You asked for it--you got it! MA16 dinky little cab!

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New Cab!
MA16 practice/dinky little cab. One custom 6.5" Eminence and one 3" Faital mid/tweet. 13 1/2" deep by 14" wide by 8" tall.
12 1/2#. Keeps up with 10" driver cabs like the Wizzy 10. Same low extension as all of the 6's. I usually run my cabs horizontally and elevated, but this one sounds killin' vertically on the ground. Tilt it up just a bit---wow. At least for me---the ultimate baggable upright cab but sounds really nice with electric. Very nice for coffee houses and practicing Sorry about the crappy workshop phone pics--I was just excited! I'll take nicer pics when it's done with the grill on..

Looks pretty cool!!

Is this an 8 ohm cab? How much power can you feed it, 100 Watts or so? And, of course, what's the ballpark price?

That's just too creepy.
I had a dream about that exact format cabinet.

4 or 8 ohms. Maybe 150 watts power handling. Think of it like a single 10 like the Wizzy 10. I like my cabs elevated but this one sounds really nice on the floor with the 3"er pointing up. $500.

Hmmmm...I've been happy hauling my 26 to bluegrass or jazz gigs for stage sound (it's small enough for a one-trip load-in with upright, head, bass), this has me GASing a bit, though! I loved my composite C****8 you built me a few years back, how does this compare to that?

This unit should outperform the Crazy8. It will keep pace with a standard 10“ (similar Vd) However, the waveguide in this little unit is designed to provide Vortexitude beginning at lower volumes and in smaller spaces. You may remember that too large an MVW in too small a space inhibits performance. That makes this little unit the perfect practice and small venue bass instrument loudspeaker. With a price of $500.00 it is easier to bring the Vortexitude home.

I thought when I suggested such a box on the MAS45 page and nobody responded that maybe I was crazy for some reason, but low and behold here it is. I think this box is going to be a great upright cab. There are so many small duo light trio even? If it works like a Wizzy 10 with MAS should its going to be great.
THanks so much
Mike

We embrace crazy. Sometimes we just don't show enough love.

You may remember that too large an MVW in too small a space inhibits performance. That makes this little unit the perfect practice and small venue bass instrument loudspeaker.

What does this mean ? I have only a MAS46 which I take for every gig (despite other choices like a wizzy 10) but on some gigs I do notice that the sound clouds up a bit...so many variables I just crank up the HPF but could it be that the cab is too big for the room?

Can this cab be done in some really nice natural wood finish? I play so many duo gigs...I've been waiting for this box to show up....

flatback wrote: You may remember that too large an MVW in too small a space inhibits performance. That makes this little unit the perfect practice and small venue bass instrument loudspeaker.

What does this mean ? I have only a MAS46 which I take for every gig (despite other choices like a wizzy 10) but on some gigs I do notice that the sound clouds up a bit...so many variables I just crank up the HPF but could it be that the cab is too big for the room?

Can this cab be done in some really nice natural wood finish? I play so many duo gigs...I've been waiting for this box to show up....

The MVW Loudspeaker needs space for the sound presentation to form. The larger the waveguide the larger the area in which the loudspeaker needs to reach full capability. This is the self adjusting nature of the MVM. This means that a MVW loudspeaker that sounds good in a room when take outside to a larger room will sound larger. This is what users like MtnGrown and others have experienced and expressed with some amazement.

The MAS-46 is good combination of waveguide size and cabinet output. It will work well in most rooms. However, if it is used in a small room, like a living room, it will over pressurize the room causing a loss of fidelity and heavy excitation of objects in the room.

You MAS-46 has a custom waveguide that is truncated for size and weight. Consequently it does not produce as large a carrier wave as the full MVW waveguide loudspeakers. (Presently, the only MAS loudspeaker that has the full waveguide is the MA-109.) Since the MVW has rapidly decreasing sensitivity above 4KHz and the waveguide in your 46 is truncated there isn't as much carrier wave to transmit the HF. If you are in am environment that further interferes with the formation of Vortexitude HF perception will suffer as well.  The sound may also be less defined. In a situation like that try tuning Down the power from the amp and see if the sound clears up.

All this is why the MA-16 is a great little loudspeaker for small rooms and practice. It can be driven hard (the way all MVW loudspeakers sound best) and sound fantastic in a small environment.

You can have your MAS-16 any way you wish. (There will be a cost of course)

Hey thanks for the informative answer. That is my experience. There are a few rooms where there is too little definition. I will try your suggestion, thanks.
Can the 16 be run WITH the 46 into a AI Focus ?

If you're running a 16 and a 46 off the same amp, the 16 is going to be the limiting factor, even if it's 8 Ohms and the 46 is 4 Ohms - that's just looking at it from a power distribution perspective. I can't say how they'd stack otherwise, but I'd think it'd be okay.

You could send the drivers equal power through a two-channel power amp, but that doesn't let you use your AI Focus (I'm presuming that's why you ask), at least not without limiting the volume on account of the 16.

Is it possible to make one of these in a 16 Ohm version?

Cool looking little cab, by the way?

I meant !, not ?, but I don't see how to edit the post.

How's dispersion with the cab vertical? With my recent 46, I notice that it sounds good either way (a liitle tighter, I think, vertical), but that the dispersion of the mids and highs is markedly better when the cab's horizontal.

The idea of getting the cab pumping at lower volumes in smaller spaces is appealing. A certain amount of that would come simply from using a smaller cab with fewer drivers, wouldn't it? Or is it very heavily dependent on the configuration of the waveguide?

