Might not be loud enough with just one cab to 'carry' a place without proper PA support, but two is probably going to be enough for any place in the central PA area. The third cab is probably going to get returned.. It makes the setup "over the top" loud. I'm guessing this has more to do with the ohms/output of the amp than the cabs because my old amp rack drives the RS212 to the same volumes the Avatar B212N got to.
Its rear ported (not a huge fan of that), but its not really boomy sounding away from the walls and corners. If you want a good solid rumble just stick its backside in a corner and turn the horn up full and holy
... You get the perfect scooped "bedroom tone" sound but with the mid articulation you need to actually hear the notes..The finish on the cabs is great. They are wood, but they look like they are made of a rubber coated metal. The coating also works better than I thought at keeping the amp on the cabs instead of vibrating off like I feared.
Its going to take some getting used to and its really going to take me a while to get comfortable with the new amp. Kinda like driving someone else's car. You know how to drive it, but its completely different than what you are used to, and you might not want to just borrow it for a road trip since you don't know the thing completely...
"Cons":
You can't get a really down and dirty rough sound out of the RH450. I mean it gets there, but I prefer the sound of the Tech21's dirt to the RH450's.
You might be able to set the amp down and forget where you put it.
Tweaking the knobs actually requires some thought since they all do two functions. EQ level and EQ freq center. (there is a shift button that takes you to the center adjust mode). But the defaults are really good for a passive instrument, but you have to tweak the freq centers to really get the most dramatic changes with EMG pickups.
The horn is actually in the middle of the "top" driver (the one furthest from the TC Electronics logo and closest to the back panel) If you're doing octave work or have a 12 string bass you can hear the comb filtering and treble distortion caused by making the highs fight their way through the lows generated by the cone. The uneducated ear might think you have a chorus pedal on (slightly) so its not entirely unpleasant.
Pros:
Light and easy to carry.. The handles on the cab are actually on the center of gravity AND high enough to get away with a one handed carry. So the 1 trip load in is within reach.
The tuner is fast. The compressor is one of the best I've heard.
You can get a wide enough range of tones from the amp to replace whatever else you got, and having 3 memories to store them is awesome. Just get the freakin foot controller with the amp... I didn't and now I have to. I can see how that makes life way easier now.
Its a modular system. Don't need a crap load of output, just bring one RS cab (I think I prefer the 212 for single use). Need that 4x10 sound and output, bring a RS212 and RS210. I really can hear the difference in stacking the RS212 and RS210 vertically. You get way better projection than you'd think, and way more than any other cab arrangement I've heard. Two RS210's seem to sound alright (would be perfect for a 4-stringer), but I can't really get the sound I like out of the B string without the 212.
Its the first cabs I've ever got surprised to find a 3 foot speakon cable included... So its straight from the box to a gig WITHOUT stopping at your local shop for a new set of cables.
So the amp, an RS210, and an RS212 are staying and the other RS210 is going back. Its a pretty darn perfect rig, especially if you don't have a wagon, trailer, or van to haul your rig around in.
I once played Lisa's in Hopewell with two 4x10s. It was bad ass. Albeit, I was over powering the FOH with the volume barely turned up on my head, but it was bad ass, nonetheless. 