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Aspen Pittman Designs Spacestation XL


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I used to have the original... should've kept it even though it was a little underpowered and far too heavy for its size.

This new one is a LOT more expensive ($1500.00!!) but I still love the idea of a single point source stereo and I agree with what Mr. Pittman has to say about the impracticality of stereo in most live situations.  I also love the idea of carrying one speaker to the gig. One thing he doesn't directly mention in this video is that you don't get any of the phase cancellation issues that you get when you sum pretty much any stereo signal to mono. This, by the way, is why the double tracking effect on the Helix doesn't work for crap in mono. It would work extremely well on the Spacestation.

 

Now for the bad.  65 lbs?! Seriously? In this day and age of switching power supplies and neodymium magnets? 

 

Spacestation XL

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Ouch. Interesting idea, but no thanks.

 

Is there something about the tech that's inherently heavy? I haven't researched how it does its thing at all, so foo on me, but does anyone know?

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I think it’s the use of regular magnets instead of Neodymium on the speakers. It’s also made of wood not ABS plastic. I can see advantages to using wood but not using Neodymium on the speakers is just plain silly. Especially at those price points. As I said, Zooey, I had one of the first gen models and it sounded great but was a little under powered and heavy for its size. 

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7 hours ago, hideout said:

I think it’s the use of regular magnets instead of Neodymium on the speakers. It’s also made of wood not ABS plastic. I can see advantages to using wood but not using Neodymium on the speakers is just plain silly. Especially at those price points. As I said, Zooey, I had one of the first gen models and it sounded great but was a little under powered and heavy for its size. 

 

They seem to use a 12" Eminence driver wich is able to bear a coaxial tweeter. The only driver i know ist the Beta12CX wich has a ferrite magnet. But - it's still lighter than many 12" drivers with neodymium magnet suitable as coax base. If the Beta12CX is the perfect base for a speaker priced 1.500 $  (1.600 € in Germany)?

So the weight does come more from the baffle. Even a wood baffle can be light, using thin but braced walls of poplar plywood but it seems that an old fashioned heavy design was choosen here.  Eminence Beta 12CX + heavy wood enclosure = 1.600 €? No thanks.

I'm even not shure if i would like the concept: The 6.5 stereo speakers in the sides start beaming at about 3 KHz so in the front of tha speaker, stereo will be limited to about 5000 Hz with just a few distance between both chanels - probably digitally enhanced, wich is not the same as "real" stereo.

What i miss in the spec sheet is at least a frequency response and the loudness of 116 dB (at what frequency) seems a bit weak to me for a 700 watt (what watt???) speaker. The Emi does'nt  support so much power.

I guess: I'm always a bit sceptical if there are no real technical specs and measurements...but a lot of written words.

 

I think this would not be an alternative to 2 separate 12" poweed Coax speakers.  My own speakers have together 22 kg/48.5 pound, 800 watts RMS. I can place them in a right distance for real stereo or as a stack - just as i want. They're able to amplify bass as well as recorded music (just one of them moves more air than on Emi 12CX) - and real stereo if i want.

So i prefer  a solution with 2 speakers. And for guitar mono, i can travel with one of them with 11 kg/24 pounds, 400 watt.

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As I said, I had the original and even though it was underpowered and overweight, it did sound amazing and as Mr. Pittman claims, you heard the stereo effect pretty much anywhere in the room. 

That I do miss quite a lot. 

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47 minutes ago, brue58ski said:

I wish someone around here had one in store. It sounds very cool if it works but that's a lot of money that I don't have right now. Would love to see if it's worth saving up for.

I agree that would be very nice indeed. 

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  • 1 year later...

Still got my mine that I used with Nord keyboard. It is great for organ sounds with Leslie effects and any stereo patch especially strings. Never liked it with guitar.  Had a little try tonight with Helix floor with some stereo patches and in conjunction with Powercab and sounded pretty good. What was very noticeable was that the reverb/delays and other effects went on for much longer on the Spacestation than the Powercab. Too much in fact. Will try out some rotary effects and a W/D/W config over the weekend and see if can get a better mix. The other thing with the Spacestation is that they sound much better from a distance to get the stereo effect - 10 feet or more and you must feed it stereo. Not sure whether it will be worth lugging it to a gig and don't think it would cope on its own in rock band but will so how it goes. 

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I've been using A Spacestation 2 for about 2 years and I love it!! I am a music minister at a local church (recently featured in mix magazine) where our sanctuary seats 700 people. I can fill that space with my Helix and the Spacestation and everyone hears a 3 dimensional image. I play JTV Variax guitars outfitted with Fishman Triple Play MIDI pickups driving VST instruments on my laptop. I feed the synths into the Helix on USB 3&4 where they have their own stereo path (where I can add processing and use snaphots) then combine and output with the guitar signal into the Spacestation. The side firing speaker projects the my stereo guitar FX & the synths in lush stereo, while my guitar signal is primarily in the front firing speakers. This is particularly nice with the ElectroHarmonix Lester-G pedal (which I have in a Helix FX loop and blend the return @50%). Sounds amazing. I highly recommend the Amp!!

 

(As with any time you change from one amp to another, you will need to adjust your patches...)

Pedalboard @ church #1.jpg

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