WELCOME TO THE FUTURE.....

Email: info@bassgeardirect.com.au              Phone: 02 9759 1311

One of my biggest challenges and concerns since founding Bergantino Audio Systems was to make sure my customers could hear my cabinets at their best, both in terms of tone and performance.

From a pure performance stand point, most bass heads on the market were not designed for the modern rigors of bass production. Specifically, with the growing popularity of 5 string basses, the demands placed on cabinets and amps designed for 4 string basses has been tremendous. In order to reproduce the fundamentals of the low B, you need lots of clean amp power and headroom, along with long excursion, low resonance woofers. Unfortunately many of the more popular heads on the market, and still in use today, are not up for this challenge. Why? Because when powering long excursion woofers you need extra amp power just to make up for the lower sensitivity ratings, which is a result of their longer voice coils and heavier masses. This decrease in sensitivity typically translates into needing an amp capable of delivering at least twice the power. Couple that with the fact that most of these mass market heads and amps can not even deliver their rated power continuously, never mind having any dynamic reserve capabilities. Their over-stated specs, along with their under designed power supplies, cause them to fall short when powering a speaker designed for high performance, high output applications. The relationship of an under powered amp and high performance speaker can cause much frustration to the bass player, both in terms of obtaining the volume and performance the cabinet is capable of, and more importantly, premature failure (not to mention the added expense) due to clipping.

There’s no free lunch, and you can’t “fight” or change the laws of physics. This is why I have always been a fan of separates, because the best performing and designed amps come from the PA side of the industry. These amps are used daily in very demanding touring applications and can deliver the continuous and dynamic power typically unmatched in the MI market. They also offer the bassist a much better value and reliability rate due to their economies of scale and highly skilled and talented engineers. Keep in mind, however, that even in the PA industry, not all amps are created equal, regardless of what the specs or manufacturers may say. Because of this, I have been very specific with my customers as to which amps I recommend, and which amps I do not. After all, my only vested interest in all of this is that of my customer’s and not another manufacturer’s !

It’s been very easy to recommend a high performance PA amp since they are all readily available. However, my biggest challenge has been the limited flexibility of EQ options available on most bass heads and preamps, along with the added concern of players not understanding the relationship between these EQ’s and their speakers. In addition to all of this, just like there is no one size fits all shoe, there is no one EQ “fits” all speakers. If every speaker has a different frequency response, especially in the bass region, then how can the same EQ adjust them all to the same response? The answer is they can’t !

I believe for years bass players have been chasing their “tails” for this very reason. Trying to find an amp/speaker combination that gets them where they need to be, both in terms of tone and performance. Typically many players resolve themselves to the fact that they are going to just have to settle for tradeoffs and compromises which best suit their needs. But that was then. With the precision of DSP, coupled with the very precise measurements we perform on all of our speakers, we have been able to create a product which can give you everything! No longer will you have to give up cut or punch for low end extension, or midrange clarity for warmth and fatness. It’s all there. 10’ s will still sound like 10’s, and 12’s will still sound like 12’s, but they will all reproduce the frequency range of your bass consistently from the low B to the highest note on the G string. No holes, no peaks. It’s like bringing your studio sound to “live”. Add to this our great sounding, high efficient, Class AD amplifiers, and you can approach an audiophile tone quality only before realized with linear Class A amps. This, along with the latest in advanced Switching Technology; allows us to offer it all in a high performance, 7lb. package !!

The future is here for bass amplification, and the IP series is ready to deliver it to you !

Warmest Regards,

Jim Bergantino  - Bergantino Audio Systems