I bought an Alpha 8A after someone at Parts Express left it a glowing review comparing it to a JBL D208. It thought it stank in my 5F1 and I now can't recommend it with a 5E3. In a little 12"x12" closed back it made my 5E3 sound like a ss amp, or tubes loaded down with pedals, like a little metal amp. Not so much dark as monotone lacking dynamics and crispness, zero sparkle, guess that's the sound of output stage break up and no speaker breakup.Cliff Schecht wrote:I'm pretty sure I'm going to build the ubiquitous 5E3 soon and need a speaker that will sound good with this. I'm thinking the Eminence Alpha 8a is about as good of a speaker as I'm going to get (200W, 100 spl, good freq. response and pretty cheap) for what I want to do here..
For a 75W speaker you'd think it'd be super clean but the deluxe sounded the same at all volumes, that grindy metal rock buzz at all settings. The bass was surprisingly weak too for a heavy 8, and had that underlying fuzzbox tone on the low notes of really annoying speakers. I used a G&L SC1 w/ Leo's twangiest pickup IMHO, and it went more boing than twang. So, it didn't do clean well nor classic rock/blues well. If it had some nasty snarl it might have done a mini version of the punk JCM800 G12M-65 sound but it had no snarl. I not crazy about the Jensen Mod 8 I also have, too early 2 dimensional break up, but it's much better than this.
If your willing to forgo all that, or you just love what I hate I'll sell you mine. PM if you just gotta have it.
-rp