Big Ben 15s vs. Delta Pro 15As

[REQQER]

Hey all. My first post ever. Been trolling here off and on all year.

Need advice and opinions on these 15in speakers.

I'm getting a 2x15 cab to go along with my 4x12. Specs are: Verellen Skyhammer 100watts, 16ohm 4x12, Baritone Guitar. Style varies from "Low"/Alan Sparhawk style reverbed out soft guitar all the way up to full on noise fuzz and noise assault. I do a solo project with looping pedals, so the noise parts can get pretty fucking noisy. Playing feedback and pedal noise over fuzz rhythms, etc.

I want to get 15s so that when I play house shows or places with shitty PAs that my sound will have more low end and just be fuller all around since I have no bass player.

My research has led me to Big Ben 15s and Delta Pro 15As. One concern is their power ratings. Big Ben: 225W Delta: 400W

If I get the Deltas will I do them justice using my 100 watt amp to drive both the 4x12 and the 2x15, or am I underestimating my Skyhammer, haha.

All opinions are appreciated. Glad to be a part of the board finally.

[t-rey]

There are quite a few dudes running 15's in there rigs, I'm sure one of them will drop some knowledge at some point. Hang tight and welcome to the doom room. In the mean time, you should probably go ahead and post pics of that rig

[ShaunNecro]

Eminence Big Ben speakers are awesome. They have quite a lot of low end and should be able to handle whatever just fine (I run my Ampeg V4 into two of them). Plus they got some nice color to them. They are also pretty damn efficient (101.3 db), so they will kill most cabs that you would come up against.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

I like the Big Bens a bit more as well. I haven't heard the Deltas in something I got to play on or tweak myself so I really can't say much about them that I know what the Big Bens do and I like while what I've heard with the deltas didn't work for what I normally play.

[REQQER]

There are quite a few dudes running 15's in there rigs, I'm sure one of them will drop some knowledge at some point. Hang tight and welcome to the doom room. In the mean time, you should probably go ahead and post pics of that rig

Here's a grainy cell pic. The Blackstar amp is like my backup amp. Sometimes I experiment playing through both at the same time. The Fender cab has V30s in it. I use that live when I don't want to take my Verellen. Depends on the venue really. If I'm playing some dirty dingy basement somewhere, I'm not taking the Verellen cab. Just not worth it. It's nicer than anything else I own, haha. It doesn't deserve the abuse.

Pedals in front of amp: EHX Pitchfork > Volume Pedal > Red Witch Fuzz God II

Pedals in the effects loop: Earthquaker Hoof > EHX SuperEgo > Boss R30 looper > EHX cathedral reverb

I get some interesting effects using both Fuzz pedals together. Feedback things...and the volume pedal can control the "wrath" function of the Red Witch Fuzz God nicely.

The guitar is a Michael Kelly Baritone. I really dig it. When I was looking for Baritones it won my attention.

I have two synths also going into the RC30 looper, but they're being routed to my mixer and then to the PA. They don't go to my amp at all. Depending on what I'm doing I have a sampler for extra sounds or drum tracks, and a recently got that horribly named drum machine pedal the "Beat Buddy". I haven't mastered that yet. Anything else I use goes straight into my mixer.

Pumped to get these 15s, Thanks for the feedback so far!

[Ancient Astronaught]

Ok, I've got a couple bits of info for you. I have owned both of these speakers, in different cabs but at the same time. There are some similarities and some differences...

1) Tone - The Big Ben's IMO are scooped, they have a big low end and decent top end but the mid range always seemed scooped to me. The Delta's are extremely flat, they have huge every thing. The low end is immense the mid range is present and neutral and the top end is sweet and present.

2) Volume - Both these speakers have fairly high efficiency, there may be a slight volume difference but honestly all Eminence are loud as piss.

3) Wattage - So your running a 100w head and if you split it between two cabs each cab basically see's 50w. You'll never get anywhere near loud enough to blow either speaker, and just because the delta's can handle some high wattage doesn't mean they aren't still loud and efficient with lower wattage going into them. I ran the 2x15 I had the delta's in it with a whole range of amps from 45w class A to 200w A/B and it was always loud and sweet.

4) Your under estimating your skyhammer.

[grindonomicon]

Agree with the Big Ben scoop. Don't have Delta's, but a 50 watt tube amp does a fine job driving my 2x15 w/ Kappa Pro's.

[fever606]

Another vote for Big Bens, mine... mated to an Orange OR-80, for reference, with no issues...

Though this...

1) Tone - The Big Ben's IMO are scooped ..... The Delta's are extremely flat

Makes me wonder about maybe having one of each... Might have to try that out, as I am in the process of restructuring my cab situation...

[REQQER]

This is awesome. Thanks for all the replies and help. Giving me a better idea.

Yeah. I thought about that too. One of each could be interesting. I wish there was a speaker shootout video on youtube or something. Or a store I could go try these out at. The Eminence page has soundclips of the Big Ben, but they don't even come close to sounding like anything I'd play. The clips sound good though. No clips of the Deltas.

If I did get one of each, and decided I like one better than the other, I could get a second of whichever one I chose, and sell off the other one. Gah! I'm bad at decision making.

