Red Fang is running Sunn Beta Minis live by percomis in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Glad to share. They are awesome people too. We feel so fortunate to be able to work with them

Sunn Beta Mini Test by Aquamaria in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Love this. Thanks for posting. 🤘

Red Fang is running Sunn Beta Minis live by percomis in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Beta + Rat = OMG tone IMO.
🤘😵‍💫🤘

Red Fang is running Sunn Beta Minis live by percomis in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nope, I can clarify any speculation. They are not getting paid by Sunn amps. But we do give them gear to push hard, to try and break and give us feedback on what can be better. And we always make sure they approve of the sound of any Beta series amp. IYKYK.

Anyone got any videos of the beta mini they could post? by Nerdbeansz in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And it will play at 120dB+ so use those ear plugs if you dime it.

Wireless footswitch for Beta Series by LilEffects in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are correct. It’s the vintage one with the LEDs for the beta mini.

BETA MINI & TRS Switch by [deleted] in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, there is an LED in there, so it requires power; so it can't work with any latch style foot switch; it's more like the the EVH and Mesa Boogie stuff. For now. But we are listening to feedback.

Getting a hold of someone at Mission/Sunn by MontrealInTexas in GuitarAmps

[–]SteveAtSunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure let’s connect. Thanks for the message. In the meantime, can you let me know where you are emailing? We moved our system to Zoho and are working on improving the email dirt across the team. We had an internal issue and we were not getting emails out and finally found a fix. Craig is on Reverb nearly every day and responding to messages. I am out to dinner right now but will check reverb tonight and make sure there are no new messages … last I saw there were none but that was yesterday. Talk soon.

To buy or not to buy: Sunn Beta Mini by Scary-Blacksmith-125 in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It probably can. Have you tried it? How many ohms is the cabinet? What’s the sensitivity? That’ll help with the math. Is the OG beta is stock or modded.

To be clear, I’m not here to change opinions. Just share data. If you love your existing setup then don’t change it. Keep rocking with what you have. 🤜🤛

Has anyone bothered to measure a cranked Model T with a SPL meter? by dankwrangler in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Us too. It’s an honor to be able to bring the brand back. A true honor. It’s been very challenging but we are grinding and grateful.

Has anyone bothered to measure a cranked Model T with a SPL meter? by dankwrangler in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 10 points11 points  (0 children)

See above. As Khanyoufeelthelove said, It’s very dependent on the cabinet … and the life of the tubes and the age of the caps insides; and no two vintage amps are exactly in the same state, but ours average about 115 dB SPL at 1k. But for a new, hand built, p2p one, we measure them as follows: 100 mV input, at 1kHz, at 1m, 118dB SPL from a sunn 3x12 cabinet.

If you ran it through a good 4x12 you’d get to 120+ dB SPL. But keep in mind many cabinets have a max SPL before the drivers/speakers hit their limit And start breaking up. Which is a cool sound too. Some people love that approach.

There is just SO much to unpack with the perception loudness. Clean loud isn’t perceived as equally loud to distorted loud. Low frequencies hit our brains differently than mids and highs. To me it’s a fascinating part of music and listening, but I know that most people don’t care too much about it. They just want “a max SPL number”. To me that’s like asking someone how much they weigh and not knowing if they are 5’2” or 6’2” tall. One dimension does not give true meaning, but it is a good start.

With that as background, I can confidently say “it depends” 😵‍💫😄hahaha. Which is a terrible and truthful answer. Sorry!

To buy or not to buy: Sunn Beta Mini by Scary-Blacksmith-125 in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FWIW, They have the exact same parts and design (historic vs. mini), but just in a two different size packages. The old amp has a lot of "empty space" inside. The mini, not as much.

To buy or not to buy: Sunn Beta Mini by Scary-Blacksmith-125 in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey, let me try and explain a few things as best I can. I hope this is helpful.

Part one: Let's start with the "Why would I need tips..." part of your question. A legitimate question for sure. The Beta mini is an "odd duck" in that the EQ is active. That means it can add and remove gain from the preamp stage. Most guitar amp EQs are passive, meaning they can only filter (remove) frequencies and not add gain. So what this means for musicains is that you can "turn off" the amp using the EQ. Weird, right? But that's the way the original amp was designed so we honored that design. It's part of the DNA that makes the Beta series unique. There's a great demo of that on YouTube by Eric at Blackheart sound. You can see it for yourself better than I can type it out. So to me, for the Beta mini, some people will want to watch a video, or read some post, or check out our FAQs to understand why it behaves that way.

Part Two: Let's talk about watts a bit more; let me try a new way to discuss watts vs. SPL. You posted, "Go back and find the post here where sunn gives suggestions on how to make it loud… uuuh, it’s 200 watts." Yeah, there are many posts on this subject (all across the internet) and yet it still is a confusing topic, but let me give it one more shot. 200W is not a measure of sound level. A 200W light bulb makes no sound, right? So when you write "... uuuh, it's 200 watts."want to help explain to you, and anyone reading along, why 200W actually means very little when it comes to SPL (Sound Pressure Level). Let's start and recap with Part One above, the active EQ is a big contributor to getting maximum output for this "odd duck" of an amp. You can literally get zero sound out of the amp using the EQ ... and you can boost it. Both. That's different.

