HT-5R combo speaker upgrade

[bs921974]

This summer I decided to buy a decent combo for my home playing. I knew that buying separate head and cab would be more clever choice, but we live in relatively small apartment.

I tried Engl Gigmaster 15 (15 watt with power break switch to 5 and 1 watt) - awesome bedroom thing btw, I was excited about the sound quality. I was missing the headphone out and as new Blackstar HT-R appeared, I decided to get it instead of Engl. With 12-inch speaker, reverb and headphone out it seemed to be absolutely better choice for my home.

After seeing positive reviews of HT-5 all over the internet I expected not to be surprised in a bad way.

I have to say I was disappointed with the sound quality, not being able to get proper crunchy or chunky sound from speaker at any volume level. I was totally confused, tried to switch different overdrives to boost dirty channel, bought equalizer, tried different pickups... I spent several months fiddling with different sound settings and realized there is no way to get satisfying sound. I was always hearing strange "glassy" punch when playing palm muted notes...

I decided to sell the combo, found a guy who was selling the older HT-5, we agreed to exchange them. He paid me some money as compensation. After few minutes of playing through the old version I knew it has the proper sound I know from youtube demos, the sound that I am looking for.
The guy called me the other day and he was begging me, he wanted me to return him the old HT-5 combo, he even did not want the money compensation back. We agreed that the combos are incomparable sound wise, I agreed to retun him the old one (and money).

I was thinking about the differencies between the old and recent reverb version, speaker seemed to be the only major difference.
I decided to try to upgrade it, put 12-inch 8 ohm Celestion Greenback in and guess what:
Sound is nice and crunchy now, also more open and present, I have the kind of sound I remember from the Engl and similar to the older HT-5.
Just wanted to share my experience, I think many people buy new combo version expecting similar sound as the old HT-5. I do not claim the Blackbird speaker is bad, it is just very different from original 10-inch Celestion.

However, there might be a major concern when upgrading 12-inch speaker in HT-5R combo: stock speaker has magnet diameter of 120 mm and there is a power amp valve that limits the available space. I was able to fit the Greenback in (150 mm), but the distance between valve and magnet is very small. I read that the magnetic field can affect the valve in negative way, but have seen some combos with valve nearly touching magnet on the other hand. I decided to give it a try anyway, no problem so far.

Sorry for long post.

[majikmojo]

welcome bs.......

we like informative post about your experiences around here - no need to worry about a long post
glad to hear you got "the sound in your head" now...

keep us posted on your mods or things that make you go "hmmmmm"

[IM4Tone]

welcome bs.......

we like informative post about your experiences around here - no need to worry about a long post
glad to hear you got "the sound in your head" now...

keep us posted on your mods or things that make you go "hmmmmm"

^^^^DITTO Many posters here are finding happiness w/ speaker changes

[LonePhantom]

I run my HT-5 head with a Celestion Vintage 30, and it sounds fantastic! It might be a hard squeeze in the combo though. The magnet on it is pretty big.

[MetalOctane]

It's always good to hear about experiences (good and bad) when you have a similar product. In this case, the HT-5. I don't have much use for a crunch sound, mostly higher gain stuff for me, but I surely appreciate the information relayed. My experience with the two versions has been quite different: I demo'd an older HT-5 head with a Blackstar 10" cabinet was not thrilled with high gain sounds I was getting. I basically wrote the HT-5 off after that experience. A few months later I was able to play an HT-5R and that amp really had most of the sound I was looking for. I ended buying an HT-5RS and love it. I'm sure I will be upgrading both 12" speakers in the future once I know EXACTLY what tweakes my tone needs.

[fsenseman]

I decided to sell the combo, found a guy who was selling the older HT-5, we agreed to exchange them. He paid me some money as compensation. After few minutes of playing through the old version I knew it has the proper sound I know from youtube demos, the sound that I am looking for.
The guy called me the other day and he was begging me, he wanted me to return him the old HT-5 combo, he even did not want the money compensation back. We agreed that the combos are incomparable sound wise, I agreed to retun him the old one (and money).

Thanks for sharing your experience and also I just wanted to give you kudos for being such a nice guy. Not many would have traded back, and given back the money. Well done, sir.

Kind Regards,
Fleet

[manticus]

I picked up a n es HT-5R today and quickly swapped the speaker out. I had a new 16 ohm Jensen Electric Lightning sitting here so I put it in. It's a 75 watt speaker with a huge magnet but it fit fine. It sounds INCREDIBLE. I can't wait to get the tubes changed out.

Andy

[a1terrier]

Got an HT5 R Head with an HTV 112 (Seventy 80 stock speaker) but I also have in a small cab a Celestion G12 H. Im happy with stock speaker but cant help wondering if the G12 will sound better. I know the only way to find out is to try a swop, but was wondering if G12H was a big jump in quality over stock speaker.
Thanks.

[I Wanna Rock]

That's why I've always been a fan of heads over combos.
I've got a few tried and tested speaker cabs around and it's nice mixing and matching to hear the difference speakers can make.
I've gigged with an HT5R head and an HT20 with different cabs and so far my old Vintage 30 loaded 412 is my favorite.
I use an HTV212 as well with Celestion seventy 80's and at first I really hated it. Now that it's starting to break in it's sounding way better, but the cab is still missing bottom end chunk. I think that's mostly due to it's open back design.

The moral of the story? I don't know! I guess if we all had the same tastes there'd only be one amp and one speaker.

[IM4Tone]

OK "I Wanna Rock"....it's very tough to tell, but is that an old OLDS