Guitarist Guild: A Musical Community Beyond Strings

 . . or rather whoomph.

Yesterday morning I was having a bit of muck around with Amplitube 4, testing the Engl Powerball head and 4x12 cab combination (which I am going to get - what an awesome amplifier), when there was a sudden farting noise from my JBL Control monitors.

Completely and spectacularly blown - never seen speakers detonate so thoroughly. One of the woofers has lost its foam surround for more than a third of its circumference. The monitors are supposed to be good for 100w continuous, and I was driving them with a Yamaha class A amp rated at 60w per channel. They were barely 25 years old.

Oh bugg*r.

Looking at replacement options I am thinking of getting some Tannoy Reveal 402s - there seem to be very few passive near field monitors on offer these days.

Blimey, what happened to your speakers, did you plug them straight into the mains lol..  :D

(https://guitaristguild.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcameracraniums.com%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2Fuserpics%2F10146%2Fnormal_Whoomph.jpg&hash=58b1ddfcd3ca5b1891cce395ae03cca548492ba2) (http://cameracraniums.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=18695&fullsize=1)

The amp is fine, I dragged a hifi speaker into the study to try it out.

The amp specs are 50W per channel into 8 ohms, and these were supposed to be 8 ohm 100w continuous speakers. Never seen anything like this before. I think the foam surrounds must have decayed over time.

I have been trawling the interwebs and cannot find any 8 ohm near field monitors - they're all 4 ohms. Hence the reluctant decision to go for some active monitors.

Having spent a while researching and short listing several 5 inch woofer studio monitors I didn't get any of them.

Because yesterday I went, as is my wont, into the local cash converters type shop (actually called Easy Cash) and spotted that they had a pair of second hand Behringer Truth B2031A monitors. Not cosmetically perfect, but at a very attractive price. Effin' huge things they are - just about fit on the desk. Somewhat out featured by today's 8 inch monitors, but at â,¬150 I really couldn't let them pass.

I get a year's guarantee and the perfect motivation to tidy up my desk  :tup:

Only tried them for a few minutes and haven't set them up properly yet, but I am very impressed with the clarity and especially the stereo imaging, which is in a higher league than the JBLs they have replaced.

All in all a good few minutes of retail therapy :)

(https://guitaristguild.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcameracraniums.com%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2Fuserpics%2F10146%2Fnormal_New_Monitors-HWK50978.jpg&hash=7ce432a58c45ebaaa3f03d356bf61e89588cc552) (http://cameracraniums.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=18727&fullsize=1)

My TRS balanced leads for the monitors arrived today - bliss - no more inductive squeaks and whizzing noises from the PC. Happy bunny.  :tup: