Ashdown MAG-C115-250 115 Combo

I purchased this amp last week. I have fabricated a cabinet and loaded it with a 15 inch Eminence Kappa 15c, 4 ohm. I have been a musician for three decades now, but have primarilly been a guitar player. I switched to the Bass just to mix things up a bit. First and foremost, I am extremely critical of the aural aspects of equipment. Hook this unit up to a standard 8ohm cabinet and you will get a result that is less than overwhelming. However, matched with a proper driver, at less than $300.00, this is an extra ordinary unit. I play bass in a variety of musical genres, but try to keep it as clean as is possible in all forms of music. The Sub-Harmonizer is somewhat helpful in filling musical voids when playing with a single guitarist. Otherwise, it has little use. What is terrific about this amp is when it is matched with a proper cabinet and speaker, one can produce clear, room rattling Bass! I was expecting to be underwhelmed with performance at this cost, but if you are in the market for an amp that you can port to bar gigs, church events, etc., you will have made a remarkable purchase. The speaker match is absolutely essencial and I must make this as clear as is possible.

Yamaha fretless, passive pickups.
flexible at any musical style.
Noiseless and clean up to full out settings.
amp and speaker match runs spectrum of 32 hz to 2500 hz.
Only final high end equalizer setting creates hiss, which
can be toned out.

It really is a rugged unit and can be used without
auxillary amplification for virtually any venue with
proper cabinet-speaker match.
No sign of failure

Company has a terrific reputation for follow up though
I have no reason to believe any repair or replacement
issues are forthcoming. If it does fail in anyway,
I will contact the company direct and bypass distributer.
My children will learn to play the bass from this unit.

I have a recording studio, multiple amps, guitars, mics etc.
I would buy again without any hesitation. The appears to
be no logical replacement at this price.
Only after resolute scrutiny of every amp manufacturer did I
decide on the MAG300.

Made in Feb 2003, single channel 250W RMS/500W peak (into 4 ohms) combo with Ashdown's proprietary "Blueline" 15" speaker in an easily portable unit weighing in at about 28kg tops. Input level with high and low inputs, Bass, Mid, and Treble rotaries with additional mid-band EQ rotaries centred at 220Hz and 1.6kHz. "Deep" and "High" switches, also EQ defeat. Front mounted FX send/return, balanced DI out and master volume... oh, and the subharmoniser rotary and defeat switch.

Very spartan but functional rear panel with two 8 ohm jack outputs, mains rocker and IEC Mains socket.

The only thing I miss are side-mounted handles (even at 28kg the single top-mounted strap makes it a pain to carry about), so I added my own spring loaded ones.

Has all the basics you need to produce a cracking tone.

Internally, once its opened up, the chassis is virtually empty - a single long preamp PCB mounted flush to the front panel,a substantial toroidal transformer, less substantial power amp board with IC's well mounted to a chunky alloy heatsink - and the noisy cooling fan mounted slap in the middle of the lot with some rather messy wiring conencting it to the pre-amp board.

I use MusicMan basses and go straight into the "high" input for added grunt. With the EQ defeated, the tone through the internal speaker is well defined, balanced and open with no shortage of power for a compact combo - the low B on my 5-string is well defined even at high volume (believe me, Input and Master at 12 o'clock high is enough for most gigs!).

External devices such as bass synths and distortion come across as being well defined and not fizzy at all. For a solid state amp it has a very warm sound indeed, even with the EQ disengaged - in fact it's teh first bass combo I've ever tried where I didn't need to EQ AT ALL to get a good sound straight out of the box.

There is some hard, fizzy distortion at very high levels, but this can be avoided by not using the EQ too viciously - those rotaries are highly interactive, and only a subtle shift is needed.

Only gripe would be the cooling fan which is rather noisy and whiny, tends to get rather annoying after awhile.

Maybe I'm writing this review at the wrong time, but here goes.

I purchased the amp from a reputable eBay seller, and within two weeks of owning the amp, one gig and two rehearsals, we'd finished playing one song... I plugged in my five string, hit the low B, and BZZZZZZZZZT... what sounded like ultra loud mains hum, no bass signal at all. The signal was constant and unresponsive to front panel controls.

As is usually the case, the amp worked fine when I got it home, but same thing happened next time I played at volume - sounded like severe mains hum or something shorting out.

The previous owner claims to have had no problems with it at all, but you know how eBay can be... it's gone off to a repairer (see below) who seems to think its the power supply capacitors in fault.

Yes, I know I can't base the reliability rating around a second-user amp of dubious origins, but also see my review of the MAG300 combo to explain the rating for this amp.

When it first died, they were quick to send a circuit diagram to help me identify the problem even though they claimed they don't usually send them to anyone but an authorised service centre.

When I couldn't diagnose the fault myself, I asked where the nearest "authorised service centre" was and was told they dont have them, but could give me the details of the repairers they usually use, located in the same industrial park... go figure!

Out of warranty as its not transferrable, so the cost is at my expense, and I can't knock Ashdown for the time they spent in dealing with my particular problems when I was VERY irate indeed (see my review of MAG300 combo!).

Been playing bass for a few years and guitar for many more. Also own a big Hartke rig which is too much to carry around for rehearsals, hence the reason why I love this amp for the sheer punch, tone and portability - this amp (when it went wrong) convinced me to upgrade to a newer MAG300, as it suits my live set up to use two combos rather than a head and separate cabs.

The only other amp I'd have considered would have been the ABM EVO2 300 or 500, but I can't justify the huge price differential (not to mention the additional WEIGHT!) when the MAG sounds this good.

Just gutted its gone wrong so soon, so my overall rating's based on sound, reliabilty, service, the lot.