Friends:
Over the last few days, I've had an assortment of new Webb amplifiers and cabinets in my music room that were loaned
to my by Tom to try out. Here's what Tom sent me home with:
1. A new Webb 614-E head unit in the aluminum chassis
2. A new 15" speaker cabinet, w/ sealed aluminum cabinet w/ adjustable ports)
3. A Webb 614-E Combo with an E-130 JBL
4. A Webb 614-E Combo with the new Kappalite 15" by Eminence.
So basically, I had a 614-E head unit powering 3 different cabinet/speaker combinations. For reference, my normal amp is a 1980ish Fender Vibrosonic Reverb, w/ a Weber Ceramic California w/ aluminum dust cap).
First: I have to say all these rigs kicked butt, and I'd take any one of them if Tom would sell me one. Here are my conclusions:
My first "testing" was with a 614-E head connected to the JBL E-130 that was in a Webb standard wooden cabinet. (I start here for people who have this combination already). This sounded very nice, like one would guess. I noticed very "scooped" mids from the JBL, with nice round full clear bass and smooth creamy highs. Ever so slightly distressing to the ear (I like a crispy sound, and it's hard to get this sound and still have it still be smooth to the ear; not an easy task).
As a note: the JBL was in a combo cabinet, but without the amp head in it. It weighed about the same as a complete(head in it) 614-E combo with the new Eminence Kappalite speaker. So, in other words, the weight savings from the Kappalite amounted to about the weight of the entire head. NICE!
Second: I took a 614-E head unit and hooked it to a standard Webb wooden cabinet with the Eminence Kappalite. I agree with Tom that
this speaker sounds a lot like the JBL. The first thing I noticed was that the mids were not as scooped out, this was fixable mostly by just using the knobs on the amp. No
problem there. I found this speaker to be a little harsher on the highs than the JBL was, but to be fair, this speaker had only like 1-2 hours of playing time on it, i.e., not broken in at all. I'm a firm believer in breaking in speakers, you can't really judge one until it's good and used. That said, I told Tom that I'd gladly take the amp back home and break it in for him, you know, do him a favor
The plusses of the Kappalite speaker, sonically speaking, were an increase in tight bass response and cutting mids. This speaker really honks in a good way, it's really "IN YO FACE" which I like.
Third: I then hooked the 614-E head to Tom's new aluminum-sealed back cabinet with the Eminence Kappalite. This cab has adjustable ports, which I didn't mess with. I left them completely closed so the cabinet was totally sealed. I thought this cab sounded the best by quite a bit. It had all the bass, mids, highs, all in crispy detail, and
NONE of the harshness of the same speaker in an open-back wooden cabinet. This surprised me. This cabinet rocked. It cut so deep and penetrated to the center of my brain. The
bass was very bell like, and the highs were smooth and creamy, still had that edgy treble quality that I had dialed into the amp, but it rounded any harshness out of
it. My ears loved it; so smooth, yet punchy, crispy, loud and honkin'.
So that's my input, and what a blast to have this opportunity. Thanks again Tom. I can't wait to get one. I'd go with the traditional single unit amp, w/ the Kappalite speaker in it; mostly because I don't need an amp broke into two units. However, the piggy-back head and the aluminum cabinet would probably be the sweetest sounding rig.