Approaching things from the other end, how would this little guy do outdoors, say in a busking or street festival situation?

[quote="MarkA"]If you're running a 16 and a 46 off the same amp, the 16 is going to be the limiting factor, even if it's 8 Ohms and the 46 is 4 Ohms - that's just looking at it from a power distribution perspective.  I can't say how they'd stack otherwise, but I'd think it'd be okay.  

You could send the drivers equal power through a two-channel power amp, but that doesn't let you use your AI Focus (I'm presuming that's why you ask), at least not without limiting the volume on account of the 16.

YEah Duh...I knew that...sometimes I am thick....

I have been listening a lot to my MAS 46 lately (on every gig of a busy summer) and I finally have a mic/pickup blend that works crazy good right now...A Remic Red into the focus and an Underwood into the Headway into the 46 which I like both vertical (if the hearing is tough) and horizontal (generally). When I listen to that speaker (46) and try to size down to a 16 ...I'll bet it would work great for so many gigs I do.

You know, I'm listening to my computer and playing along,  learning some music for a gig.  Running both my bass and the audio from the computer through my 46.  

The way the 46 sounds with recorded music, I bet a couple of 1x6s with little soft-dome tweeters in addition to the mid would make a killer, sub-wooferless home stereo/home theater/tiny PA.  I also think the concept would scale up well to a 1x8", though I'm not sure how big the resultant box would be.  Still pretty small, I'd bet.

Probably. The difficulty we've run into in home stuff is the MVW concept requires a certain amount of power to get going. Under that they're almost, but not quite, a ported cab. For some home use it's just too loud. Depends on the listener. I have extremely happy campers using them for home audio, and a few who didn't want to run that hard.

Yeah,

Depending on where the sweet spot is for a 1x6", maybe I'd need something smaller? Maybe a couple of 1x5"s... I don't listen to music outrageously loud at home, and do like to have it on quietly sometimes - like when I'm working or studying. Might be that that's not the best field for them to shine, but, if they sound like good ported boxes at low volume, then it might be a case of no disadvantages, per se, just advantages that aren't realized until you're cranking a little more. I can see that it makes right-sizing and knowing how the system's going to be run a little more critical, though.

I still think the coffee-shop PA thing could be a good application.

If one were to stack these cabs, would they be sensitive to orientation? I.e. do they need to be horizontal, or can you put one horizontal and one vertical, both vertical? I remember Mike showing me that with the 25s, and each configuration produced a unique but useable response.

We have small form factor loudspeakers for home stereo or (very) small  room PA. They are the EpG-5 and EpG-8. The Extended Port Geometry brings many of the benefits of the MVW without the hassle of trying to make the MVW work in a small room at moderate to low volume. They are very detailed and revealing with a huge sweet spot. Independent tests at Stanford University against the Kef LS50 show that the EpG can hold it's own. The Kef was described as polite while the the EgG was described as fun. The EpG will produce SPL far above reference if called upon to do so without losing detail. (The Kefs blew up while the EpGs just kept getting louder during high SPL testing) The EpG was the loudspeaker the testers wanted to keep using while rediscovering their playlistsEpG-5. You can order them in either flat pack kits Here is the thread on Tyler's test of the first set or fully assembled and finished from GC Soundworks.

Mike's MA-16 is designed to be a bass instrument loudspeaker. It can preform duty as a small stereo/bookshelf unit. The EpG - 5 and 8 are designed to be stereo/bookshelf units and could be used for practice. The EpG-5 was also designed as a guitar modeling loudspeaker as well. Each does a better job at their primary function.

Stacking the MA-16s could be done with interesting results. Place two side by side with the woofers adjacent to get a MAS-26 type presentation for instance.

Could two MA-16s be used for small PA? I suppose. They would certainly do a better job than most of the stuff I see.

My 46 gets crazy loud, I mean crazy LOUD. When I run it thru my home stereo (Pre out of Sansui 717 into Focus return's) it sounds stellar detailed and wide.
If you cats at Big E are saying that the speakers sound best when pushed, then it looks like a 1x6 would be a GREAT upright cab for up to trio gigs so long as it's bass isnt anemic..
What I don't understand is all these super boxes I keep seeing with the crazy paint jobs and stacks of speakers (MAS66 and its siblings) Who plays that loud? I mean honestly, mostly I would think those boxes are being played WAY UNDER being pushed. DO you cats actually need that much volume for electric (I play upright mostly) before the house system? Or is it a cahones type of a thing?

Can you summarize the specs on this speaker?
size/weight/price/etc.

Sure
The MAS 16 is 14" wide 14" deep and 8 1/4" high.It weighs between 13 and 14 pounds.
It uses one custom 6.5" woofer and one 3" midrange. It's the same woofer as in all of the MAS 6.5" cabs---so it extends quite low. Way lower than any single 10. The way I calculate how loud a speaker goes is by how much air it can move. The MAS16 moves around 150 cc's of air. That's in line with a "standard" single 10" cabinet. It can handle around 150 watts. It's my least efficient speaker--around
93 db--but you can drive one to its limit with 100 watts. Half that with a tube amp.

The 16 was designed as a home  practice---- low volume acoustic coffee house (like with acoustic guitars, vocalists) and is a superb upright cab (jazz duos and trios---there are a bunch in Europe--upright payers in Paris go on the subway with their bass, mini amp and a 16)

It is amazingly full vertically on the floor or horizontally off the ground. The cabinet was initially designed for guys playing at home---the big cabs like the 112 need more volume than you would use at home to get the rear and front waves integrating properly.

Oh --- and it's $599. I'm about 2 weeks out with the 16's