RC210Bass Amp Combo

Terry Buddingh
Bass Player Magazine™ January 2001
 "The versatile Carvin RC210 packs a ton of features into a compact and very affordable package."

The RC210 combines Carvin's full-featured R600 head with two 10" speakers and a Red Eye tweeter in a tilt-back cabinet. But you won't find the RC2 10 in your local music store-unless you live near one of Carvin's five Southern California retail outlets. Carvin, which has been making amplifiers for over 50 years, specializes in selling factory direct.

Construction: 4.5
 Carvin angles the RC210's 3/4" poplar plywood cabinet 45¾ at the bottom to permit vertical or tiltback positioning. Rubber feet support the amp in its different positions. The R600 head fits into the upper cavity and is secured with four screws. You can easily extract the two-rackspace head from the cab to use separately; it has rackmounting ears.

A heavy steel grille protects the two 10" speakers and tweeter. Wood screws secure the heavy woofers. Since wood screws are more likely to strip the baffle and loosen, we prefer the added security T-nuts provide. A narrow slot at the baffle's bottom serves as a port. Duratuff II carpet covering protects the RC210's exterior, and metal corners provide extra protection. Carvin positions the deeply recessed handles for balance and easy lifting.
RC210 combo




On the back panel, two slide switches provide tweeter attenuation, and a pair of 14" jacks and two Speakons connect the cab. Carvin attaches a right-angle 'A" plug to the cab end of the speaker cable. Because there's no recess for the speaker cable, it could get crushed if you placed the amp on its back. Carvin recesses the head to protect its front-panel controls. A sturdy steel chassis houses a toroidal power transformer, and the power-supply components reside on a circuitboard securely attached to the chassis bottom. The extensive preamp circuitry occupies a large double-sided glassepoxy PC board that's secured to the front panel with two screws. Carvin mounts the pots to the front panel with metal nuts, increasing the board's rigidity and the controls' solid feel. The 12AX7 preamp tube's socket sits directly on the board; removing and installing tubes could cause unwanted board flex.

Electronics: 4.5
 Carvin loaded the R600 head with enough features to satisfy the most dedicated knob twiddler. The amp employs three types of toneshaping circuitry: three PRE SHAPE buttons, a 3-band EQ with semiparametric mids, and a 9-band footswitchable graphic EQ. You can blend in the preamp tube for added warmth and fuller-sounding midrange. The compressor features threshold and ratio controls, and there's even an adjustable noise gate. You can also configure the two power-amp sections for full-range dual mono, bi-amped, or bridged mono modes, and select the bi-amping crossover frequency. The back panel offers three effects loops: full-range mono; split full-range, which lets you route different effects through different speakers; and split biamped, so you can route effects to the high or low bands. (Imagine a chorus on top with a sub-octave divider on the bottom.)

You can also adjust the two power amps' levels separately, allowing you to balance the signal between two cabinets in the split full-range or bi-amp modes. A master volume knob regulates their overall level. Wait, there's more! The rear-panel XLR DI offers a DIRECT/LINE option as well as a ground lift button. There's even a front-panel 14" jack for headphones or a tuner.

Overall, the RC210 shows impressively solid construction, with good-quality pots and other components. We like the way Carvin secures each pot to the front panel with a nut, which adds strength and rigidity to the board. Our tester operated quietly.

Ease of use: 3.5
 Because of its numerous preamp and power-amp options, the R600 head requires a little extra study time to fully dial in. We found it simplest to begin with the power amp in bridged mono mode, which gaVC LIS a workable range of plug-and-play sounds, at full power. We ignored the compressor and gate controls until we became familiar with all of the EQ functions, and we didn't add any external effects until we had a firm understanding of the front panel controls.

The RC2 I0's well-placed handles let you carry it by yourself for short distances, but we used a dolly to ease transportation-the box's tilt-back shape precludes installing wheels. While not a small combo, the Carvin fit in the front seat of a small car, but it's probably too deep for most trunks. On small and crowded stages the tilt-back position provided easier access to the controls. The anodized metal knobs shine nicely under bright lights, but the knobs' countersunk positionmarker dots can be difficult to see under less-than-ideal lighting.

Sound. 4.5
 The RC210 sounds surprisingly big for a 2x10. It handled our Lakland 5's lowest notes with ease, with a full-sounding fundamental, beefy low-mid emphasis, and deepthroated growl. Vertical placement enhances the bottom end, while the tilt-back position produces a more balanced, hi-fi-like sound. Tilting back the combo also helped bandmates hear it more clearly on a small, crowded stage. When we played fingerstyle the amp sounded full and fat, showing good dynamic sensitivity. The very flexible compressor smoothed and fattened slap-style playing. The noise gate seemed a bit sensitive; we found it difficult to adjust so it wouldn't cut off decaying notes prematurely. The gate was effective at taming noisy distortion pedals, however.

To test the bi-amp mode we added an Eden D-410XLT cab for the lows; the combination gave us huge reggae booty with added mid focus. As an experiment we stayed in bi-amp mode, disconnected the Eden, and drove the RC210's speakers with the low band. By adjusting the crossover frequency we were able to attain some astonishingly fat tones for a combo, and the compressor helped us stretch extra headroom out of the power amp in that mode.

Compared to more costly 2x 10 combo amps and head/standalone-cab combinations, the RC210 may not be as refinedsounding and its treble range isn't as extended, but it does a good job producing a wide range of thick, satisfying tones.

Value: 4.5
The versatile Carvin RC210 packs a ton of features into a compact and very affordable package. It's also solidly built, sounds good, and costs about the same as some 2x10 speaker-only cabs.

Terry Buddingh - Bass Player