Grateful Dead Music Forum

I have an interesting observation to share about the RV300. I'm running an SMS Classic Preamp into my RV300 into a Sound Scaper Production Jerry 2X12 with a Jensen Neo and a Weber Neomag, each of which are independently driven by 1/2 of the RV300. As they're 8 ohm speakers, that's 75W/speaker. If you've ever A-B'd the two speakers, you know they're quite different sounding. Anyway, using the RV300's Reactance and Definition controls (each channel has its own pair), I experimented today as to how close I could get the two speakers to sound to each other and was surprised to learn it's very close indeed. I mention this because I'm really impressed at how well the controls work for tone shaping. The way they work, it's not at all like a typical preamp tone stack. Hard to explain but if pressed I'd say the Reactance control is boosting the upper bass and lower mids and the Definition control is adding high upper mids and presence but that's just the best approximation I can come up with.

Jon S. wrote:Hard to explain but if pressed I'd say the Reactance control is boosting the upper bass and lower mids, along with whatever it's doing to the output impedance, and the Definition control is adding high upper mids and presence but that's just the best approximation I can come up with.

That's really cool, Jon. These are often the "trouble areas" of many folks' amps.

.

Are you kidding?! [Best Scotty voice] Captain - I'm a musician, not an engineer.

Thought I'd share another RV300 observation. I've returned to experimenting with all sorts of settings after flirting with bidding on several McIntoshes and Mosvalves but deciding to try some more things first with what I already have (what a concept ). Anyway, my key niggle with my RV300 was I could never get it really clean, there was always some distortion. What I found, though, is that when I rolled the gain WAY down on my SMS - to around 9:30 - and cranked up the RV300's volume higher, it cleans up nicely. I'm wondering if Rocktron should have padded the unit's input more than they did or included two inputs, one normal, one padded, like on certain Fender amps. Anyway, if others here are also using RV300s, try this with your unit and tell us what you find.

Jon S. wrote:Thought I'd share another RV300 observation. I've returned to experimenting with all sorts of settings after flirting with bidding on several McIntoshes and Mosvalves but deciding to try some more things first with what I already have (what a concept ). Anyway, my key niggle with my RV300 was I could never get it really clean, there was always some distortion. What I found, though, is that when I rolled the gain WAY down on my SMS - to around 9:30 - and cranked up the RV300's volume higher, it cleans up nicely. I'm wondering if Rocktron should have padded the unit's input more than they did or included two inputs, one normal, one padded, like on certain Fender amps. Anyway, if others here are also using RV300s, try this with your unit and tell us what you find.

Personally, I've found the SMS's output to be really hot, in a good way. I think my 20/20 like about 11 oclock!

Jon-Have you tried adjusting the pad/gain control on the Back of the SMS?

Gregg

Yes & for some reason, I don't like the tone as much w/the rear pad control below 3/4. I prefer to keep it right at 3/4 & lower the front gain control - I have no idea why but it sounds best to me that way.

EDIT: We had a 3 and a half hour band practice today and although I'm hesitant with gear to express any certainties, I was happy enough with my tone today to believe I may have finally cracked the "RV300 code." In any event, I'm done power amp-chasing for a while, I'm going to stick with what I have for the medium term future.