Red Sound RS-LG12 review

  • Hi all,


    So it's been a couple of weeks since I own the Red Sound RS-LG12, active cab designed for modellers, artisanaly manufactured in Sicily. I own serial number #34 and I am proud to be their first international customer. I am happy of this choice I made for my cab. Through this thread I'd like to share my knowledge and perception of this product.


    First, the ordering and relation with Mirko, the man behind red sound.
    Mirko is a very nice person, dedicated to his work with passion for what he does. He is very nice to deal with and a trusty person. With regards to ordering, you need to send by bank transfert the money in advance. Upon reception, Mirko starts building the cab. It currently takes 40 days from payment reception until shipment of the unit. Red sound should develop its website and start working with distributors in the future which will ease & secure the ordering process but will increase the price.


    All went well to me. It was long waiting but Mirko was sending some pictures and product was well packed and shipped.


    Now, the product itself. First impressions is that it is a beautiful product, rather big but very well built and of great quality. It's 17kg but the handle makes it quite easy to carry around. The quality of the tolex and sewing is beautiful.


    Then, the sound. I cannot compare to other FRFR as I have never played through any. The only "FRFR" device I know is my headphones, which are basic studio quality. The RS-LG12 does not claim ultimate linearity /flat response as other FRFR solutions do but just says it's optimized to the KPA.


    Profiles sound like miced but with a feeling. It has an in-the-room feel, which is not the one from a traditional cab but there is something. At first I thought that anything would sound good through it as it is a good cab but indeed it's not the case. Good profiles sound good and medium quality profiles sound medium. I decided to buy some Mbritt profiles to see how unanimous great profiles sound through it and the result is that they sound great. I still have to noodle some pure cab, space & reverb settings since moving from headphones to the cab impacts my listening.


    It can be (very very) loud with still high fidelity, and never a sparkle. Sound diffusion is great and whatever the position, the sound is the same. However, , a minimum distance is necessary to benefit from the best sound diffusion.


    As a conclusion I'd say that this cab is a great product. I cannot compare to other solutions and this is my personal feeling, I know people tend to praise the gear they own but this cab suits my needs (and more cause I always tend to buy the best gear). As a great product being commercially in line with other great competition solutions, I am happy that I bought it from an artisan working with passion and glad to promote his good work.


    Below are pictures. No sound samples available cause I don't record, I hardly never compute at home and el capitan killed my old imac, I do not even have RM working anymore.


    I will be pleased to comment/answer any question.
    Cheers

  • Reviews from users (mostly Italians) are all enthusiastic. Having tried one for an evening with the Profiler I relate to those. Volume, clearness, warmth, punch... Everything is there. If for some reason FRFR is not for you, but you want to keep each rig's sonic personality, this cab (as a good GRFR) will work for sure.
    I'll be getting one, as soon as I can.

  • Mine will come near the end of this month, hopefully. ATM I'm playing with line6 stagesource L2M and I've had a chance to play my kpa using the L2M and the RS in the same room, with my rig (mostly sinmix stuff). IMHO there's no comparison, the RS totally kills the L2M and the more you rise the volume, the worst it get, meaning that the differences become very very noticeable. At lower volume there's not that much difference (RS still sounds better to me), but at rehearsal/gig volume IS day and night.

  • How do you have your L6 set? Guitar or PA?
    Curious! X)


    PA of course :)
    Obviously I've also tried the guitar mode and all other modes available but, to me, PA is the best one.
    I'm also using the eq trick to cut high freq over 5-6K and under 80-100Hz.
    I'm using this speaker since last year, so I know it very well.
    I'm not saying L2M sounds bad, but surely it's missing something (body??) especially at higher volume.


    I also did a very significant (at least to me) test with L2M and RS. Using the same profile and with the same volume (well, at least to my ears), I've roll off the guitar volume to clear the very distorted rig (sinmix engl fireball)...surprise... with the RS I've got a perfect clean and full sound, very warm, very rich, almost better than my "to go clean sound". It was a big surprise indeed.
    With the L2M, same output volume, same guitar volume, same everything, what I had was a "distorted but with not enough input" sound, if you understand what I mean. It wasn't a clean tone at all, it was more like a distorted rig with a not strong enough input signal; notes were dying soon, like if there was a noise gate clamping the input singnal, and you could hear the typical digital fizz (at least, this is how I call it) over the whole sound.


    I think it has to do with the L2M AD/DA. After all, it's a digital device that receive an analog signal from the kemper, then it convert it to a digital signal (and here is weak point IMHO), process it somehow (eq for example), the convert it again to analog in order to let you hear the sound.


    Anyway, digital or non digital, I don't care; what I care is how I perceive the sound coming from the cab and, to me, the RS is much much better that the L2M

  • Ever tried to drive the L6 via SPIDF? Or it has just got a data port?


    On a side note, the CLR does the same (it's got a DSP after all) but no harshness. I believe it's a matter of design rather than of "concept", so to speak.

  • There's no SPDIF, but there's a so called L6Link input that works just like a SPDIF but only in pair with other L6 stuff (ie: pod and HD500). It accepts a standard XLR cable and wants digital data, not analog.
    I use to have the HD500X and I could hear a big difference in tone and volume when connecting the POD throught the L6Link vs connecting throught the standarad XLR input.
    The L6Link was much better, surely due to some missing AD/DA conversions (ie: POS does not need to convert digital to analog on output, L2m does not need to (re)convert analog to digital in input).
    I'm not saying that AD/DA is evil and I'm sure that CLR does a great job and, frankly, we all know that line6 does not excels in quality so, maybe, they do not have the best AD/DA in the world even if the L2M is a quite expensive piece of gear.
    I was lucky enough to have the chance to hear with my ears, and play with my stuff throught my KPA and the RS and that's why I've ordered one, just because I like what I've heard :)