Tech Talk - Gallien-Krueger 2001RB Owner's Manual

Tech Talk

The 2001RB is a flexible, state of the art bass amplifier,
designed to deliver maximum performance, and be
simple to operate. This is accomplished through a few,
very important features:
Extremely high current power supply and power
amp circuitry allows you to create the tones you've
always imagined having in a bass amp.
Bi-Amp sound, two power amps, 540 Watts for the
woofer (1080W bridged) and 50 Watts for the horn.
Electronic crossover, seamless two-way sound. Four,
Bass specific bands of active equalization for precise
tone control.
Three voicing filters for shaping and customizing
your sound.
Balanced direct output with level control eliminates
need for a direct box.
Continuously variable fan cooling.
Designed and Built in the U.S. for years of reliability
and quality service.
High Current Output & Bass Response: When a
power amplifier is pushing several speaker cones, and a
high power transient like a string slap comes along, the
amp has to tap into a large power reserve to maintain
cone control. It's kind of like grabbing a swing at the
bottom of it's travel and trying to push it the other way
- it could knock you over. If the amplifier doesn't have
this ability, the sound is unresponsive and less out front.
The amp loses it's punch and feel at higher playing
levels. Instead of responding to your every command,
the amplifier simply cuts those transients off, leaving
you with the feeling that something is missing in your
sound. Since most amplifiers have limited output
current capacity, they need 'current limiting circuits' to
protect against self destruction. High power transients
trigger these circuits, which rob the amplifier of it's
ability to control speaker cones. This creates a mushy,
unresponsive feel to your sound. The 2001RB has
extremely high current capacity, so it doesn't need
current limiting circuits for overload protection. There
is nothing in the 2001RB power amp to come between
you and your sound except faithful, raw power.
2001RB
Biamp Sound: Bass players have always liked the
growl they get from slight overdrive. In GK amps this
comes partly from the boost circuits and partly from the
power amp. The problem is that growl, sounds great
through woofers, and horrible through horns. In the
typical full range system with a passive crossover, there
is no way to get growl and keep the definition that the
horn provides. The horn always has to be turned down.
In a biamp system like the 2001RB, the woofer and the
horn, each have their own power amp, allowing us to
get growl in the woofer only, while keeping the horn
sound crystal clear. Now you can overdrive the woofer
as much as you want, and leave the horn all the way up,
keeping the definition it brings to your sound. Running
the 2001RB in biamp mode through a GK-RBH or
NEO cabinet, for the first time allows full access to the
benefits of biamp sound. This is the reason the 2001RB
is a biamp, and it is the reason you will be able to
explore an entirely new territory of bass sound.
Electronic Crossover: Biamp systems allow the
crossover to be electronic and therefore, have much
higher quality and control of your sound than passive
crossovers. A crossover separates the sound into two
parts (high and low frequency). The highs are sent to
the horn or high frequency cabinet and the lows are sent
to the woofer. In an ideal system, adding the highs and
the lows back together would recover the original
signal. Most passive bass systems have very poor
crossovers, resulting in severe signal corruption. When
these signals are added back together (as in your ear),
they have very little in common with the original signal.
The 2001RB uses a constant voltage crossover which
results in very little signal corruption. In fact, when the
high and low signals are added back together, the result
is extremely close to the original. This makes a two way
system sound more seamless, and less artificial. We
have also included a Tweeter Hi-Cut switch in the
crossover, which rolls the tweeter off above 10kHz
giving it a less glassy, more cone like sound.
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