| Reviewer
| Nathan stewart
|
| Manufacturer
| Carvin
|
| Model
| PB-200H
|
| Price
| $300 ish with shipping
|
| |
|
| Dimensions
| 14" W x 8.75" D x 2.75" H
|
| Wattage
| 80/80 Wrms into 4 Ohms, 160 Wrms into 8 ohms (bridged)
|
| EQ
| Bass, Semi-Parametric Mid, Treble, 5 band graphic EQ, plus Bass b |
| |
oost, mid cut, treble boost switches
|
| Effects
| FX loop, but levels aren't user settable.
|
| Controls
| compression (3:1), and noise gate (only threshold is adjustable f |
| |
or both compression and noise gate.)
|
| Other
| Headphone jack
|
| |
|
I bought this amp as a utility amp - I needed something small and
light and not terribly expensive. It fits that bill just fine.
I didn't need a whole lot of power, so the moderate power rating
shouldn't be an issue.
The is pretty neutral, without a lot of obvious coloration. The
EQ is flexible, but The graphic EQ is almost superflous, as the
three voicing swtches, the 3 band tone section and the 5 band
graphic EQ are all in line all the time. If they had only made
the graphic EQ switchable, it could have been more useful.
The noise gate is either a bit extreme or too slow, depending on
how you set it. I generally have an intense hatred of gain modulation
effects, particularly for noise gates - and this one is no exception.
Fortunately, a the minimum setting, it is off, so mine stays there.
The compressor is better than the noise gate, but I'm considering
hacking it to lower the compression ratio a hair. I keep it set
so that moderate slaps don't trigger, but hard slaps and plucks
do - and it seems to work well, compress when it needs to, and
stay out of the way the rest of the time.
I do have a few complaints - mine has some moderate to substantial
acoustic hum due to magnetostriction in the transformer. It doesn't
seem to get into the audio path, but it's loud enough to cause
problems in a home studio. Also, the unit has no feet or handles.
Mine got scratched within minutes of coming out of the box by
the handle on top of my speaker cabinet. A handle on the side
would have been nice for lugging it around.
| Construction
| 75% | 
|
| (Points off on the hum and the absence of feet)
|
| Loudness
| 75% |
|
| (To be fair I may be rating my speaker cabinet here.)
|
| Clarity
| 90% |
|
| Tone
| 85% |
|
| (Good basic bass sound. Wasn't bad, didn't knock me out. Really Dry.)
|
| Size/Bulkiness
| 100% |
|
| (It's tiny and light for an amp of this power rating.)
|
| Value
| 100% |
|
| (Can't be beat on the new gear market.)
|
| Overall
| 85% |
|
| A good basic amp for not a lot of money that'll cover any situation I see mys |
| elf in for quite a while I'd buy it again.
|
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