Phil Jones Ear Box

PHIL JONES BASS

Ever wondered why your bass amp never seems to sound the same at different venues?

The answer is that you bass cabinet is heavily affected by the environment it is in and where you are standing in relation to it. What you hear is the sound of your speakers mixed in with the reflected sounds from walls, ceilings and floors. Basically your speaker has a different sound on and off axis and the further you are away from it the more sound energy that is reflected is blended into the sound. If the room acoustics are not ideal you know the sound you get is very uneven in response and muddy.

EQ is NOT the answer!

The EAR Box produces a near field sound that, when positioned close to you, will give you far greater clarity because it greatly increases the ratio of direct sound to the undesirable acoustics of the venue. It does not produce the full spectrum of a bass; it blends in with the low frequencies of your cabinet. Standing in front of you bass rig up close gives you the most clarity but at the expense of your audience. You body will block the mid range and high soaking them up like a sponge. So your audience will hear a far more degraded sound than you.

How the Ear Box works: The Ear Box is in its own category. It is not a stage monitor or an earphone; it is somewhere in between. In-Ear monitors can leave you feeling isolated from the environment and stage monitors may bleed into areas where they are not wanted. The speakers in the Ear-Box are ultra-light but very powerful neodymium speakers. The total weight is 2.4 pounds. This allows it to be screw-mounted on a vertical (not boom type) microphone stand. It is positioned at ear level on the opposite side of where you amp is. The distance should be about 3 feet from you. Moving it closer will increase the loudness of the Ear-Box. If you want to reduce the treble, simply angle the Ear Box away from you: The greater the angle, the greater the attenuation of high frequencies. What may sound unusual is that the Ear Box has virtually no load on an amplifier. It is very high impedance: almost 1000 ohms at bass frequencies, tapering down to 24 ohms, at the very highest frequencies. It actually stabilizes the speaker load on you amplifier by acting as a ZOBEL network. The Ear Box high impedance allows it to be connected to just about any bass amplifier, right up to 1000 watt RMS output!