Seventy 80, your favourite speaker, .... anyone ?

So the title says it all.
Go on, don't be shy
thanks

 

Not actually tried one, but not willing to purposefully go out and get one to look-see.

They have a very poor reputation of being replaced immediately or as soon as funds allow.

I have seen some on the MF that do like them (hopefully they will chime in), but they always seem to come as stock in the equipment they have. Never seen anyone post they actually bought one.

So have you actually got one @Rusty Strings?

 

They sound great in closed-back cabs.

 

They sound ok clean and at moderate volumes. But the louder and more gain you put through them, the more saturated and fizzy they get.

They are probably fine for your average home player that doesn't wind the amp up often. Probably the target audience for the affordable lower priced gear that Marshall put them in.

 

Hi SkyMonkey, well I have 2 in my marshall mx212 vertical cab. I use weber mass III 150 in between it and the dsl20hr and usually run it around 82db measured 6feet away, so not entirely whispering but no physical feel of moving air either, just feel of chewiness, snap and amp compression and clarity good enough to like it. Mostly I push the preamp gain on the ultra channel to 8 (3o'clk) and volume 5 (noon) with low power setting. I quite like the seventy80s and have on them 400 to 500 hours of breaking them in but i expected more bottom to the tone though. Now The mids and highs are rich, low strings sound middly and still chewy when palm muted, I guess this would be ideal with drummer and bass player not getting into their frequencies territory. chug chug chugga palm mutes go for your upper chest rather than body, at least in my head as I do not practice in my small room loud enough, 90db and volume above start to hurt my ears and paralyse my thinking.

 

My favorite speaker is EVM. Some say the best guitar speaker in the world.
It will take a large amount of power no problem,
in a 2X12 cab these speakers would be ideal.
Normally the cabinet is ported.
The speakers are very heavy. This is the one disadvantage.

But because the tone of the speaker is crisp/ clear, and the tone is remarkable + the speaker (can be) extremely loud without break-up,
I put up with the extra weight because it sounds so good.
It sounds better (to me) than any other speaker.
And I have heard/played a lot of speakers including JBL, etc. I would rather have an EVM speaker.
(click on image to see full sized)

 

I had a Traynor YCV80 2X12 combo. It was a very nice amp that came with 70/80's. The cleans were amazing--super thick and chewy, fantastic when hit hard with humbuckers at full volume. The dirty sounds were kind of muddy.

I replaced the 70/80's with a pair of V-30's. The cleans were still good, but not quite as luxurious. The distorted tones were very much improved. No more mud, just great crunchy rhythm and super nice saturated lead tones. Overall, a big improvement compared to the original speakers.

I had a crappy Crate GFX30 amp that had an OK clean and a terrible over-driven sound, whether utilizing the built-in distortion channel or pedals. I put one of the 70/80's in it and it made the amp actually pretty usable both clean and dirty.

The 70/80 is a pretty good speaker, miles above a lot of lower end speakers. It is not a high-end speaker. I give the 70/80 a B+.

 

Just curious, why are you asking?

 

I had a Hartke 4x12 with Seventy 80’s in them. For the price of the cab it was actually not that bad - plywood construction, etc.

At the time I thought the speakers were pretty decent, but when I got my DSL40C with the G12M-65 Creamback, and added a 1x12 closed back cab with a G12T-75, there was no comparison. The G12’s sounded fuller, warmer and did not get muddy like the Seventy 80’s did.

I ended up selling the cab because it was literally collecting dust, and being I was tight on space I had no desire to swap out the speakers.

If you like them and they work for you that’s all that counts.

 

Because it's one of the most scoffed-at options out there

 

I have a theory about the 7080. They are cheap. Really cheap. So why does Marshall use them? Because they sound very good at music store volumes. Most people don’t crank amps at the store, so it sells amps to choose a speaker that sounds good at low volumes AND it’s cheap so it saves Marshall money.

Lets face it, most amps that are sold in a retail environment are demo’d at low volumes. Build an amp and speaker to sound good in the store and you sell the amp.

the 7080 is NOT the worst Celestion I ever heard, not even close, until you crank it. Then it’s in the bottom 2 in my opinion. The G12M-70 is the worst I’ve ever heard.

Sorry, not trying to bag on anyone’s favorite speaker, but for my uses (gigging in bars) it’s not good. If I was using them at home practice levels, it’s fine.

PS: if anybody needs one, I’ll happily trade it for any other Celestion that’s not a g12m-70

 

I am asking this question to see if somebody found their gold sound in such an often looked down speaker and how long it took to break this particular speaker in. In my new cab I found the highs were a bit shrill, and the lows a bit thuddy for chugging.
Now around 500 hours of practice at "louder" bedroom level averaging at 85db, the highs are more musical and tad less pronounced but still very present and the lows are chewier with chugging but there is very little bottom end, but satisfying low mids. So if anybody gave this speaker long break in period like 1000+ hours it would be nice to hear if the sound got satisfying enough to stop them thinking of swapping. Because the dsl20hr is supposedly inherently very bright amp, I was thinking to load the 212 vertical marshall cab with 2 reapers 55hz if the speakers do not improve the lows and further tame the highs by the next year.

 

I’m certainly no speaker expert, but if you’re waiting 1,000 hours for a speaker to sound better I think you’re better off replacing it - a lot earlier.

I’ve read a few articles that reference 20-30 hours for an initial break-in, and then perhaps it will gradually continue for another 80 hours or so. After that it doesn’t seem you’ll get much more improvement.

 

i think it really depends on the amp.

i got the monoprice 15 and was not happy with the seventy/80 sound so i replaced the speaker. i later picked up a peavey bandit on the cheap with a fried speaker so i threw the seventy/80 into it and it sounded good. it was very similar to the sheffield it replaced.

 

I seem to remember that @Elliot Twist thinks highly of the Seventy/80. He might chime in.

 

I dont care for them at all...too thin sounding. Creamback and Greenbacks are my favorites!

 

Hmm... I have tried G12T-75s, V30s, Greenbacks and Seventy 80. My least favorite was the V30. Greenbacks are a classic no doubt about it. The G12T-75s were great when I was in a band. My favorite are the Seventy 80 I just think they are the base line for Celestion speakers these days. I have one in my MX112 Cab and it sounds great. I ordered a Origin 212 Cabinet because I love those speakers so much and I wanted a matching cabinet for my Origin 50 Head. So yes the Seventy 80 is my favorite speaker because it is good enough.

 

I've been under the impression that the G12P80 is basically the same speaker as the seventy eighty. And I've got two Hartke cabinets that were loaded with them. One still is. The other has Greenback reissues in it now.

I find that these G12P80s are a really good match for a Fender amp, but for a Marshall, I'd just rather not.

My Marshall cabinets have G12T75s and those are fine, I have no complaints. They have more highs than the Greenback reissues, but with a tweak of the treble control, I hardly notice the difference.

 

85dB is less than a watt. It's about 1/4 of the volume the speaker is capable of producing. Takes forever to break in a speaker at that volume.

When I lived in an apartment, I had to break in a couple of speakers in the 90~100dB range, an hour or 2 at a time, a few times a week. Six months to a year, but they did become sweeter and fuller sounding.

Really cranking them breaks them in much faster.

Some people say that the way you break them in affects the final outcome. I can't say because I've never tried both ways on the same model speakers.

 

What do you all do with your pulled like new Seventy/80 speakers?
I’m at the age I don’t store stuff I’m not using.