Triaxis / 2:90 Setup

[#2121313]

Hey Guys, been a while since I've been on the board, I've had several Mark series amps and usually play a head/cab type set up. I am purchasing my first rack gear and would like some advice. I am going with a Triaxis and a 2:90. My initial setup will be very basic, just those two pieces and a Furman PQ3 in the loop for further EQ'ing. I will be using a Marshall 1960B cab.

I read the manual, and have determined that I will be using the configuration shown below in the diagram.

I have two questions:

1) For the cables that plug between the triaxis and 2:90, do these need to be either A) speaker cables or B) of good quality? or are regular patch cables good enough?

I do have 2 really good Evidence Audio Lyric HG cables that I can use, should I use them between the Tri & 290 or with my PQ3 in the loop?

2) Potentially stupid question, but, is it possible to plug my the two speaker cables from the 290 into my one 1960 for stereo sound? There is a switch on the back of my 1960B cab that allows me to select stereo, so I am wondering if this will then separate the 4 speakers into two sets allowing a stereo type effect coming from one cab? Or is stereo only available with two cabs?





Thanks in advance for your help, go easy on me if my questions are dumb - any advice is greatlly appreciated

Mike

 

[masque]

yes the cables between the triaxis and the 290 should or can be regulard patch cables NOT speaker cables!!!!

and YES you should for sure set the 1960b into stereo mode and run both sides of the triaxis into both sides of the 290 and then channels a and b into the inputs on the cab and experience stereo sound......BUT keep in mind that if you dont have any stereo effects suchs as delays or chorus that you wont really understand what you have in this setup.

also, if you run the eq in the loop of the triaxis that should also be good quality patch cables.....many people debate on whether you should use the effects loop or run it "inline" but i have always been OK with the effects loop on my triaxis.

 

[elvis]

+1

I recommend that you NOT run the EQ at all until you've spent some time tweaking the Triaxis. It's complicated enough without adding more junk to the signal.

 

[#2121313]

yes the cables between the triaxis and the 290 should or can be regulard patch cables NOT speaker cables!!!!

and YES you should for sure set the 1960b into stereo mode and run both sides of the triaxis into both sides of the 290 and then channels a and b into the inputs on the cab and experience stereo sound......BUT keep in mind that if you dont have any stereo effects suchs as delays or chorus that you wont really understand what you have in this setup.

also, if you run the eq in the loop of the triaxis that should also be good quality patch cables.....many people debate on whether you should use the effects loop or run it "inline" but i have always been OK with the effects loop on my triaxis.

Thanks!

Makes total sense. Now two more things:

1) If I plug into the 1960B in stereo (see pic below), do I use the 8 ohm jacks on the back of the 290?

2) So, I have a good set of 2 Evidence Audio Cables and another set of basic patch cables, where should the good ones go, between the Tri & 290 or in the loop with the PQ3?






Thanks again,
Mike

 

[bjoneill74]

yes.. put the cab in stereo mode and use the 8 ohm outs on the 2:Ninety.

I personally use my 4 Ohm outs to my 2 Mesa 4x12's which are rated at 8 Ohms.
It sounds better and is a safe mismatch.

 

[#2121313]

Thanks.

So about the cables....I have a good set of 2 Evidence Audio Cables and another set of basic patch cables, where should the good ones go, between the Tri & 290 or in the loop with the PQ3?

 

[elvis]

It doesn't make much difference where the cables go because the signal will go through all of them at some point in the chain. Why not get a good set of patch cables for everything?

The patches will be at line level, so the quality is less important than if they were before the preamp. Still, a couple Mogamis wouldn't hurt.

The EQ will probably do more damage to your signal than the patch cables.

 

[#2121313]

It doesn't make much difference where the cables go because the signal will go through all of them at some point in the chain. Why not get a good set of patch cables for everything?

The patches will be at line level, so the quality is less important than if they were before the preamp. Still, a couple Mogamis wouldn't hurt.

The EQ will probably do more damage to your signal than the patch cables.

Yeah, another good set of cables would be ideal, just trying to keep the cost down if I can. I happened to already have the Evidence audio cables so...

The EQ should help shape, not cause damage? I know what you mean, in a tone suck sense, but I guess the benefits (hopefully) of the EQ should out weight the tone sucking con - right.

 

[ando]

If you are determined to spend as little money as possible, you could run it in Mono - using the two good cables you have. Or, buy some quality 1/4" plugs and cut your good leads in half (if they are long enough to reach where they need to go). You can make 4 good short leads out of two longer ones if you have the skills to do it. Don't worry about all that "sealed plug/oxygen free" crap they write on leads. If you use good quality parts and good technique they will work very well for a long time. Don't do it if you are not skilled enough though.

 

[DangerMoney]

+1

I recommend that you NOT run the EQ at all until you've spent some time tweaking the Triaxis. It's complicated enough without adding more junk to the signal.

Agreed. With all the tone-shaping controls on the Tri-Axis plus the Deep, Modern and Presence controls on the power amp, you should never need the EQ.

 

[ryjan]

The 3 cables for controlling the Deep, Modern, and Half Drive can be any cheap crappy cable. There is no audio signal going through these. They just signal the switching relays.
Unless you are running some stereo effects then running both sides of the power amp to you cab is overkill. Especially with no cab seperation. If you want to have a great stereo sound then you'll neeed something like a G-Major and a second cab.

 

[DangerMoney]

To maintain the health of the 2:90 power amp you need to connect both sides of it to a load (speaker cab). The 2:90 only has one standby switch so both sides are outputting a signal or neither are.

You've already got the stereo/mono switch on your cabinet. Why not use it?

 

[elvis]

My comments about EQ are nt about "tone suck". They are about "EQs are widely misused and usually do more harm than good".

One thing most people don't know about equalizers is that they create a tremendous amount of phase shift due to the generally high Q of the tight filter bands. That means that your tone will change even if the gain of a given frequency is not altered all that much. On top of that, most people have only a vague idea of how the EQ settings actually affect the tone, so they wind up getting farther away from what they want, rather than closer, on top of adding phase artifacts.

Ultimately, it's like putting pepper on steak you haven't tasted yet. How do you know it even needs it?

 

[#2121313]

thanks guys. many good points.

I'll grab a pair of good cables to go between my tri and 290 then a bare bones tri of cables for the switching.

yeah I'll tweak it the best I can before I venture off into the EQ.

I've had many Mark series amps - C+, III, IV & V. Does the Tri not have the same on board controls to shape tone? It almost sounds like (by the comments above) that the Tri would have more options, only differences I can see are the modern and deep switches...then the EQ sliders are a plus on the marks but the dynamic voice on the tri makes up for it so thats pretty much a wash.

thanks again for all the advise, looking forward to getting the new rack...