Buscarino Chameleon vs. Acoustic Image

fumblefingers · #1 04-20-2011, 03:59 PM

hey gang. i am considering the AI head (Clarus +) plus one of the following two speakers. to be used for both carved solid archtop and nylon string classical with a pickup.

what would you do and why?

1. Buscarino Chameleon, OR
2. Acoustic Image Ten2 Extension speaker.

Steve Z · #2 04-20-2011, 06:01 PM

I'd also like to hear some comments about the Chameleon as I have read great reviews, but have never had the opportunity to hear one.

Just to toss another speaker on the consideration... I was at Jeff Hale's store last year and played through several Raezer's Edge cabinets... NY8, Stealth 12, Twin 8, and a 6-8 cabinet. To me the clear winner was the 6-8 cabinet... Wow!

Benedetto Guitars uses a Chameleon... see the below wuote from thier FaceBook page...

Quote:

We get lots of questions about the new audio links on our website. While we don't specifically endorse any one company (there are too many great options for different gigs), on these clips we use: BUSCARINO CHAMELEON CABINET; ACOUSTIC IMAGE CLARUS 2R AMP; SANSAMP PARA DRIVER DI preamp.

Cheers,
Steve

jzucker · #3 04-20-2011, 09:26 PM

I have not heard the Chameleon but I own a couple raezer's edge cabs (Twin 8 Tower and NY8). I've played through many of the AI cabs but not the Ten2.

The tone from Chameleon video sounds very similar to the RE NY8 to me. Those 8" speakers have a fairly narrow freq response. Very tight bass but not a lot of high frequency so they are not extremely versatile. I wish someone made an 8" speaker that went up to 4.5k but currently nobody does. Most of the manufacturers are using the Eminence 8" PA speaker.

jzucker · #4 04-20-2011, 09:27 PM

wow, I just looked up the price on the Chameleon. $1k is way over the top IMO. You can find a used RE NY8 for $350.

kris · #5 04-21-2011, 03:02 AM

what about Clarus and Redstone 10'?
Kris

Franz 1997 · #6 04-21-2011, 04:18 AM

The Chameleon seems to use a beyma 8" speaker and the response curve appears to drop off at about 5khz, tweeter disengaged. maybe that's why it's expensive.

jzucker · #7 04-21-2011, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franz 1997

The Chameleon seems to use a beyma 8" speaker and the response curve appears to drop off at about 5khz, tweeter disengaged. maybe that's why it's expensive.

in those demos, I wasn't hearing much above 4k but maybe that was the amp. I can't remember what amp it was but if it was an AI, there's little high freq content there. If it was the evans , maybe the treble was turned down.

fumblefingers · #8 04-21-2011, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franz 1997

The Chameleon seems to use a beyma 8" speaker and the response curve appears to drop off at about 5khz, tweeter disengaged. maybe that's why it's expensive.

i'm not speaker savvy. can you please translate that to players/listeners terms? thanks!

fumblefingers · #9 04-21-2011, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Z

I'd also like to hear some comments about the Chameleon as I have read great reviews, but have never had the opportunity to hear one.

Just to toss another speaker on the consideration... I was at Jeff Hale's store last year and played through several Raezer's Edge cabinets... NY8, Stealth 12, Twin 8, and a 6-8 cabinet. To me the clear winner was the 6-8 cabinet... Wow!

Benedetto Guitars uses a Chameleon... see the below wuote from thier FaceBook page...

Cheers,
Steve

i have another ignorant question. what does that pre-amp do for the sound?

Steve Z · #10 04-21-2011, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fumblefingers

i have another ignorant question. what does that pre-amp do for the sound?

I have no idea... just merely pointing out that the Chameleon is used at Benedetto. I think it may be part of Howard Paul's rig as I seem to remember seeing pictures of Howard playing gigs with the Chameleon raised up behind him on a speaker stand.

Good question though and one I have pondered as well.

