Very helpful comparisons! Thanks for posting.
Not having heard one before, I'm surprised that the Reeves has more low end than the 2000S. Not so surprising compared with the Ampeg, even though the SVT is a strong, solid head for those who like them.
I think the Reeves has more clean bottom that any amp I’ve ever played, very visceral at gig volume through vented cabs, if there actually
was a “brown note” this would be the amp to find it.
Along those lines, this is an excerpt from a post I made on another forum regarding those clips, an interesting phenomenon I noticed;
“In fact, I think you did a great job of capturing at least some aspects of the “live” experience, but it probably takes a sub woofer equipped computer sound system to experience it. What prompted me to post this is an interesting experience when I played the “clean” clips in my office. It’s no secret I lean heavily towards a little growl, and don’t really have much use for the total power tube saturation thing. Anyway, the subsonic response of the different amps caused an interesting phenomenon. As I said, I was in my office, not a studio, and there are all kind of mechanical “fuzz boxes”; blinds, printers, coffee cups with pens in them, etc.
I noticed when I turned up the “pbass walk” clips a little that with the SVT everything stayed static, when the 2000S was playing things started buzzing, and with the Reeves all hell broke loose; things were rattling, buzzing, and singing all over the place. They sounded pretty even SPL wise to my ears, so I got out a meter to see what I would find. SVT-86.5 dB, Sunn-87.3 dB, Reeves-84.6 db; and while the Sunn and the Reeves indeed sounded deeper than the way you had the SVT dialed in, I’m talking about real low frequency stuff. My handheld sound level meter is only rated down to 31.5 hz, and this stuff was subsonic IMO so it probably didn’t much affect the SPL readings I was getting.” I love my Sunns, particularly the 2000S’s, but the Reeves C225 destroys it as far as sheer power, clean response, and bottom end. Not real surprising since the C225 measures 256 watts @ 5% THD, as tested by Bass Gear Magazine in lab conditions. Side by side, cranked flat out it is easily as loud or louder than an SVT, and louder than the Ampeg “squeaky clean”.
That said, I personally think a 2000S rig
sounds sweeter, at least to my ears. I mainly gig the Reeves through a EVM15L loaded 215S cab (L’s because of the stupendous bottom end inherent in the Reeves), but if I was willing to deal with the cartage I’d have a 2000S rig at every gig. As it is, I bring a 2000S head as a backup to the Reeves, but I just can’t stand the “T” look of a head overhanging a cab on stage…
On a final note; I’m picking up a modified C225 this evening from Reeves. It’s “dirtied up” a little to try to market to potential customers of SVT’s, Orange, Mesa, etc. that find the Reeves
too hi-fi. If they (Reeves) allow it, I’ll get more into details later, I’m not real sure if I should have mentioned it at all.
