I can see why the v30 is every where. Great all around. (I’ve got an iPad Pro with 4 speakers). But, that Red Coat Wizard really tickled something in me. Seems like it could be a good all arounder, too.
The best speaker shootout on RU-vid because it shows how much speaker sound depends on that music style that is played. with clear i have other favs than with distorted . thank you very much for this helpful video.
Pretty shocking how much the Alnico Blue and Wizard sound alike, and the Wizard costs 1/3 the price and handles 5 times more power! Also shocking...how bad that Jensen sounds.
Agreed. I own the jet lightning and its actually a very good speaker. If they had brought the level up a tiny bit it would have sounded much better. One of the issues with this type of shootout is they need to keep the normalized peaks to the same amplitude on their software. This speakers have DB ratings all over the place. The greenback also sounded awful on here and its the all time best selling speaker. If you had to go by this demo, you would never know it. So while I liked the demo, the volumes were all over the place. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nZKXgeMiTjA.html really long video, but you can see a lot of tone comparisons for all genres.
Power handling has nothing to do with tone, it is widely accepted that low power paper voice coils have the best tone Generally speaker companies traded the best tone for sake of increased power handling
For this one my ears are telling me 1) Blue, 2) Wizard, 3) Sheffield. Of course if you mic em up differently, or even twist a knob, and it could be a different story; back off the mids and all of sudden the V30 would sound better and the Wizard would sound worse. That's not to say that one way is better than another. It's just a different view.
My ears don't hear a lot of difference on the clean test but the rock and heavy test it's there. I gravitate to the V30 and then find the 70/80 a very good compromise especially if dollars are a factor. Funny about the V30. I make an effort to give brands other than Celestion priority because they are so prevalent and I own a few Jensens but the V30 just has a great sound for me. It must be true for others also.I guess that's why Celestion is overall number 1 at least in sales. Great comparison, thanks.
Thank you for putting all the work you did into this and sharing! Geez, that Blue to my ears/tastes - wow! From what I am finding, only 15 watts though so won't be the replacement I am looking for in my 40 watt combo. While the Jensen sounds like it was filtered through an AM radio for Dirty sounds, I thought it was a good speaker for Cleans. Surprisingly, I preferred the V30 over the Greenback. Wonder if this was because of mic placement. Which speaker sounded best in the room?
For cleans Wizzard, seventy-80, and green back in that order. For the crunch hard to beat the Wizzard! Amazing! The v30 was just super average everywhere. And the Jensen strange and good at the same time.
Where the speaker being tested is in the series/parallel circuit in the 4x12 makes a huge difference. The coil of the previous speaker(s) has enough inductance to be a low-pass filter- which will absolutely affect the response. The only way to test speakers like these is with each in a dedicated 1x12 cabinet. Not saying your test isn't valid, but it's not ideal.
70/80 showed it's limitations, the Jensen to me struggled to sound good. The Emi can hold it's own along with the Blue gives that Alnico HiFi and Green back does what it does as well as the Peavey (Standard Utility speaker).. I liked the V-30 for 95% of this video.
@Dylan Anderson yes, but each speaker should be temporarily installed into a single cabinet for this test video. Since just like speakers, different cabinets, sound different.
@Tony S.haha, no i am not a noob, but with that comment you can now add "hopeless" in front of "amateur" for your gear knowledge status. "The speaker cabinet is an enormous part of the very last link in the sound chain. It’s the link that ultimately reproduces your tone as sound waves in the air-which are what reaches your listener’s ear, or a studio microphone. Every subtle difference in the way two cabs are made will make them sound a little different." www.guitarplayer.com/technique/all-about-speaker-cabinets
It's a free comparison someone took the time to put together. You are right. It's not 100% scientific but it's fairly controlled and seems to show the character of each speaker very well. Even varying mic placement in the slightest way can change your tone too. But this video still helps compare speakers.
I liked them all - but for different purposes or styles of music. Mixing different speakers in a 212 cab would give a more interesting tonal palette. A shootout with mixed speakers would be cool.
