My (cheap) FRFR Speaker cab

    Speakers are always debated, and I have plenty of them, but I wanted a nice coaxial type speaker that I could knock around, fits perfect under a small racked Kemper, didn't cost a lot, and sounded great. A nice alternative to so many over priced cabs you see. Oh, there are the debaters, but side by side? Few could tell the diff really, unless you were trying hard to, and if you can really hear the difference, then consider yourself part of the very small % of people who can, the rest of the population who can't will not agree with you. ;) But I digress, here was my project:



    First I bought this nice little Laney IRT 112 cab. I LOVE the handles! Easy to carry. Dimensions: 22.75 W x 17 H x 14 D. Got rid of the speaker. Then I put in a Eminence Beta-12CX 12" Coaxial Driver + Eminence PXB2:2K5CX 2-Way Speaker Crossover Board + Eminence ASD1001 1" HF Titanium Horn Driver. Common enough, and there are a few more costly coaxials and drivers I could have considered, but whatever. All for a little over $350.


    If you are looking for a cheap alternative, it's not that much work to revamp something already out there that is cost effective. There are some other cabs out there and also better coaxials for a few bucks more, so a little do it yourself ones go a long way. You may also have some old cabs already that could be adjusted. Similar to the old Rockman gear, remember those cabs? They were full size 4x12 size, had a 15", a 10" mid (I think) and a driver with a 3 way crossover. Wouldn't be that much trouble to redo a old 4 x12 you may have.

    Very, very nice!! I was planning to build a FRFR 2x12" speakercab with the same speaker line up as you've used but this looks very appealing to me.
    Besides, I guess the IRT112 is one of the largest (and cheapest) 1x12 cabs around.
    Do you have one or two of these?

    I did the same with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 112 Extension Cabinet and it sounds pretty good. Not the best cab, but good enough for now. I also put the same setup in a second, custom built 1x12 cab that is more cube-like in dimensions, instead of the Fender combo dimensions and that one sounds better. I need to play with the back and see if porting sounds better or worse. It has a removable panel.


    The speakers and crossover, in my opinion, need a bit of breaking in to sound best. Right after install they were a little shrill to my ears, but after running a loop at medium volume for about 8 hours twice, I feel like they sound much warmer and feel better in the room. I expect they will continue to improve over time.


    Using the Ritter Amps Camplifier 360 for power amplification. I also have two old matching Hammond organ power amps that I plan on trying to restore and convert for use as power amps for guitar and see if they sound any better or worse, compared to the digital Class D amp by Ritter. I know, somewhat defeating the purpose of profiling by adding in an additional tube stage, but feel like it is worth a try just to see how it sounds. After all, MBritt pumps his into the power amp in of a Mesa Lonestar for stage use.

    Quote from tremelo68

    After all, MBritt pumps his into the power amp in of a Mesa Lonestar for stage use.

    Not anymore. He uses a Xitone cab that was custom built for him. Plus, he always plays with inears. The onstage cab is just to give some on-stage feel.

    Don’t mean to hijack your reply, but accuracy in these matters is always best, I feel, as a consumer who is still looking for the best solution myself :)

    I'm quite new to my Kemper and Gemini 2 by Mission Engineering. Not an expert guitarist, aw hell might as well be honest, I'm someone that owns a guitar that screws around with it probably 2-3 hours a week, maybe 2-3 times a month I jam with my buds. Got the Gemini 2 to take place of my Peavey 6505+112 w/ a V30 in it. The high gain profiles I have from various people sound kinda buzzy thru the Gem2(cleans are good). It doesn't matter where the CAB knob is, which almost just seems like a presence adjustment. Those profiles are the profiles that have the cab included. When I plug the Kemper with a DI profile (no cab) of the same amp that has the cab included into the send of my Peavey I get a nice growl type sound instead of a buzzy sound. The whole FRFR seems like a bunch of bull. If every FRFR cab was truly a flat response +-1 dB they should all sound pretty much the same except for the volume depending on the size of the amp. I haven't heard this yet but I find it hard to believe that a 1x12 FRFR cab will sound the same as a 4x12 cab. I've seen many comparison videos of FRFR cabs and they all sound different from one another. One other thing I don't get is that they are profiling a guitar thru an amp thru a GUITAR speaker cab. That guitar speaker usually rolls off quite dramatically after 5kHZ so right there you are changing probably the most important variable in the signal chain. Anybody have any info on comparisons of tube amp power stage frequency response vs solid state frequency response where both are driven into the exact same load. Unless I'm wrong I can't see that being as much as a kink in the armor as a different speaker cab. After all this writing hope I get some kind of a response from somebody.

    Quote from mkubena

    I'm quite new to my Kemper and Gemini 2 by Mission Engineering. Not an expert guitarist, aw hell might as well be honest, I'm someone that owns a guitar that screws around with it probably 2-3 hours a week, maybe 2-3 times a month I jam with my buds. Got the Gemini 2 to take place of my Peavey 6505+112 w/ a V30 in it. The high gain profiles I have from various people sound kinda buzzy thru the Gem2(cleans are good). It doesn't matter where the CAB knob is, which almost just seems like a presence adjustment. Those profiles are the profiles that have the cab included. When I plug the Kemper with a DI profile (no cab) of the same amp that has the cab included into the send of my Peavey I get a nice growl type sound instead of a buzzy sound. The whole FRFR seems like a bunch of bull. If every FRFR cab was truly a flat response +-1 dB they should all sound pretty much the same except for the volume depending on the size of the amp. I haven't heard this yet but I find it hard to believe that a 1x12 FRFR cab will sound the same as a 4x12 cab. I've seen many comparison videos of FRFR cabs and they all sound different from one another. One other thing I don't get is that they are profiling a guitar thru an amp thru a GUITAR speaker cab. That guitar speaker usually rolls off quite dramatically after 5kHZ so right there you are changing probably the most important variable in the signal chain. Anybody have any info on comparisons of tube amp power stage frequency response vs solid state frequency response where both are driven into the exact same load. Unless I'm wrong I can't see that being as much as a kink in the armor as a different speaker cab. After all this writing hope I get some kind of a response from somebody.


    FRFR takes some time to get used to. If it is a good cab, running through a Kemper into one of them will sound like a 4x12. And yes, I've heard a lot of the same arguments that they can move air like a 4x12. Don't see how that's possible, but if you try running a Kemper into a pair of studio monitors, you can see how convincing it could be with a powered cab that can put out something like 200 watts RMS.


    It's essentially the same thing as playing on stage with an amp and cab and then putting a mic in front of it for the FOH.

    Cool project - also wish all cabs/amps had those handles.


    Did you use any science to choose the speakers for the enclosure or just things that would probably work together?


    Have you done a sweep to see how much FR you achieved?

    Good FRFR isn’t an inexpensive proposition...

    However, when I fire up my dual DXR10’s, I completely forget about my Marshall 1960 and Avatar 4x12 cabinets... (I run them with HPF at 100hz, and set to ‘Monitor’.)


    With that setup, I don’t have any fizziness when using good profiles, and the cabinet emulations are very authentic, and material to the overall sound of the profile/rig.


    mkubena - Sound is subjective... whatever it takes to get ‘Your’ sound, is what works. If you prefer plugging into the (I think you meant ‘Return’) of your amp, and using your amp’s cabinet, that’s fine. BUT... you do miss out on all the great cabinets included with the Kemper profiles.