Cheers,
Steve

Franz 1997 · #11 04-21-2011, 11:17 AM

i'm not speaker savvy. can you please translate that to players/listeners terms? thanks!

All it means is that the chameleon speaker should do a better job of reproducing higher frequencies - in practical terms, the harmonics/ overtones of the high strings. As jzucker pointed out in another thread, there is a point around 4 Khz which has particularly nice overtones for guitar, and this particular speaker should reproduce these overtones well, in theory, whereas the more common eminence 8" is not so effective. I've never heard a chameleon in action, so this is all conjecture.......

jzucker · #12 04-21-2011, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Z

I have no idea... just merely pointing out that the Chameleon is used at Benedetto. I think it may be part of Howard Paul's rig as I seem to remember seeing pictures of Howard playing gigs with the Chameleon raised up behind him on a speaker stand.

Good question though and one I have pondered as well.

Cheers,
Steve

preamp is used for tone controls because the AI tone controls are not in the right place for guitar, particularly the treble control.

John Link · #13 04-21-2011, 02:05 PM

Either one would be a good choice. I have an AI Ten2 extension cabinet that I use along with an AI Chorus combo amp. I love the Ten2, it was money well spent. In most situations the AI Chorus alone was good enough but in a really big room and especially when using a drummer I wanted the extra horse power so I added the Ten2. Before I started using the AI equipment I had a RE Twin 8 with another AI head, the first one they came out with, I forgot the model number. I have yet to hear the Buscarino Chameleon. However, if I had to replace my set up today I would get the AI Ten2 Combo.

jzucker · #14 04-21-2011, 02:23 PM

the problem with the corus is that the crossover is at 800hz so most of the guitar frequencies were going through the 5" front speaker. Not good.

John Link · #15 04-21-2011, 02:32 PM

Maybe that's why they came out with the Ten2 combo. The combination of the Chorus combo and the Ten2 Extension is the best sound I ever had. One front firing ten, two down firing tens, one front firing five and two tweeters. (I keep the tweeter turned off on both units).

jzucker · #16 04-21-2011, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Link

Maybe that's why they came out with the Ten2 combo. The combination of the Chorus combo and the Ten2 Extension is the best sound I ever had. One front firing ten, two down firing tens, one front firing five and two tweeters. (I keep the tweeter turned off on both units).

it's 1 downfiring and 1 frontfiring, not 2 downfiring. At least the one I saw...What's the freq response of the front firing 10? I haven't' seen a PA 10" speaker that reproduces much above 3.5k. Unless they're getting one custom made I'd suspect that you won't get much high freq without the tweeter.

John Link · #17 04-22-2011, 06:25 AM

I was counting the downfiring 10" speaker in the chorus + the ten2 together, I stack them.

jzucker · #18 04-22-2011, 06:42 AM

oh, but IMO two downfiring 10s is overkill for guitar. You'd be better off with 2 front firing 10s. I frankly don't think you need a downfiring 10 for guitar, especially a hollowbody.

mooseman · #19 11-08-2011, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzucker

the problem with the corus is that the crossover is at 800hz so most of the guitar frequencies were going through the 5" front speaker. Not good.

couldnt agree more. i have an ai corus plus combo, and most of everything i put thru the amp(violin, mandolin, acoustic and jazz guitar) ends up 5" heavy with little interest from the 10". i am currently looking to rectify that by going with a different cab. thinking of an RE ny-8ER cab as the solution(still want it lightweight like the combo...)

also +1 on the tone controls being fairly ineffective on the AI heads.

oldane · #20 11-09-2011, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fumblefingers

i have another ignorant question. what does that pre-amp do for the sound?

