Henriksen Bud 6 as a head

[omphalopsychos]

Has anyone used their Bud with an external cabinet? When Henriksen put out their head version of the bud (which is now discontinued), I was tempted to get one, but then I realized that the dimensions are almost identical to the bud 6, so it didn't really make sense. In fact, with the Bud, I could use the combo as a head/monitor plus an external cab. The only problem, is the 6" speaker in the bud is much quieter than an external 10 or 12" speaker, so the monitor idea doesn't really work. But it still works nicely with an external cab.


Anyway, I do think an external cabinet completely changes the quality of the bud (for the better), especially with an open back cabinet.

[Tom Karol]

I can't find my original post from a year or so ago, "An Old Man's New Semi-Modular Rig - 1st Impressions," with the search function - don't know why, but ...
I use my Bud 6 sitting on top of one of two different 8 ohm bass cabinets with very pleasing results:
A TC Electronics BC208 (2 8" speakers stacked vertically), which I use with electric guitars;
A Warwick Gnome 10 cabinet which has 1 10" speaker and an adjustable tweeter, which I use with a variety of amplified acoustic instruments.

[Stringswinger]

I sometimes use my Bud 6 with my Rich Raezer built Stealth 12ER. It sounds great!

[EastwoodMike]

Have used ours with a Toob12S as an extension. Can point either at the band or the Audience or reflect off a back wall. No problem with volume at all.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I sometimes use my Bud 6 with my Rich Raezer built Stealth 12ER. It sounds great!

It sounds great with my RE 10 and my RevSound 8RS too. But those are ported, as is the internal cab. With my Quilter BlockDock 12HD (open back 12” Celestion 300), the deep bass is not quite as tight and clean. The added sound radiation from the open back does yield a bigger sound field. But I think the Bud & Blu make their tightest and best balanced sound through ported cabs.

[Woody Sound]

I sometimes use my Bud 6 with my Rich Raezer built Stealth 12ER. It sounds great!

Same exact thing here! I always thought of the Bud 6 as a great head, with the additional benefit of a nice built-in speaker if needed.

[omphalopsychos]

David you might know. The bud combo expects minimum 8 ohm load from external speaker. The head expects 4 ohm. I assume the combo can handle 4 but they wrote 8 bc the internal speakers provides 8 ohms resistance in parallel.

Heres my question. If I plug in headphones, that disconnects the internal speaker. So does that mean I can plug my bud into my 4x10 mini stack? It’s 2 8 ohm cabs in parallel.

[Freddels]

Henriksen sells an 8ohm extension cab to go along with the combos. So, you can add an 8ohm cab along with the built in speaker for a 4ohm load. If you insert a 1/4 plug into the headphone jack, it defeats the internal speaker so you can use 2 8ohm extensions cabs (or one 4ohm) extension cab. You can send an email to Henriksen to confirm this if you have any doubts.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Henriksen sells an 8ohm extension cab to go along with the combos. So, you can add an 8ohm cab along with the built in speaker for a 4ohm load. If you insert a 1/4 plug into the headphone jack, it defeats the internal speaker so you can use 2 8ohm extensions cabs (or one 4ohm) extension cab. You can send an email to Henriksen to confirm this if you have any doubts.

I agree. I’ve been tempted to try it with 2 Toobs, but the need hasn’t come up yet. I’m still not certain how much power the Bud & Blu put into 4 Ohms because Henriksen literature just says 120W. There are class D amps with power supplies robust enough to push more power into lower impedances. But very few can come close to twice the wattage into half the load.

Remember that doubling the wattage means a 3 dB increase in SPL at most (all other things remaining the same). Even if a Bud / Blu can push 140W through 4 Ohms, you won’t get even one extra dB. Even if it could hit 160W wide open with a hot pickup or a boost pedal, it won’t be significantly louder. The extra speaker broadens the sound radiation pattern, so a wider area can be covered. But the overall max SPL will be little more than a dB higher (which is essentially inaudible).

If you need to run your amp wide open to get enough volume, I’d suggest that you may well need a more powerful amp.

[aquin43]

The ICEpower 300AS1 module just starts to enter clipping at 300W into 4 Ohms and 120W into 8 Ohms according to its data sheet. It looks as if it maybe runs out of volts at 8 Ohms and current at 4 Ohms.

300W at 1% THD+N, 4 Ohm
260W at 0.1% THD+N, 4 Ohm
380W at 10% THD+N, 4 Ohm
450W at 1% THD+N, 2.7 Ohm

[Gitterbug]

Never... already said what I had in mind: an extension speaker adds very little to overall volume but helps broaden/direct sound projection. A 99 dB extension speaker is a mismatch with Bud's 94(?) dB on-board speaker, which might just as well be muted.

I have of course daisy-chained Toobs and Metros to various 2x6.5" and 2x10-12" combinations. Even a 4x12", which is easy to put together with a couple of contoured plywood plates. My finding is that the Metros sound better alone, while pairing two larger speakers does add girth for rock'n'roll. However, no matter how exactly you place them side-by-side, the resulting sound is more trebly than from a single speaker. This must have something to do with low vs. high frequency interference and reflections, and may vary from one venue to another.