Sunburst Gear M6BR8 B-stock on eBay

[lkingston]

I just ordered one of these. I got it for $260. I already have an EAE D6-8 which I adore. My goal for this lower cost version is just for practicing and fun. My thing is working with a singer so I need at least three channels (two vocals, one guitar). I wish it had the excellent EAE reverb, but I like to practice without effects because it makes me pay more attention to my articulation (both on vocals and guitar), so it is probably good that it isn’t available. I expect it to sound very, very good at practice levels:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F232674954798

[varmonter]

let us know what you think.
these refurb units on ebay are a great deal.

[varmonter]

You seem to tout these a lot here . Are you
affiliated with EAE or sunburst.? I have to ask?
no offense meant..

[lkingston]

No affiliation with the company at all.

[varmonter]

does the m6br8 have tone/eq control
for each channel like the d6-8 or is it just like some
kind of master control on the top?

[lkingston]

Just volume and pan on the individual channels. One master three band EQ on the top. The D6-8 has a far more complex mixer.

[varmonter]

yea the digital interface can be far more
versatile /upgradable because it's all coding.
I asked them about adding eq to the xlr outs
in the aux send and got a reply yesterday saying that
it was done. Not sure if you want/can upgrade (i think it's done via pc thru the midi.)
yours but if you want it's available now. Seem to have good CS.
Or they just thought i had a good idea... LoL.

Let me know how you like the m6br8.
i would think using it with a vocal and
guitar would be hard as there is no individual
eq. might have to add outboard eq to the
guitar.

[lkingston]

It should come the day after tomorrow. I wouldn’t have bought it at regular price. One of the things I find myself using my D6-8 for is as a portable mono reference speaker/amp. This morning I just did some voiceover editing for a radio ad my wife needs and the D6-8 let me set the EQ, noise reduction and compression levels on my laptop. I expect to use the M6br8 for a portable recording monitor a lot. I’m pretty deaf in one ear so a single nice mono reference monitor type speaker is all that I need.

I’m at the point where I have a couple of portable bluetooth speakers that I’ve had for a couple of years so that the batteries don’t hold much charge. The EAE/Sunburst Gear batteries are just standard sealed lead acid ones that you can replace yourself, so this will also function as a bluetooth speaker that won’t run through it’s life in two years.

It should also sound really good with my Yamaha Silent guitar.

[varmonter]

The battery's not being proprietary is a nice
feature. Being sealed you can lay the speaker
horizontal as well.i am really close on pulling
the trigger on one of the d6-8. Are the vocals
good enough for a small live gig . i am pretty
much a baritone. ??

[lkingston]

The D6-8 is the best sounding guitar and vocals amp I have ever heard. It has a limited maximum volume but beyond that it is designed to send a mono or stereo mix to a PA. Like the Bose S1, it is 40 Watts. I use the standard 1 watt per audience member calculation and would say that either this or an S1 will handle an audience of about 40, though with a polite listening audience you could probably get a little more.

The two main places I play both have house PA systems and I am planning to use the D6-8 as my monitor and tap into their systems. My first gig doing it this way will be next Friday.

[lkingston]

The Sunburst Gear M6BR8 just came last night and I tried it out this morning. It has no effects. Just a simple mixer with six inputs (4 mono, 1 stereo) and volume and pan controls. That plus a separate aux in/bluetooth with its own volume control.

With just 30 Watts and a slightly smaller speaker it isn’t as loud or as full sounding as the D6-8, but it certainly does sound very good. The high frequency driver sounds the same on both units. It’s like comparing two different sizes of near field monitors.

The size and weight difference isn’t as much as you would expect. The D6-8 is about 2” bigger in all directions and about 4 pounds heavier.

Between the lower wattage and the far simpler mixer, battery play time is a lot longer. Because it was so much cheaper (with the eBay b-stock deal) I can see using this for picnics, pool side and family outings where I wouldn’t want to use the D6-8. You can charge it as you drive. I won’t use it for gigging although you probably could. I think it would be fine for busking.