[ShaunNecro]

This is awesome. Thanks for all the replies and help. Giving me a better idea.

Yeah. I thought about that too. One of each could be interesting. I wish there was a speaker shootout video on youtube or something. Or a store I could go try these out at. The Eminence page has soundclips of the Big Ben, but they don't even come close to sounding like anything I'd play. The clips sound good though. No clips of the Deltas.

If I did get one of each, and decided I like one better than the other, I could get a second of whichever one I chose, and sell off the other one. Gah! I'm bad at decision making.

If you do that, I'd be down to buy the Delta 15A.

[Ancient Astronaught]

This is awesome. Thanks for all the replies and help. Giving me a better idea.

Yeah. I thought about that too. One of each could be interesting. I wish there was a speaker shootout video on youtube or something. Or a store I could go try these out at. The Eminence page has soundclips of the Big Ben, but they don't even come close to sounding like anything I'd play. The clips sound good though. No clips of the Deltas.

If I did get one of each, and decided I like one better than the other, I could get a second of whichever one I chose, and sell off the other one. Gah! I'm bad at decision making.

After thinking about it, if your always going to pair this with a 4x12 when using it and you want it to fill out your sound I would go with the Big Bens. I would vote the delta's if you might use the cab by its self so that way you have more mids. But paired with a 4x12 the big bens will just add more without getting in the way. So they might be a good place to start.

[REQQER]

After thinking about it, if your always going to pair this with a 4x12 when using it and you want it to fill out your sound I would go with the Big Bens. I would vote the delta's if you might use the cab by its self so that way you have more mids. But paired with a 4x12 the big bens will just add more without getting in the way. So they might be a good place to start.

Thanks for this. I was kind if thinking that myself.

[NoLA-Riffft]

I've been eyeing these exact 2 speakers for a couple years now too. I had a 2x15 for a while. After both the cones tore because of my mantic density hulk, I decided to play them til they died completely. And that didn't take long at all. They ended up being very old but slightly higher end pa speakers. Anyway, I might go with the deltas soon if I convince myself I need a good pair of 15s again.

[t-rey]

There are quite a few dudes running 15's in there rigs, I'm sure one of them will drop some knowledge at some point. Hang tight and welcome to the doom room. In the mean time, you should probably go ahead and post pics of that rig

IMAG2673A.jpg

Here's a grainy cell pic. The Blackstar amp is like my backup amp. Sometimes I experiment playing through both at the same time. The Fender cab has V30s in it. I use that live when I don't want to take my Verellen. Depends on the venue really. If I'm playing some dirty dingy basement somewhere, I'm not taking the Verellen cab. Just not worth it. It's nicer than anything else I own, haha. It doesn't deserve the abuse.

Pedals in front of amp: EHX Pitchfork > Volume Pedal > Red Witch Fuzz God II

Pedals in the effects loop: Earthquaker Hoof > EHX SuperEgo > Boss R30 looper > EHX cathedral reverb

I get some interesting effects using both Fuzz pedals together. Feedback things...and the volume pedal can control the "wrath" function of the Red Witch Fuzz God nicely.

The guitar is a Michael Kelly Baritone. I really dig it. When I was looking for Baritones it won my attention.

I have two synths also going into the RC30 looper, but they're being routed to my mixer and then to the PA. They don't go to my amp at all. Depending on what I'm doing I have a sampler for extra sounds or drum tracks, and a recently got that horribly named drum machine pedal the "Beat Buddy". I haven't mastered that yet. Anything else I use goes straight into my mixer.

Pumped to get these 15s, Thanks for the feedback so far!

Sweet rig!

[BoatRich]

There are quite a few dudes running 15's in there rigs, I'm sure one of them will drop some knowledge at some point. Hang tight and welcome to the doom room. In the mean time, you should probably go ahead and post pics of that rig

IMAG2673A.jpg

Here's a grainy cell pic. The Blackstar amp is like my backup amp. Sometimes I experiment playing through both at the same time. The Fender cab has V30s in it. I use that live when I don't want to take my Verellen. Depends on the venue really. If I'm playing some dirty dingy basement somewhere, I'm not taking the Verellen cab. Just not worth it. It's nicer than anything else I own, haha. It doesn't deserve the abuse.

Pedals in front of amp: EHX Pitchfork > Volume Pedal > Red Witch Fuzz God II

Pedals in the effects loop: Earthquaker Hoof > EHX SuperEgo > Boss R30 looper > EHX cathedral reverb

I get some interesting effects using both Fuzz pedals together. Feedback things...and the volume pedal can control the "wrath" function of the Red Witch Fuzz God nicely.

The guitar is a Michael Kelly Baritone. I really dig it. When I was looking for Baritones it won my attention.

I have two synths also going into the RC30 looper, but they're being routed to my mixer and then to the PA. They don't go to my amp at all. Depending on what I'm doing I have a sampler for extra sounds or drum tracks, and a recently got that horribly named drum machine pedal the "Beat Buddy". I haven't mastered that yet. Anything else I use goes straight into my mixer.

Pumped to get these 15s, Thanks for the feedback so far!

This is awesome dude! If the project in your sig is what this is for then even better because what I've listened to so far is cool as hell.