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[Luke Geis]

As I typically do, I sit around on my free time checking stuff out, keeping up on the latest stuff that interests me and blogging words that most probably think are silly and wasting internet space. Today I caught a doozy. It turns out that one of the guitar companies that specializes in amplifier modelers ( digital guitar amps )  is offering a special FR?FR speaker specifically designed for reproducing guitar signals......

Enter the Headrush brand of Guitar amp modeling and their new Headrush FRFR 112 speaker just for demanding guitarists like you and me. Funny thing is, Alto has a peculiar looking speaker called the TS312 which looks exactly like the Headrush FRFR 112!!!! What a coincidence.

For those of you not familiar with the newer lingo in the guitar world, FR/FR is a newer term used to describe what we call PA speakers. FR/FR stands for Full Range Frequency Response. Who would have thought right? This term has been going around for almost 10 years but hasn't really picked up any real momentum until about the last 2-3 years when guitar modelers have actually started getting rather good. Most of the companies making FR/FR speakers are making one of their own design or at least the cabinet is original anyway. I'm quite certain several are just taking a basic powered PA speaker apart and putting the components in a cabinet that looks more like a guitar cab. Heck, some even look more like speakers used in a car type audio system.

Back to the two speakers at hand. Included are some pictures and you can see right away, that they are the same thing with a different name on them. My real question is, who actually makes the things? Do Alto and Headrush get them from another OEM supplier, or does Alto rebrand them for Headrush? I know that Headrush is not the OEM.

I say getting boned because as most of us know, Alto is not exactly the screaming example of audio perfection and performance. While no slouch by any means, they are not top of the heap. The Headrush company is a group of AVID employees that left and utilizing much of the technology that existed in the 11Rack ( ala Digi02 with ProTools for guitars ) created their own company. The 11Rack was at one point the best you could get before Fractal Audio came along and stole the show ( Fractal was always ahead, but no one could afford them and they were still relatively new ). Now Headrush is also leasing technology from Alto it appears. Anyways, here are some pictures to postulate over.

[Martin Morris]

As I typically do, I sit around on my free time checking stuff out, keeping up on the latest stuff that interests me and blogging words that most probably think are silly and wasting internet space. Today I caught a doozy. It turns out that one of the guitar companies that specializes in amplifier modelers ( digital guitar amps )  is offering a special FR?FR speaker specifically designed for reproducing guitar signals......

Enter the Headrush brand of Guitar amp modeling and their new Headrush FRFR 112 speaker just for demanding guitarists like you and me. Funny thing is, Alto has a peculiar looking speaker called the TS312 which looks exactly like the Headrush FRFR 112!!!! What a coincidence.

For those of you not familiar with the newer lingo in the guitar world, FR/FR is a newer term used to describe what we call PA speakers. FR/FR stands for Full Range Frequency Response. Who would have thought right? This term has been going around for almost 10 years but hasn't really picked up any real momentum until about the last 2-3 years when guitar modelers have actually started getting rather good. Most of the companies making FR/FR speakers are making one of their own design or at least the cabinet is original anyway. I'm quite certain several are just taking a basic powered PA speaker apart and putting the components in a cabinet that looks more like a guitar cab. Heck, some even look more like speakers used in a car type audio system.

Back to the two speakers at hand. Included are some pictures and you can see right away, that they are the same thing with a different name on them. My real question is, who actually makes the things? Do Alto and Headrush get them from another OEM supplier, or does Alto rebrand them for Headrush? I know that Headrush is not the OEM.

I say getting boned because as most of us know, Alto is not exactly the screaming example of audio perfection and performance. While no slouch by any means, they are not top of the heap. The Headrush company is a group of AVID employees that left and utilizing much of the technology that existed in the 11Rack ( ala Digi02 with ProTools for guitars ) created their own company. The 11Rack was at one point the best you could get before Fractal Audio came along and stole the show ( Fractal was always ahead, but no one could afford them and they were still relatively new ). Now Headrush is also leasing technology from Alto it appears. Anyways, here are some pictures to postulate over.

Luke - check out Big Mick Hughes on modeling guitars for Metallica ... and he so wanted to hate it?!

The whole interview is worthy of a watch - the guitar fractal/modeling fun starts at 6.50 mins.

