# What’s your favourite speaker???



## Perk (Feb 5, 2020)

So having recently blown the vintage ATC speaker in my HIWATT Custom 50 combo, I have become fascinated with the nuances of the speaker world. I’m personally looking at high powered speakers to satisfy the amp, but would love to hear what others have experienced and recommend!

Vintage or modern/new?
High efficiency or low efficiency? 
Ceramic or Alnico?
Heavy magnet? 
large or small dust cap? 
American or British or other??

Quite Intriguing


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## loudtubeamps (Feb 2, 2012)

IMO , you have one of the best of the best and I have a/b'd many .Time to re-cone?


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

I haven't done a ton of speaker swapping; I just found one I liked and stuck with it.

I really like the Celestion G12-65. Something about the midrange is really appealing to me. I've used the Heritage ones and older ones from the 80's. They're both good, IMO. Rated at 65W (obviously).

I've also tried the WGS ET65, which is similar, but brighter-sounding overall. I think there's an ET90 as well.

I also have an Eminence Swamp Thang kicking around. It's a beast of a speaker, rated at 150W. It's fairly neutral sounding. Not very forward in the mids.

Ones I replaced: Celestion G12-75, Eminence Governor. They came with the cabs. Nothing wrong with them, just not my cup of tea.

If you have a recording setup and a load box for your amp, you could try out different speaker impulse responses to approximate how your amp would sound with different speakers.


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## Shawn B. (Aug 10, 2012)

If you are talking about 12" speakers (I think you are), it depends on the amplifier/cab for me. 

I love the JBLD120F for its "high fidelity" sound. I have one in a homemade amp based on a Fender circuit (in a combo) and love it, but it was too much for my Deluxe Reverb and sounded harsh (I put an Eminence Cannabis Rex in that one, and it works). I've got a Weber Alnico in my Trinity Tweed Deluxe that is perfect for that amp. 

Of course, none of those are really "high-powered" speakers (except maybe the JBL). I had a Celestion Neo Creamback for a bit, but it didn't move me (maybe it never got broken in properly).


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## gtrguy (Jul 6, 2006)

My all time favorite for Marshalls is the Celestion G12-65 (vintage, haven't tried the Heritage version). I guess you'd call this a mid-power speaker with fairly low efficiency, heavy magnet, large dustcap and British. For Fender- a vintage Jensen C12N or Weber equivalent- mid-power, fairly low efficiency, medium (?) magnet, small dustcap, and American.


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## Hell Hound (Oct 31, 2015)

My ear tends to like alnico, unfortunately. It just seems to hold together higher frequencies better.


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## mturk (Nov 27, 2013)

Perk said:


> So having recently blown the vintage ATC speaker in my HIWATT Custom 50 combo, I have become fascinated with the nuances of the speaker world. I’m personally looking at high powered speakers to satisfy the amp, but would love to hear what others have experienced and recommend!
> 
> Vintage or modern/new?
> High efficiency or low efficiency?
> ...


I would check out the Electrovoice EVM12L and JBL E120. Both can handle lots of power and sound great in my opinion.


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## Buzz (May 15, 2008)

JBL d130 15" vintage speaker.


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## PBGas (Jan 14, 2017)

I play more of the high gain stuff so I am a fan of the V30 or Greenback or a combination of the both of them.


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## thegame (May 15, 2006)

Celestion Marshall Vintage. Basically a Marshall spec'd V30. More articulate, harder edged & much less fizz than standard V30 spec.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

D120F but starting to love the V30


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## Perk (Feb 5, 2020)

I’ve been fascinated by the JBL 120’s for sure, also reading up on the EV SRO and Altec Lansing 417.... does anyone know the amps these were originally featured in? Fender for the JBL and Altec is my understanding


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## loudtubeamps (Feb 2, 2012)

*Perk *pm'ed you yesterday..re: Delta Pro


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## BobChuck (Jan 16, 2012)

*Greenback / Lower efficiency:*
The regular Scumback M75 is my favorite...followed by my old G12-65. I tried every Scumback there is, even the PVC and Alnico.
Also tried all the Celestion GB... regular G12m, Heritage G12H and G12M, G12-35XC
Haven't try the Ceramic Cream version.

*Alnico:*
Celestion Alnico Cream, the best of the very best...at high and low volume. Also sounds great when underpowered.
Sold mine to try a bunch of other Alnicos. Sold them all. Looking for a second Alnico Cream at the moment.