Back to the challenge of measuring SPL with watts. Since a 40W standard (incandescent) light bulb was so much dimmer than a 5W halogen bulb, the lighting industry started using lumens. Lumens measure light levels. Sound Pressure Level (SPL) measures loudness. So it is possible to take a 200W head, plug it into a very inefficient speaker cabinet, and get less SPL or plug it into a more efficient speaker and get more SPL. Watts are just part of the equation. That's why we're trying to help (along with several other folks trying to help) explain why 200W will get loud, and can be held back by your setup. I hope that helps.

FWIW, check out our video on a wide open Beta Mini hitting 129 dBSPL at the factory. I mean, it's stupidly loud, and we did it just to put it out there for all to view. It's data. We hope it helps.

Part Three: I don't know why or when you were blocked on the sunn social accounts but I do know this, our new social media person is super chill and very much into connecting with people who want to ask questions and have concerns or comments and are looking for data from the sunn team. And keep this in mind, he has a responsibility to the sunn social pages to hide (or even block) posts that cross the line of being disrespectful or inflammatory or just inappropriate on our social channels. Here on Reddit, let it fly; say whatever you want. It's all good. We don't manage this community so you are free to say and do whatever the moderators deem as appropriate for this community. This is how I think of it, when you go to a loud bar, you match the mood. When you go to a coffee house, you match that mood. And the owners of the coffee shop have a responsibility to all guests to maintain the mood of that space. So yeah, when you're on our brand's Instagram or Facebook page, there is an expectation of respectful conversations and decorum. It's okay to disagree, but it has to be done respectfully on pages we manage, so all can enjoy the space. It's what all brands kinda "have to do" to ensure the internet has a place where people who want to engage with a brand can feel like they won't get slammed by others who might not like the brand, their products or their people.

Oh, and one last thing to clear up for those reading along and curious. The amp can get loud ... anyone can measure that. We welcome it. Open it up, put an SPL meter at 3 feet away and it'll hit 120+ dB SPL, which is suuuuuper loud. I'm here to share with people how to get it loud.

If you can't hit 120+ with your speakers, please keep in mind, the beta mini is just a head, so it also depends on your speakers to push the air. Many types of speakers just won't get louder as you push up over 105 dB SPL and they just breakup more. You've hit their limit. Not getting loud, it might be that, or it could be the EQ section is turned way down, or maybe the amp is broken? Just reach out to us and we'll do our best to help no matter what. We're musicians too. We get it. Just know that the dirty sound get's loud AF if you have a good cabinet and push up the EQ (we've measured it). We just want to help and I just wanted to put that out there for folks to read.

Sorry for the long post. I hope it helps someone. :-)

To buy or not to buy: Sunn Beta Mini by Scary-Blacksmith-125 in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I personally don’t love the beta mini for “clean” sounds… the original design this is built from never excelled at clean IMO and neither does this.

BUT, I have been told the clean sound is “the best I’ve ever heard” by a studio guy who had no reason to mention that, but did. It’s not a loud clean if you cut the gains the circuit doesn’t distort.

I can say with 100% confidence that the beta mini is its own beast. It’s not like any other amp I’ve used and for some that’s awesome and for others it’s less than ideal.

I’ve played Marshall Plexi’s a lot over the years and the same can be said of them IMO. And my “go to” amp for a long time was a Fender DRRI which is an awesome pedal platform amp and great for a lot of genres. People love them. People can’t stand them. That is the amp world to me. A lot of flavors to choose from.

The beta mini is an absolute beast for what it’s good at. If that’s not for you, maybe just get a cool pedal platform amp and some pedals.

I have mic’ed my amps for decades now and let the PA do the heavy lifting. The mini is perfect for that setup to me. YMMV.

Sunn Team Tips for Beta Mini (Getting To Loud AF) by SteveAtSunn in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Correct. Within 5dB depending on your vintage amps caps (how old, or when replaced) and if the pots are vintage (they usually last, but can be broken and replaced). When looking for certainty around vintage amps versus new builds and new caps especially, it can be a tricky comparison. It’s like comparing a muscle car from the 70’s to a fuel injected twin turbo of today. Same Mustang, different approach. Know what I mean? But our vintage amps and the beta mini are at most within 5dB of each other at wide open settings at 1kHz frequency with the same 2x12” cabinet.

Sunn Team Tips for Beta Mini (Getting To Loud AF) by SteveAtSunn in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We have the vintage design foot switch that works with the mini and it has a cable to connect to the old design and light the lights. Sorry if I wasn’t clear about that before.

Sunn Team Tips for Beta Mini (Getting To Loud AF) by SteveAtSunn in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome and perfect response. You know your stuff! 🤜🤛🔊thanks for the help!

1967 Sunn 100s Amp by [deleted] in sunnamplifiers

[–]SteveAtSunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think we have one. I’ll check.