The speakers:
They are basically the Eminence Deltalite 2 PA speakers with the throw of their basslites. I really can't ever find much wrong with Eminence speakers, except some of their speakers have really cheaply made stamped baskets that bend if you drop the cabinet just right. These ones seem strong enough to not have that happen.

The horn is a nice one with a smooth variable attenuation knob. I usually hate horns in bass cabs, but this one might stay.


First thing I do is bypass everything, literally I plug the bass direct into the power amp.

The first note I play through any new cabinet is a low-D on the B-string. If the cabinet is going to stay in my possession, its got to do that clearly at a really high power level. I was actually surprised this one passed. Thanks to my thinner than average string selection, most cabinets produce the flaws in that arrangement more than the benefits. But this one delievered a really tight, clear sound.

It seemed to beg for more power so I swapped out the EP1500 I normally use with a EP2500. (Both were bridged into the 8ohm cabinet).

Finger tone is really good. Lots of clear defined tone without any mud in the fundementals. A real lean toward the mids compared to the 4x10's I'm used to. No real loss of attack though. I don't feel the desire to add any speakers to this.

Slap tone is good. The thump isn't over exaggerated like some 10's end up doing, but the bite on the pulls isn't as crisp. I really want a 2x10 to go with this just to round it out. If I had a big time slap gig, I'd probably take the B212, a 2x10, and a 1x15.

Pick tone is excellent. This is really what I would want if I used a pick all the time. It just sounds so smooth and natural. I'd probably get another B212 to mate up with this if I was in a punk or ska gig again.


Overall its a capable cabinet. I wouldn't go as far as saying its going to hang with everything out there, but it wouldn't be a stretch to say that many more expensive cabs have some catch up work to do. For the price you'll be hard pressed to find anything better thats brand new. If you include the used market, you might be able to find a deal at the same price point that will make more sense depending on the music you are playing.

[BloodyFingers]

Very nice review. Well thought and worded.

[bassist_25]

Man, it seems like everyone else has had better luck with their Avatar cabs than I had with mine. Twelves are sweet, though. I really dig my GS112.

[slackin@dabass]

very good review. i myself have been contemplating one of these cabs, or two single 12s to use with a head (to be determined later. leaning towards a markbass little mark 3 at this moment, but in about 10 minutes i'll change my mind again)



anyway, i do have a question about the attenuator for the horn. how drastic is it? i've read that you should never turn them to 0 and run the cab, but how prominent is like a quarter of the way up? i hate horns on bass cabs. also, how hard do you think putting a mid range driver in instead of the horn (also adding a new crossover). the only reason i ask is because you had your apart and whatnot.


thanks for the great review and hopefully the answers to my questions!

[BassFinger]

Man, it seems like everyone else has had better luck with their Avatar cabs than I had with mine. Twelves are sweet, though. I really dig my GS112.

My Avatar 210 and 212 were abused for three years by a road crew. They were slammed in and out of a truck and exposed to extreme temperatures. I never had a single problem with mine.

Paul, stop riding your cabs down the stairs!

[JackANSI]

anyway, i do have a question about the attenuator for the horn. how drastic is it? i've read that you should never turn them to 0 and run the cab, but how prominent is like a quarter of the way up? i hate horns on bass cabs. also, how hard do you think putting a mid range driver in instead of the horn (also adding a new crossover). the only reason i ask is because you had your apart and whatnot.

The first 1/4 of a turn is pretty drastic IMO. From nothing to just a bit too much (I hate horns too).

There is a nice spot on the lower left as you're facing the cab for adding something. I think when I box the input panel, I'm going to put a 6" low-mid driver (in its own box) where the horn is, I'm going to keep the crossover how it is. Its in a nice spot for the 12's and with a more mid-low-centric driver it should take the edge off pretty well.


There could be a number of reason why people had bad experiences with having the attenuator on 0, or it could be just someone who was over paranoid posted something on the internet.


I guess I'll extend the review a bit more into the technical realm.

I can't do any actual measurements without taking the circuit apart, but by the numbers it looks like having it on '0' won't pop anything as long as you are not feeding more RMS power than the 12's are rated for.

The low pass part of the crossover has a ferromagnetic core, once its rating is exceeded (500 watts to the speakers combined 500 watts) you're going to be putting a lot of electrical pressure on the speaker coils and generate more heat on the crossover board.

The remedy if you wanted to keep the low pass section, would be a larger more expensive copper-foil air-core inductor capable of about 650 watts (about $50). Even though its not much increase in rating, its got a whole lot more room before saturation.

The cabinet came with a 4-pole speakon paired like (+1 +2) and (-1 -2) So don't use a 4-conductor speakon cable from an amp like the Behringer EP series or Ampeg SVT-4 Pro (or anything else that has a 4-pole output). You might be shorting things out without double checking the configuration.

I've already ordered the 50amp switch so I can bypass the crossover at will and see how it does with and without it.



I may make this review sound worse than it is, but this is a budget cab after all. I bought it fully knowing that I might have to make a few changes here and there for it to fit me exactly how I want it to.

To put it in persepective, any cabinet would take a few hits from me here and there, I'm extremely picky. Thats why I buy cheaper cabs. Leaves more money for tweaking.

This is by far the best affordable new cab I've come across.


I think my end plan is going to be the B212, horn and crossover disabled (or mid-low driver with crossover), with a B210 on top with its' horn intact. Bi-amp configuration with about a 2:1 gain ratio between the B212 and B210.

[bassist_25]

Man, I must be the only bass player on this forum who likes horns. Though for the record, I actually think coaxial drivers are more natural sounding. I dig emphasizing just the right amount of those upper frequencies, though.

[JackANSI]

First gig on it and it performed flawlessly I think. I'm going to tear it down again and check things out with the DMM to see if there are any electrical changes.

The sound really opens up around 12-20 feet from the cabinet, the horn is useless less than 5 feet from the cab (narrow dispersion pattern). Great projection overall. Overdrive/distortion seems to be a bit weaker and required a tad more gain than on 4x10's to hear it clearly.