*Special mention:* 
Celestion Bonamassa JB-85. Sounds amazing when pushed adequately (a little stiff / not broken in yet).


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Killer:






Celestion Heritage G12H-55 | 8 ohm 12" 30W Classic Rock Tone Guitar Speaker T1234


Its hard to escape the sound of the G12H, just listen to any Hendrix recording and chances are you'll be hearing a whole raft of them powering a guitar out of the mix. For sale and ships from Canada.




qcomponents.ca


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Morgan Freeman.


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## Perk (Feb 5, 2020)

Anyone ever try the BH75-LD from Scumback? Seems like a really cool high powered greenback sorta deal, a la g12-80


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Lots of great choices on the market, and if I had the resources I’d have them at hand. The reality is quite different. Several years ago I tried a mess of speakers, especially Eminence, before settling on the Cannabis Rex.


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## morepowder (Apr 30, 2020)

There’s a lot I haven’t tried, but for cleans I like the Alessandro SC-64 and for higher gain the Vintage 30.


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## Markus 1 (Feb 1, 2019)

Mooh said:


> Lots of great choices on the market, and if I had the resources I’d have them at hand. The reality is quite different. Several years ago I tried a mess of speakers, especially Eminence, before settling on the Cannabis Rex.



C-Rex all the way, for versatility IMHO


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## BEACHBUM (Sep 21, 2010)




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## weener (Apr 9, 2009)

Celestion G12-65 and the Eminence Delta Pro 12A .


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## mesatronic (Jul 14, 2020)

As I've been swimming in Vintage 30s, life without that particular brand would seem strange.


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## sillyak (Oct 22, 2016)

V30 once broken in. Emenince makes some great speakers. Like the Canabis Rex, the Dr. Z speaker they make and the GB 128 that I recently put in my home made 1x12 is really good.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

mturk said:


> I would check out the Electrovoice EVM12L and JBL E120. Both can handle lots of power and sound great in my opinion.


And are just about as heavy as the ATC. ;P

A pro recone would be $10-20 cheaper than an EV, and a good 50-100 less than the JBL. I am a fan of both; cast frame and larger voicecoils (all 3 have this in common) makes for cleaner/tighter tone - the cone will still break up, but not as early and when it does it won't have the frame ring like a bell at the same time (like a stamped frame speaker) so it doesn't get as wooly; preserves some focus. If you're used to the ATC, going to a stamped frame is going to be a change which you might not like.

Dunno if you have anyone local up there; if you're gonna have to ship anyway PM me for a tip for a good recone place that also sells reconed EVs and always has some in stock (often have JBLs too, but not as consistently... I've seen ATCs in there too but obviously a bit more rarely).



Hell Hound said:


> My ear tends to like alnico, unfortunately. It just seems to hold together higher frequencies better.


You're not wrong, but there are some caveats here. No signal passes through a speaker magnet so technically it does not affect the sound except, in the case of alnico, when the speaker is at the extreme of it's power handling limits. The reason is that the magnet behaves differently than a ceramic at this point. They actually resist voicecoil overheating a bit better and some weird thing with the magnetic feild (more concentrated - smaller more powerful magnets control the cone movement better) causes a bit of a compression affect which is most noticeable in the high freqs. Some people find this unappealing but I'm with you on it. Neo mags are similar but slightly less so. Ceramics on the other hand sound worse when they're pushed that hard.

So yeah, but only at the extreme of it's perrformance; when you push them. This is why I fell in love with shitty 20 watt alnicos (Marslands etc) when I was younger. I also think it pairs better with stamped frames - my go to for dirty sounds vs ceramic cast frames for cleaner things (or bass, even if dirty, unless it's a 4x12 that can take it). So don't buy that 50 watt Celestion Blue for your 30 watt Vox, but do buy a 200 watt EV for your 100 watt Marshall.

Basically I love cheap shitty speakers for dirty tones (I love Alnico Blues, but for the cost I don't wanna treat them the way I wanna treat them, ya know).


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## Perk (Feb 5, 2020)

Definitely going to have the ATC re-coned in the future, it’s such a quality speaker it’d be a shame not to have it at its best. I have a few solid connections in Toronto that I’ll bring it to next time I’m out that way.
Admittedly I have been down a bit of a rabbit hole lately regarding the EV SRO....


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I'm big on vintage Jensens myself.


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## vokey design (Oct 24, 2006)




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