Airfish

Hey there.

Anybody knows what is the sensitivity (dB/1W/1m) of the custom made Blackbird 50 speaker that Blackstar puts in the new HT5-R combo an in the HT-112 cab?

I am thinking about buying the HT5-R Head with either the HT-112 or HTV-112 cab. What could I possibly get in terms of sensitivity, if I changed the stock speaker for a Celestion V30?

I already know for the HTV - its stock speaker is a Celestion Seventy80 with 98 dB sensitivity, so there I would get +2dB.

And I would also need to get the sensitivity figure of the Blackbird 50 - what possible plus could the V30 bring in that case?

Tried to find a data sheet of the Blackbird 50 speaker, but no success yet....

Anybody can help?

Thanx in advance!

Dave_Mc

have you emailed them?

__________________

Airfish

Tried to, but no answer yet....

BTW what´s the funny sh*t about this? Is that one single stupid number I need to know some sort of strictly guarded secret? Or what?

Dave_Mc

i dunno. I wouldn't say (based on what i've heard, i haven't emailed them myself) BS has the best rep for being forthcoming with info... but i can't see that a speaker's efficiency is a closely-guarded trade secret, as you said.

__________________

Airfish

Well, they dont know me yet.... sure as hell they won´t get rid of me till I get an answer from them....

Dave_Mc

do you know what size magnet it has? you could sorta make an educated guess from that.

__________________

tubetime86

Tack this line onto your next email; "It's not like I'm asking to see schematics of one of your 'all-tube' amps." That might get them moving (or get you 'blackstarblacklisted.')

__________________

Airfish

I see.... well, I really dont give a flying f*ck about that hybrid/all-tube issue, I tried the thing out and liked what I heard. But guess my original email could have caused some trademark BS paranoia....
OK, I will try to ask just for that ONE SINGLE FIGURE and see what happens....

Airfish

nope....

only thing I got is pictures and it´s hard to tell from them. Our local shops only have the combo version, which is closed back, and then the HTV with the Celestion. No HT cab with open back to look at an measure stuff....

Airfish

OK, so I got an answer from BS - they say the Blackbird 50 is rated at 100 dB/W/m. Took them exactly 12 hours to answer, which is not bad.

Dave_Mc

yeah that's not too bad, credit where credit's due.

of course now you're into the "how did they measure that 100dB rating?" conundrum, lol.

__________________

tubetime86

Did the email come from 'marketing@blackstar.com' or 'engineering@blackstar.com' ?

__________________

Dave_Mc

"that may look exactly like a speaker but it's actually not involved in any sound production"

__________________

tubetime86

"Hey Bill, what's a good SPL rating for a speaker?"

"I believe 100 dB is considered a good number..."

"Alright cool, thanks!"



(Just messing around TS, but in reality this is the problem with Blackstar and the whole tube/hybrid thing; they've been all but proven to be liars, so it's hard to believe anything they say now.)

__________________

Dave_Mc

__________________

Blktiger0

This thread is pure win

The email address comment is pure gold, tubetime

Yeah, TS, the issue with Blackstar isn't that they make Hybrid amps. That's no a problem at all, as long as it sounds good. What they did was marketed them and advertised them as "All-tube" when they are, in fact, very very hybrid. Then, when confronted with the Solid State nonsense in the signal path of their amps, they STILL tried to claim that it made no difference and that the amps were all-tube.

Needless to say, they aren't exactly a group that is very trusted, in terms of their word. Similar to how Bugera isn't trusted in terms of their flamability.

If the Blackbird is indeed 100db rated, then the Celestion would be slightly quieter, but the V30 is known for a pretty vicious spike in the upper-mids, which makes them sound louder, so in all reality, there may be zero audible difference between the two.

It also depends on how they measured that, like mentioned.

__________________
My Rig:
Moser Bastard V
- Pups: Bridge
Epi Les Paul Standard
- Pups: Bridge Neck
Egnater Vengeance
- JCA24S w/WGS Retro 30s
- ZW-45 Crybaby
- MXR 10-Band EQ
- ISP Decimator
(^Those are links^ )

trashedlostfdup

it wouldn't matter that much if the was a 1db or 2db difference. either way it would be certainly be loud.

the only time that i have seen from experience that the sensitivity matter was when i had celestion EVH speakers and Vintage 30's in the same cab, i could hear the difference relative to the cab and the height. so the EVH's aren't as audible as the V30's.

when i get around to it i will pop two V30's into the other cab and pull the EVH's out, and put them in my orange OB cab.

__________________

Airfish

Man, great you mentioned the EVHs! What are they like in terms of tone? Closer to the scooped G12-75T stuff, or more like the midrangy V30 & co? I´m asking because I think about changing the stock Blackstar Blackbird for the V30, but then I guess I would need an attenuator, for home use (thin walls, sensitive neighbours, bla bla yada yada). And I saw that the EVH is only like 95 or 96 dB/W/m, so it could do OK, even without the attenuator. But I need the tone to be more on the mids, rather than bassy+trebly. So what is the EVH tonewise?

Dave_Mc

^ the evh speakers are just heritage greenbacks, aren't they? if so, i'd assume more midrangey (but a lot more vintage-sounding than v30s).

__________________