“The most natural sounding class-D amp I’ve ever played!” – Keith Duffy (with Ronan Keating, The Corrs etc)
We are really excited about introducing the new Reidmar head to the US at the NAMM Show! After some scepticism appearing at first, based on the figures presented about power handling and size alone, it has now turned into a pleasant surprise among early European customers, sales people and magazines – how come?
Well, when EBS decided to join the lightweight race, we had a clear view what we wanted to do. An amp that sounds as good as our renowned Solid State amps, but lighter.
While checking out the competition, we noticed that there where very few (if any) class D bass amps that provide a tone with the same head room and dynamics as a professional solid state or tube amp. In many cases, it just felt like a compromise where the tone had lost against the matter of size, and focus seems to have been more on size and weight – not far from how the cell phone race looked like some years ago. Nothing wrong with building the smallest possible amp, since that’s probably what some bass players look for as well, but it did not make sense for us in the philosophy of EBS to concentrate on size over tone, since one of the key features of EBS amps in general is the massive head room and dynamics.
We also noticed that many class D amps where rated at a power output level that they simply did not deliver – we even measured up some and got it on paper after both we and others that had the chance to A/B test the Reidmar against several other brands amps said to deliver around 500 W noticed that there where very little difference in power. In some cases the Reidmar even felt more powerful! EBS has always taken pride in rating amps honestly and presenting the figures that are as close to the reality as possible, and since Reidmar obviously kept up well with these so called 500 W amps, we decided to stand up for the 250 W RMS, even if we knew it would impress less people at the beginning.
The prediction seems to have been well grounded. When we presented the new amp online and sent out the press releases, we could pick up some threads on the forums questioning exactly what we expected – size and power. However, now when we see the first customer reviews from early European customers on the same forums and get the feedback from our distributors and retailers, as well as from the first magazines reviewing it we know we made the right choice – to focus on making a light bass amp that provide a full bodied and natural sound with plenty of head room and definition through out the scale!
We are also happy by the news that the EBS Reidmar 250 just got it’s first Award, after receiving an Editor’s Award in Polands major musicians magazine, Top Guitar in their current issue!
Come to EBS NAMM booth at HALL B, 5391 and make up your own opinion!
EBS REIDMAR is set to a US MAP price at 459 USD.
References:
Bass Chat UK thread about the EBS Reidmar
Talk Bass thread about the EBS Reidmar