The V30 & Blue were my faves. The seventy 80 & the Sheffield sounded almost identical(fairly mid swept). And the Jenson, Redcoat & Greenback didn't work for me in this setting,. But it really depends on the application and the mix. Cheers!
#1 Wizard #2 V30 #3 Blue #4 Sheffield #5 70/80 ....that Jensen is broke or simply junk. My Black Star has a 70/80..but soon may be sporting a Wizard. It soynds like it just did a better job of being the most versitile speaker of the bunch.. If I needed a speaker for a bilge pump alarm in my boat the Jensen has the truest tones for it. I am dissapointed in the 70/80 in this comparison.. Thought it would shine but it didnt do as well in the overall of tones given here. Great vid!
Eminence Wizard, Jensen El70 (Electric Lightning) and Peavey/Sheffield 1200 are some of my favourite speakers out there, but for the record my Jensen El70 sounds quite different from the one in this video.
The redcoat sounds wicket on the heavy riff!! And the 70/80 sounded surprisingly good on the heavy riff after sounding really bad on the rock tone. The Jensen sounds strangled throughout. Very interesting comparison, thanks for putting it together.
I would go with 2 Eminence Swamp Thang on the bottom, & 2 Eminence Texas Heat on top, in a 4 speaker cabinet. Or vica versa top or bottom. You adjust & play with the eq on the amp plus scoop knob on some amps or pedals, & you can get any sound. Or better yet, Use a stereo amp like Peavey 212 or Peavey 4000, 130 watt per channel, & run Guitar Rig on yer PC to it bypassing the pre amp. That's the bomb, stereo + power. Crunch, lead, blues with powerful bass & high end crispy highs n deep tight bass. I wish I had the cash cuz I'd be building 1 right now since I already have the Peavey stereo chorus 212 with messed up speakers & pedals & the Guitar rig on my pc. Since it's stereo, left & right would be wired for each channel, or maybe two 4 speaker cabs, 1 for each channel as those amps pump some power.
In order I like Blue, Wizard, V30 on everything, I thought Wizard did a bit better with the low growl of the heavier track. V30 and Greenback I liked a lot on clean, the V30 is pretty good on heavier/dirtier and I would happily use it but I preferred the Blue and Wizard. Just my opinion. I’m speaker shopping so I think I have a direction to go.
*_Fire EF HUTTON SON..._* *My broker says Green Backs will take the Super Lead with Visa' Gold, after the new Master has capped the Volume, and kept an eye on high frequency lending in the event of a saturated upturn.*
Thanks for taking time for this video. I must say that while your recording illustrates some of the differences between the speakers, none of the speakers sound like they do in person. The Electric Lightning sounded especially bad... so different than in person. The Wizard and V30 sounded closest to real life. Good stuff though!
Greenbacks and creamback combo is what i'm leaning towards. It seems eminence speakers are darker sounding than celestions. Wizards are less dark than their others too...
In my experience with Celestion 12 inch speakers, never cared much for their high power speakers, but the low watt speakers like the greenback or al-blue are the shit! Best speakers that ever went into my Marshall 412 slant cabs.
Folk can be sniffy about it but the 70/80 is a good all rounder and remarkably cheap compared to the others, about the best value out there. My Blackstar Studio 10 6L6 came with one fitted and I do like it a lot in that. I have also tried it on some under performing combos I have with good occasionally great improvement.
The Jensen and the seventy 80 sound very muffled and lack definition. The blue 1st and v30. I have Peavy sheffields and am deciding weather to replace...???
Great comparison. Quick question: were the backs of the cabinets re-installed before the recordings were made? The Wizard really shined here. I've been looking at that as an upgrade and this helped to confirm what I've been hearing elsewhere.
On heavy the blue and the Emi wins, on everything else the V30 followed by the green back. That's for this video.. The Jensen Jet sounds like it's at the end of a ten foot long carpet roll tube.. You can go all day pointing out this sounds better then another video you say that this now does..
