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Bob, have you had a chance to play through the SS with BIAB yet? Anxious to hear how that sounds since I have some solo gigs coming up. Ray
Last edited by raymb1; 10/25/14 07:16 PM.
Asus Q500A i7 Win 10 64 bit 8GB ram 750 HD 15.5" touch screen, BIAB 2017, Casio PX 5s, Xw P1, Center Point Stereo SS V3 and EWI 4000s.
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I did my first gig with it last night in a bar that holds 140 people, we had maybe 100 more or less. It's pretty loud in there. Small stage, 5 piece with a girl singer. This is the place I was worried about concerning the power output of the Spacestation. I'm jammed right next to the drummer with my back against the wall so any amp I use is beside me so everything sounds muffled to me but I've been told I sound good out front. I've been using an EV ELX112P which they rate as 600W. I think that's too high, it's probably around half that continuous power but it's still a powerful powered PA speaker anyway. The SS is about two thirds that size with an 8" woofer while the EV is a 12 with a big horn.
All I can say is WOW! I had the EV in the car in case the SS wasn't loud enough but it has plenty of power. I agreed with your earlier assesment 90DB about how can such a small woofer put out like that. I don't know but this thing rocked the house. We had a guitar player who's too loud, a drummer who really gets into it, a jammin bass player, a sax player, a girl singer and me with a double rack keys rig. For the first time EVER I heard myself clearly in stereo from one little amp jammed up right between me and the drummer. On the first break the bass player said it's the first time he could hear me like that and the drummer was even more enthusiastic, he pointed down to the amp and said he simply could not believe how much sound that little thing put out. Even though it makes no sense, Aspen is right when he said the stereo 300 degree dispersion carries the sound so well you don't need nearly as much power in order to be heard. That effect that Scott described really makes a huge difference. There's now several more guys on the other forum including a Hammond fanatic in Germany saying the same thing. This thing kicks serious [*****].
And to top it off, I wasn't pushing it. The organ and pianos were crystal clear, no distortion at all. I'm sure there was more power left. I had the master volume set at about 1 o'clock.
I don't know what else to say, every keyboard player in the world needs one of these and don't forget what I said earlier, this is a great PA amp too.
Bob
Glad you're digging it. It might actually put a dent in the Bose market for small gigs (and it's a lot cheaper!). I'll be thinking of you as I'm loading the trailer full of PA and backline for tonight's gig. 
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Bob, have you had a chance to play through the SS with BIAB yet? Anxious to hear how that sounds since I have some solo gigs coming up. Ray Hadn't forgotten about you, I just need some time to set up a proper test. My bedroom where my home studio set up is is way to cluttered to get a good reading of this so I needed to get some adapter gozinta's to go from the headphone out of my home theater amp in the living room because I have a 25' HDMI cable going out there so I can do this sort of thing there as well as in the bedroom. I just sat the Spacestation in the middle of the living room floor in front of the TV using a stereo headphone out going to the SS and played some Biab tunes through it. It sounds really good. The Real Drums are very full, not thin, the bass and everything else is right there like it should be. Depending on your gigs you may or may not need a sub because this little unit puts out a surprising amount of bass by itself. Also for those who are not keyboard players, here's a couple of vids I found where Aspen is demo'ing a good guitar duo and a nice four piece band with vocal harmony. Since I was messing around with my headphone out anyway I also listened to some of these demos through the cans and it really makes a big difference. His recording setup using his MS mic in the studio to get a live sound really works well through the 'phones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4E7Rg9Suc8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-YXyV8-F3II think these two demos show how good this amp is as a PA. Remember this is throwing the sound in a 300 degree dispersion all around whatever space you're in. This works whether you're feeding it a stereo source or not. In that sense it's the same idea as the Bose L1. I've done two gigs where the vocalist had the Bose and it does sound very good but man, the price of those things. This Spacestation does the exact same thing as far as I can tell but it will reproduce true stereo if you have a source and it's $600. Seems like a no brainer to me. Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Time for an update, lots has happened. The biggest thing was the longshoremans strike on the West Coast. This put the SS shipments way behind schedule. The first shipment was sold out very fast and it's taken until this week for the second shipment to finally arrive at Sweetwater and get out to people including our own Raymond.
The thread at the Keyboard Corner has grown by another 15 pages at least. Every single review is not only positive, people are absolutely gushing about it. I thought there was no need to talk about it here again until they start to become available because the keyboard players have bought every single one in sight.
The point is this is not simply a keyboard amp, it's an awesome PA. I was at NAMM and saw some reaction there to this little box and people were positive comments about it there too. Casio was using one to demo their new keyboards plus using it as a PA. Everybody thought this thing is a game changer. This amp really is a much less expensive option compared to the Bose L1 for small group PA work.
For me personally I've now done several gigs with it using different keyboards and it's the best amp I've ever had. I've always bought the best available, Barbetta's, JBL, EV and this is by far the best, it's not even close. I'm trying to not sound like I'm working for Aspen (I'm not) but seriously this amp is a killer little box. And it's loud as hell. Call it voodoo, call it whatever this thing projects all over a given room in true stereo. The Bose can't say that, it's not stereo.
Those who are doing small single/duo/trio type gigs with or without tracks really need to check this out. The fidelity is amazing too for a stage amp. Biab tracks sound really good through it.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Saw your video on their website, sure you're not working for them? Just kidding.
Looks like it would be an upgrade from my old Roland KC500 in that it provides a good stereo spread.
Have you compared it to any of those rotary speaker enclosures? I'm curious if the stereo output would sound better than something like a Leslie.
 Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Actually what happened for that vid is I called Aspen last October to ask if I could come up to see him and try the amp out. All I was going to do was test it to see if I wanted one. He said good timing, if I could make it by 5:30 he could video me because he had his regular player Al Morrata scheduled for 6:30 for a session. I had to run through LA traffic all the way from Redondo Beach across the west side up to San Fernando. Took me an hour and a half in real bad traffic. I was fried when I got there at about 5:45, sat down and did that vid. Not my best work but it is what it is.
I'm a B3 guy at heart so nothing sounds as good for organ as a real Leslie but who's carrying one of those around any more? My primary rig now is a Hammond SK1 on top of a Roland FA06 and they both weigh about 12 pounds each. Gotta love that. The SK1 goes into a GSI BURN leslie sim. That and the Roland go into a small mixer in stereo then out to the SS. The BURN sounds absolutely great through the SS. The thing about a real leslie is if you're close to it you can hear the rotors whirring and feel the air moving but out in the room just simply listening I doubt you could tell the difference. The SS really throws the sound around. The SK1 sim sounds very good too but I'm a total geek when it comes to a Hammond sound and the BURN is just that little bit better. That vid is me using the SK1's internal sim which is not bad at all and nobody but me would notice the difference between the SK1 sim and the BURN but you know how that is. I gotta have that sound man. The BURN has a leslie 147 rock preset that will knock your socks off too. In addition I also have a PC3 76 and I did a piano gig with that using the SS and the acoustic and electric pianos sounded awesome through this amp.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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