Every so often my wife needs a small sound system for business presentations. If nothing else, it will be worth having this system to lend her so I don’t have to let her use my D6-8 or Bose S1.

[NotValid]

Probably not a fair comparison but instead of the S1 as the other half of your setup try M6BR8 with the D6. I very interested to see how that sounds.

[dogdog49]

Originally Posted by lkingston

The D6-8 is the best sounding guitar and vocals amp I have ever heard. It has a limited maximum volume but beyond that it is designed to send a mono or stereo mix to a PA. Like the Bose S1, it is 40 Watts. I use the standard 1 watt per audience member calculation and would say that either this or an S1 will handle an audience of about 40, though with a polite listening audience you could probably get a little more.

The two main places I play both have house PA systems and I am planning to use the D6-8 as my monitor and tap into their systems. My first gig doing it this way will be next Friday.

Would you say then that the D6-8 is as loud as the S-1? I'm looking for a battery powered option with a bit more depth and volume than my EA A1BR8 (which I love) and I'm thinking about the EA A4-8 which has the same speakers and wattage as the D6-8 with less features (which I have no need for). Since you're saying that the D6-8 is better sounding than the S-1 and the S-1 with battery is the same price as the A4-8 can you see any reason why someone would prefer the S1?

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by NotValid

Probably not a fair comparison but instead of the S1 as the other half of your setup try M6BR8 with the D6. I very interested to see how that sounds.

Actually I did try that and sounded really nice.

Do you remember the early Bose Wave radios? They had left and right speakers, but the left speaker had this long bass port which extended and wound around the unit and came out just to the right of the right speaker. The right speaker was shunted and had no porting at all. Thus there were highs coming out of both sides but all the lows were coming from whatever audio was going to the left side. It looked like this:



That is sort of what happens when you mix the two different sized EAE and Sunburst Gear speakers. There are more lows coming from the left EAE unit, but your ears don’t really pick up on the low frequency direction. The mids and highs are pretty even from both units so you get a surprisingly good stereo image. You have to turn the Sunburst Gear speaker up more and it starts to distort earlier.

It still sounds better than I expected though and you can hear the stereo imaging in the reverb and especially the chorus effects.

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by dogdog49

Would you say then that the D6-8 is as loud as the S-1? I'm looking for a battery powered option with a bit more depth and volume than my EA A1BR8 (which I love) and I'm thinking about the EA A4-8 which has the same speakers and wattage as the D6-8 with less features (which I have no need for). Since you're saying that the D6-8 is better sounding than the S-1 and the S-1 with battery is the same price as the A4-8 can you see any reason why someone would prefer the S1?

They are pretty close in levels although the S1 does seem to be a hair louder. The S1 is designed to throw the audio a little but the D6-8 is just a near field monitor design. I don’t believe there’s enough difference where the S1 could handle a situation where the D6-8 couldn’t. I have both and when you use them together the balance is actually pretty close.

The D6-8 is definitely a prettier sound by quite a distance.

I would recommend getting the D6-8 over the A4-8 even if you don’t need the extra channels. There are other really important features that the D6-8 has:

1) Compressors on each channel. This means you can drive it harder before distortion.

2) Adjustable high pass filters on each channel. There’s a lot of low frequency stuff on an acoustic guitar that you don’t need to hear but takes all sorts of power to amplify.

3) Sweepable mids on all channels. I like to boost the bass and cut just under 200 Hz to get rid of the mud and keep it from feeding back.

4) 2 control notch filters and phase reverse on the first four channels. The A4-8 has a one knob notch filter just on the first channel.

5) Really nice noise gating on the first four channels.

6) Stereo monitor mixing. You can run two separate monitor mixes to powered monitors (like the S1 as a monitor). I could actually give the singer I work with her own monitor mix! I could work with a singer and another guitarist and give them both their own monitor mixes!

7) 10 mixer setup recalls!