The Sansamp Paradriver DI is sort of a "Swiss Army Knife" of sound. It's an analog preamp (no COSM amp simulation), an EQ (with the option of changing the mid range frequency), a DI box. It can blend the incoming sound with the EQed sound. It can deliver very great changes to sound. It simulates tube sound and delivers an overdrive that will satisfy metal headbangers if you want that. It can also sound crystal clean and anything in between. It can be phantom powered. It has meany uses - one of them is to plug into a PA system or a recording mixer. It can plug into the front end of an amp or in the FX return channel (thereby bypassing the amps own preamp section). When the footswitch is turned off, it's a conventional DI box with no tone coloring. It can even be plugged into a living room stereo, if you want to play throuh that.

It's a very flexible tool, which can be used as a mic preamp, as DI box, as preamp for both piezo and magnetic PUs.

At present I use one with my old Evans amp in which the preamp is not working reliably anymore. However, the power amp is OK, and the sound is great with the Paradriver into the FX returns channel - and the tone shaping options are far greater than with the Evans built in preamp.

I guess the only reason there is also a Clarus amp in that picture is that the speaker is passive. For the sake of the sound there's no need to have all that EQ options on the Clarus when you have a Paradriver. The Paradriver can be used with good results directly into a powered speaker, say a PA speaker. Many like them when they want to go really small and light. Combined with a powered mini speaker - say a Behringer B205D - one has a very compact , cheap and light (under 4 kg) combo. Don't expect it to sound like a Twin Reverb though - more like a Lunchbox amp.

srgntschultz · #21 03-29-2012, 07:42 PM

I have and play the acoustic image and chameleon speaker cab. Its the BEST cabinet and head combination i have ever played through,and i have tried them all. First of all the chameleon has a list price of 800.00. It does have an 8-in speaker but not a cheap one like a lot of others. It has a high end Beyma coaxial speaker and a neodynium compression driver with dedicated tuned and timed alighned crossover. It is the only guitar speaker on the market with a true dual mode function switch to bypass the crossover so you can use the woofer for a conventional electric guitar tone. The frequency response is 70 to 20K! I use this for a kirk sand nylon electric guitar and various gretsch and gibson hollowbody guitars. It sounds unbelievablely warm with a ton of bass and most importantly a ton of punch that you can actually feel while you are playing!The highs are as clean as you would ever want and the mids unlike all other cabs and heads i have tried actually in your face! The cab sounds way way bigger than it looks. Its really that good! I bought the head and cab from John Buscarino and i love it so much my other chameleon cab will be at my house tommorow. Which will make it even better/bigger sounding. Go to Buscarino.com and check out the chameleon cab for yourself and go to youtube and put in chameleon and hear it for yourself. John is a great guy and put all his hard work and expertise in this cab and you will hear the difference when compared to all the others. You will not be disappointed.Thanks again John for a great Cabinet and head!

srgntschultz · #22 03-29-2012, 07:51 PM

I forgot to mention that you can go to chameleonspeakers.com for all the info and specs on the speaker cabs. thanks.

JohnKnowles · #23 03-29-2012, 11:59 PM

I play a Kirk Sand classical guitar with an LR Baggs LB6 pickup. I use an Evidence Audio Lyric HG cable. When I evaluate an amplification system, I listen for the musical qualities I hear when I play acoustically. The specs of a system are intersting to me, but not as interesting as the musicality of the system. I chose my current setup in Kirk Sand's shop. For several days, I played the Clarus+ with the Chameleon and the Raezers Edge. To my ear, the Chameleon sounded less electronic... more open than the Raezers Edge. As others listened, they said that I sounded more like myself with the Chameleon.

troxelj · #24 03-30-2012, 12:24 AM

I see some of the earlier misunderstandings about the Chameleon have been addressed already. As stated above, the frequency response is 70 to 20K - and the list price is $800 not $1000. I've got two Chameleons that I use with my Acoustic Image Clarus, and I think they're the best sounding speakers on the market for jazz guitar. I love that I can put them on a stand to get them above the band and out to the audience. It really helps control feedback even with an acoustic archtop playing loud.
I've tried several cabinets over the years and I'm really happy with these.