Product: Carlsbro 8400 PA amp
Price Paid: 199
Submitted
04/29/2008
at
03:34am
by
Dave Tutt
Email: dave_london at hotmail<dot>com
General Questions
:
3
This little amp is probably not bad if you are a small band but you wouldn't want to rely on it!
A couple of things really annoy me about it and I only repair this sort of thing; never use it.
The very poor quality of the graphic equaliser controls means that they fall to pieces very easily at the slightest bump. Both this and the graphic display could have been left ogg and the money spent on better controls for the rest of the amp.
The reverb is actually not a reverb. Its a digital delay or echo based on the PT2399 chip with feedback but thats where it stops. There is no proper multi tapped reverb effect nor is there a change in the tone of the sound as the decay recirculates through the system meaning that at best its an annoying delay effect with insufficient control over it.
The phantom power button for the mic channels falls into the box at the slightest touch!
I will say that most Carlsbro power amps are quite well made and significantly better put together than the Marshall VS series guitar amps which really are first rate rubbish built! Unfortunately the sound of the Carlsbro is never going to win many friends although for simple PA use its probably not that bad.
Technical Specs
:
No Opinion
200watts a channel output.
8 mixable inputs with three channel EQ
7 band graphic and display
Available cheap! ??199 uk at some dealers!
Sound Quality
:
6
Not bad for a PA amp. Suffers a little from compression when driven hard. Not the cleanest but tollerable if a little hard sounding.
Don't use the reverb as it isn't one.
Features
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
3
You tried getting spares out of Carlsbro?
I have had a request for just some spares from this company and so far haven't managed to even get a price from them! no matter how you do it, eiter via phone, via the help line system on their web site you will be left wondering why you didn't re engineer the damn thing to take more standard off the shelf parts.
From a repairable point of view alone I wouldn't recommend Carlsbro as its just too difficult to get anything ou of the factory. No doubt there are others like this but customer service is not what Carlsbro are about!