Half a truck of backline ... history!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niCoi9nlh9g

 

[Stephen Beatty]

 I wonder if I should contact Alto about any upgrades to my TS310's for "Guitar Sound" updates.

[Mal Brown]

I had a series of shows last season where the lead guitars were Line 6 Helix or Kemper Profilers.  They were great.  My fave was the Profiler powered head driving a 2x12 slant cab.  Great sounding rig.  Big time vocals in the act so low stage volume and you’d never know by the guitar sound.  Really impressive.

[Ed Walters]

These are both inMusic brands. Sixty seconds of search finds that out. Of course it’s the same speaker, it’s the same company.

Ed

[Justice C. Bigler]

What a weird coincidence.

I was just playing with a local blues band tonight. My first time playing in any group for nearly 10 years.

And one of the guitar players had one of the HeadRush pedal boards. And oddly enough, the website front page for HeadRush has a picture of a Julius Keilwerth SX90R Tenor saxophone, which is the exact same model of tenor saxophone that I play, albeit in a slightly different finish.   

[Justice C. Bigler]

These are both inMusic brands. Sixty seconds of search finds that out. Of course it’s the same speaker, it’s the same company.

Ed

InMusic also owns Air Music Technology and M-Audio, both of which used to be owned by Avid.

[Chris Grimshaw]

I say getting boned because as most of us know, Alto is not exactly the screaming example of audio perfection and performance.

Not sure I see the issue here.

The guitar amp is part of the musical instrument. If the people using the speakers are happy with the sound (just like all the people using 30w 12" drivers with stamped frames mounted in chipboard cabinets), what's the problem?

Chris

[Caleb Dueck]

Not sure I see the issue here.

The guitar amp is part of the musical instrument. If the people using the speakers are happy with the sound (just like all the people using 30w 12" drivers with stamped frames mounted in chipboard cabinets), what's the problem?

Chris

The purposes are totally different.  The low power 12" in even an open back cabinet - is intended to reproduce a limited frequency range with poor impulse response and high distortion.  The PA/FRFR monitor/etc is intended to reproduce full frequency range with excellent frequency, phase, and impulse response and ultra low distortion. 

One creates tone, the other reproduces with as close to zero added tone.

[Guy Graham]

I think Luke's original point was mainly aimed around something I've also noticed, when occasionally perusing popular guitar/instrument orientated forums - the recent increase in capability and popularity of guitar amp modelling devices, appears to also have created a "new" market segment of so-called FRFR (mainly) powered speakers.

This creates new opportunities to leverage existing product designs, and brand/market them in a way that appears attractive to users of these modern upmarket modellers.

What I've noticed in reading discussions amongst guitar players, is that many don't necessarily seem to realise these FRFR boxes are exactly the same as most of the typical inexpensive powered PA products using the same driver compliment and so forth.

Whilst there's nothing inherently wrong with all this, it seems that the marketing is taking advantage of those folks unfamiliar with the plethora of powered PA speakers.

Hence whilst the current Headrush version of the Eleven amp modeller is near the top end of that market, the Headrush branded version of InMusic's budget powered speaker is easily potentially viewed as a higher quality product of that type.

I've noticed lots of discussion on those guitar forums around whether [insert generic powered speaker de jour] is as good as / better / worse than products like the Headrush branded options.

Whilst it's clear most of those consumers seem to recognise that regular powered utility boxes can fulfill the same basic function as products branded and marketed as "specialised" speakers for outputting modelled guitar sound, the protracted parsing of minute differences in key metrics such as sound quality, usable maximum output and build quality - suggests that the guitar-specific marketing goes some way towards clouding judgements, often in favour of products promoted via the latter.

I don't see anything particularly wrong with *fairly* exploiting a potential new market segment, it's notable that most of the popular powered speakers getting discussed and used for this purpose are generally towards the bottom end of the market (think nasty MDF Berry types etc).

As a dispassionate observer not invested in anything more expensive than a £50 Zoom box, which covers my minimal multi FX needs for bass plus acoustic and electric guitar - it seems odd to read such fiercely debated discussions around the merits of using a £150 or a £300 powered speaker, to reproduce the output of processing devices that mainly cost well in excess of £1000!

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