Carvin BR-12 Speakers

Speaker has an extended basket for giving it more bass, more speaker mass because of this and is 8 ohm handling 100 watts RMS. I play Blues Jazz, Metal, Hard rock, Punk ...basically EVERYTHING! You notice right away when looking at these speakers the cones run deeper than most 12 inch musical speakers. Infact I've never saw a speaker for these purposes that has a deeper cone. The sound specs varied from what the catalog says but the print sheet Carvin sent me states these babies hit from 70 hz to 7 or 7.5 khz!

The sound is simply amazing! Thick full bass that maintains clarity and the highs are very clean and bold to the point you'll find you will need to cut your normal treble settings if these are wjhat your palying through. The mids are basically perfect. Bass and treble is easy to achieve but a thick, groany midrange, somewhat of whats known as the red sound, really shows what a speaker is capable of. With the deeper frame/basket it allows for this speaker to have advantages over other guitar twelves. First theres more cone material, thus theres better compression for bass and the voic coil is actually quite small which adds for the extended treble responce. The overall shape of cone is also what I credit to the speakers groaning mids.Groaning in a good way that is. With the frequency range of these speakers they voice extremely well with todays tube emulation amps and pedals. They have the thick but clean crunch sound we're so used to from tubes. And best of all when played clean they have scuh clear and bright sound you could use them for an acoustic amp without the need for a tweeter. I run two of these with two Carvin Bass 12's in an oversized custom built cabinet and they simply scream at high volume levels with the UTMOST clarity. There bass is exceptional and even comparable to the bass speakers they are matched with. Even with my bass at 10 and the volume cranked they are pretty damn hard to distort and well any louder to do so my ears would bleed!! In all honesty though simply backing off the basss at such extreme volume levels it a typical need of any speaker though my oversized cab lets me push them further than anyone elses standard 4x12 cabinet. All in all I haven't heard a better speaker but have saw some of the highest end brands versions of these that still don't capture what they do.

EXTREMELY reliable. More than enough wattage(as all speakers today should be anyway!) and I've had them quite a few years now. Ontop of which one was damaged farely bad and repaired and the other had a small rip unfortunatly. THEIR SOUND HAS NOT BEEN COMPROMISED WHATSOEVER!. Even with
the one having gone unrepaired the damage has not increased and I have not had any distortion or problems from it. I have plans to fix it soon because the first method I had wanted to use was too much work. ( a good paper tape and thinned out tacky glue is great for this JUST DO IT FROM THE BACK!!!)

OK the Carvin guys have been real a**holes to me in general I have dealt with them for many reasons over the years and they are flat out useless. Infact they even took an idea for an amp head I gave them and gave me no acknowledgement whatsoever!!!! Meanwhile they fill their catalogs with the NOBODIES(for the most part) that use their equipment and get their own signature series instruments and amps. Like we give a crap about Bunny Brunnel!! All in all I have a strong dislike for these ppl as you can imagine. I guarantee the a** wipe I gave my head design to took full credit but hey rot in h*ll loser. These guys blew me off repeatedly for many different purchases I have made. They were great and helpfull everytime I ordered until there was a problem!

I've been playing for 8 years or so and can't say I've heard a speaker I wanted to replace them with or use along side them. The bass speakers I got from Carvin are nothing special but add the extra low end I want so really I can't even complain there. I love there brightness and extended frequency responce. I HATE that these jerkoffs discontinued these speakers and I can't replace my damaged but repaired and working great ones. Now anyone seeking these suckers will be paying out the a** from some vintage dealer or whoever and thats just wrong! I believe they were $65 a piece but I don't remember for certain. Now if I want ONE theres guys selling them for well over a hundred bux a piece!!!

br12 british series speakers, 8ohms, 100 watts.

heavy tight sound, the highs can be a little too high, the mids are great and more than enough low end response. these speakers sound their best at high volumes. when running high, they produce a tight sound with massive punch. better suited for heavy rock and metal.

100 watts at 8ohms, these speakers are gonna be hard to blow. they can take whatever you give them.

carvin usually has very friendly sales people but when i called to order these, the salesman was nasty. sorry but you wanted total honesty. i just about demanded someone else to speak to. im gonna give this a 9 because of this guy.

very good speakers. a great choice for replacing if you dont want to pay crazy prices.

After seeing someone else submit a review on this speaker, I decide to add my own observations...

I bought my BR-12 to replace the original Electro-Voice speaker in my Carvin X-60A (60 watt combo). At the time I was in a band which played high powered rock and felt that my amp didn't have the edge required for this sound. I later decided that it was the amp that lacked the edge for this sound not the speaker (although I love the sound it does make none-the-less).

At any rate, the difference between the EV (model # unknown) and Carvin BR-12 was quite noticeable. The BR-12 is much tighter and sharper than the EV. It was also brighter and harder sounding. The EV on the other hand was much warmer with a softer edge and seemed to break up nicer than the BR-12, somewhat like a nice Celestion vintage 30 speaker.

I'm not trying to put the BR-12 down, in fact I think it works well for high volume, hard edged rock - but I don't think it breaks up (at the right output) to be the most useful in a smaller combo amp. Its relatively high 100 watt output rating might be part of the problem, since it probably takes much more "push" to really drive it, but I also think that the "aged" quality of the EV speaker (aged magnet, cone, coil etc) might also play a part in this equation.

Anyway, I have since put the Electro-Voice speaker back in the X-60A and it sounds much better at normal volumes in my opinion. I put the BR-12 in an external speaker cabinet which I now use with the X-60A when I need a bit more coverage and it actually works out quite well this way; at maximum volume the EV can get a little too soft, so the BR-12 adds a nice contrast, providing more clarity and brightness to my tone, keeping it from sounding flat.

Anyway, if you're in the market for a speaker, I feel that the BR-12 is a good choice if you regularly play at high volumes with an amp that can really drive it well. Also, over time I'm sure it will mellow somewhat and really start to shine... down the road (my BR-12 is already feeling a bit smoother).

In conclusion; if you want a smoother, softer edge then get something more "vintage", but if you need a clearer, sharper speaker with extreme power handling ability, then the BR-12 makes a fine choice in my book...

Good Luck!

100 Watts RMS.

Im using an Epiphone Les Paul with a duncan JB in the bridge through a
Crate 100 watt "Flexwave", solid state head. I run this into a homemade cabinet made to the same specs as the closed back rivera 1x12 cab. Remarkably this single speaker can take everything I throw at it. I play rock and funk rock ala chilli peppers/311 and it does fine. It never seems to be straining and handles the high power well. Great for rock and Metal styles and handles the low stuff well.

Never had a problem after two years of running it at band practice level.

Sounds good. I might buy the 2x12 cab with these suckers in it. Unless I win the lottery and can afford a Mesa or Marshall 4x12 cab with vintage 30s in it, im going to stick with my fifty dollar carvins. Having less speakers allows you to crank your amp higher whick in my case makes it sound better. These speakers sound just as good and wont empty your bank account either.