The cabinet is crucial to the tone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the speakers are in different cabs.. ??? This gives misleading results. Try this. Put the same speaker in each different cab used and hear the difference.
Hi , nice comparison, but according to my experiences far too lame amp/tone stack settings for the crunch sounds, to reveal the in real life VERY big tonal differences between the speakers, specifically in the upper mid region. Some of the compared speakers that in very common "out of the box setups" like for instance a new Marshall head or combo, paired with a Gibson humbucker guitar, all knobs at noon, will give a totally earpiercing unpleasant sound, while other speakers in this demo would give a very balanced yet "in your face" and fat sound. In this comparison the normally "earpiecing ones" sound benign and harmless and rather good, while the normally balanced and fat sounding ones here sound muffled and vapid. Interesting, but not very representative for the majority of users looking for an upgrade or swap.
you absolutely cannot judge a speaker with every one having the same exact amp & EQ settings, it just cannot be done. I can make most speakers sound very similar by changing the bass mid & high for each speaker, let alone volume being a factor per each speaker & amp config. But I'm not knocking the assessment as was done very well. I would def use a 4 speaker cabinet tho with 2 of the same speaker, top & bottom. Just my opinion tho.
Two Wizards are laying around unused due to the toneless sound , a dirty sound indeedy ! Vintage 30 works like a charm in all my tube amps , honorable mention to the eminence legend 30 12" 8ohm speaker as it has a even EQ and works with the V30 very well ! I run 2 tube amps at once as its a better fuller harmonic tone !
The comment section proves just how subjective good tone is. I see so many people heaping praise on the Vintage 30 whereas I think it’s the worst speaker Celestion ever made. My personal favorite is the greenback then the wizard. I’m thinking about buying a couple of wizards and putting them in an x pattern with my greenbacks.
jaychen To be honest, I’m not exactly sure. There are much better qualified people that could answer that. But I’ve been told one of the reasons is that lower wattage speakers usually use a softer “paper” so that tends to give them a warmer tone. I’m sure the windings in the voice coil have something to do with it. But it depends on how hard you push them. For instance, the speakers in my EVH 4x12 has 20 watt Celestions that are basically their Heritage Series Greenbacks that are spec’d like the old late 60’s/early 70’s 20 watt Greenbacks. But when you push them hard, the midrange really pops out and the breakup is GLORIOUS! 👍🏻
jaychen Yeah, I’m not really schooled in the “How” speaker construction affects tone. I just found through trial and error and what others that are smarter than me have told me to find what works for me. But yeah, doing an X pattern with different voiced speakers seems to be the best way to go. Versatility.
Thanks a lot!!! What I learned: 1) I am not trading my Vintage 30 for a G12 Green Back (can't afford to loose that versatility) 2) Seventy 80 SUCKS sooo BAAAD, in everything, Ughh ((((
Everybody knocking the Jeson, should just hear good ol stoner rock and it makes perfect sense. Sorry though, I know greenbacks ,and it must have been wired out-of phase. There is no way that a V30 ever sounds fuller than a greenie
Sounds like too many variables with the different cabs and different volume, tone, and eq settings. The clean channel comparisons were all differing tones at the same volume. The dirty and the heavy comparisons were all over the board. That Jensen sounded horrible.
I design hi-fi high end speakers for a living. The proximity of some drivers to the floor compared to those up several feet made me decide not to bother to watch. Will have a large impact. Sorry guys. Thanks for trying.
I make high quality leather that sometimes gets used on guitar straps. I've noticed a slight variation in air pressure, not only round the speaker cone, but also around the microphone which affected the sound waves ability to travel to the diaphragm of the mic. Nice try guys but your video is a completely fucking null and void for this reason! Please invest more time and money when making these free videos for us as I can not make an informed decision from this crap.
Just for saying : rom was right. Vicinity of the floor is an unwanted result stainer. Nullify this effect, or having all the speakers influenced in the same amount by this effect could be helpful to have a test that would be of some use.
