KEYBOARD Magazine

BARBETTA SONA 32C

Pros: Great sound with volume to spare in a compact package.

Cons: Controls on the back.

Simple and straightforward, the Sona 32C really comes through in terms of sound quality and volume.  It admirably and smoothly covers the audio bandwidth, at volumes ranging from whisper-quiet to the threshold of pain.  Barbetta reports the 32c's maximum SPL (sound pressure level) output is 119 dB.  (For your reference, a chainsaw at three feet measures 117 dB, and a jet plane at 100 feet wails at a mere 130dB.) Meanwhile, the 32c is more compact and portable than most of the other amps in this roundup. 

   Speakers and the reflex port are all you'll find on the 32c's front side; the controls and jacks are hidden in the back.  While this makes for a cleaner look, as well as a more compact unit (more surface area would be needed to squeeze the extra components on the front, thereby increasing the size of the cabinet), it requires you to reach around to the rear to adjust the master level and EQ, or to access cables plugged into the unit.  The control panel placement is particularly annoying when you tip the amp back on the floor.  "Yeah, that's a bummer," Chris Costa agrees, "but for somebody like me and for most modern players who are working with a keyboard mixer, the amp is strictly for sound reinforcement, so it isn't that much of a hindrance."

   Three-band EQ allows you to adjust the low, midrange, and high-frequency content. "The EQ's midrange shelving frequency is just right for three-band EQ," Costa contends. "If you get the midrange wrong on a three-band setup, it can screw up your whole sound."

   Four 1/4" line inputs are provided.  There aren't any input level controls on our review unit, requiring that you mix "at the source."(The manufacturer informs us that models shipping by the time you read this will have independent level controls for each input.  We're also told a low -impedance mic input and preamp will appear on the new version of this combo amp.) The amp's volume is controlled via a master level knob.

   The 32c's single effects loop acts as an insert to the signal path.  Therefore, you'll have to adjust the wet/dry mix of your effects processor so that you can hear both processed and unprocessed signals.

   A 1/4" line-level output allows you to route your synth signals on to another amp or the house mixer.  The output level is unaffected by adjustments to the master volume knob, which is the way it should be.

   Near the end of our review period, the 32c developed a problem: The amp began hissing like mad.  Tony Barbetta suspected an electronic part supplier had sold him questionable op-amps, and sent us two replacement chips----along with a second 32c.  When we swapped the op-amps in the first unit, it returned to working beautifully.  The second amp functioned perfectly.  Should a customer's amp fail within 90 days of its purchase, the dealer is instructed to replace it with a new unit.   Products sent for our review often suffer from glitches of some kind, and in this case it seems Murphy's Law has struck again.

   If you need even more ear-splitting volume than that, you might consider one of Barbetta's new Sona e-series amps.  These amps have extra-heavy-duty components, cast-frame woofers, high-efficiency horn drivers, and three-band EQ with a parametric midrange section--- mounted on the front for ease of adjustment during performance.  Custom-order combo amps are also available.  If the Sona 32c is any indication of the other Barbetta products, chances are slim you'll go wrong with any one of these amps.

ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN

BARBETTA

Sona 32C

By Julian Colbeck

Professionals have known this for years, and they've done well keeping the fact to themselves, but now it's out: If you're looking for simple, uncluttered, ultra high-quality keyboard amplification, go Barbetta.  Barbetta is a new name to me, and I suspect for many players.  But this California company has been around since 1984, and their range of specialized keyboard amps have become not just the favored but the insisted-upon tools for many top pro.

I've always loved the idea of an amp with just inputs and outputs.  If the basic quality is there, why would you need to fiddle around with tone controls or effects?  The Sona 32C may not be quite this spartan, but don't look for configurability and options here.  In the great computer tradition, what you see is what you get.  And what you get is fabulous.

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU

The Sona 32C is no great shakes in the looks department.  I would describe the cabinet as particle board painted black, though the official description quotes it as "high-density, polyurethane-bonded fiber with textured acrylic finish."  The corners have standard-gauge protectors. and there's a top carrying handle sufficient for taking the strain of the unit's 41 pounds.

   The front is dominated by a huge, round barbecue of a metal grille protecting the single 15-inch woofer. Atop this flares out a horn, behind which lurks a 3 x 7-inch tweeter, with a single port to the right.  Minimalist is one thing, but there are no controls whatsoever at the front.

   Connections and controls lie at the back.  You get four input jacks; a mono, low-impedance, 1/4-inch line-out jack; a master volume control; 3-band EQ that affects all channels at a stroke and a similarly one-size-fits-all, post-fader, mono effects-send/return loop. Power connects via a standard IEC socket, with rocker on /off switch.

   The exterior of the Sona 32C might look plain, but the internal design is musically and electronically sophisticated.  This is a biamped, active speaker system, meaning that separate amplifiers are used to power the woofer and tweeter, with a low level,  Thompson-Butterworth-type crossover.

   There are two ways to use the Sona 32C:  connect individual instruments directly to each input, or feed the instruments into a small mixer and take the output from the mixer into the amp.  In general, I recommend the latter.  Though direct connection is admirably streamlined, the review unit had no channel trim or volume pots, so I had to set individual level on the instruments.  This was inconvenient, and it could wreak havoc with the signal-to-noise ratio.  Fortunately, Barbetta has introduced channel gain controls and an additional low-impedance, mic-level input on 1995 models, which will be available by the time you read this.  It seems minimalism and market forces are uneasy bedfellows.

PRELIMINARY HEARING

To get started, I plugged a Roland JD-800 into one of the Sona 32C's four inputs jacks, set inn a low tech-looking row at the back of the amp. I play.... Wow, has someone springcleaned or been tweaking my synth?  Where is all this gloriously crisp, clean, spacious sound coming from?  And out of the ID's mono output, to boot.  Have I hit upon some magic EQ configuration by accident? (I peer anxiously over the edge of the unit.)  Nope, all flat.

   This amp purely and simply sounds like a million bucks.  Only once before have I heard an amp make so dramatic an improvement: on a Steve Hackett club tour a few years back, when my trusty 400W Yamaha power amp blew up and was replaced, without my prior knowledge, by a Crest Audio amp.  The gig took on almost psychedelic proportions as each "new" sound appeared in turn, freshly painted and raring to go.  This is the power of, and difference between, good and great amplification. 

   The glorious thing about the Sona 32C's EQ is that whatever you do, it sounds good.  I ran a succession of keyboards and modules through the amp, including a Roland JD-800, Korg MI, Akai sampler, and Novation BassStation, and couldn't find a bad frequency.  You get three fixed bands of EQ with 18 dB boost and cut per band.  The low shelving band cuts off at 50 Hz, the high shelving band cuts off at 10kHz, and the midrange bandpass filter is centered at 1 kHz.  These frequencies were selected, according to Barbetta, for "optimal control of acoustic response."  Normally, I'd disregard such a phrase as standard manufacturer  waffle, but not here.  This amp reeks of design by someone with ears.

   I took one of those typically velocity-dependent, spiky JD-800 patches as an example. With the equalization flat, the sound thrusts out with all the quality and clarity of a $500 set of headphones.  Obviously, when you crank up the treble, the spikiness is enhanced dramatically.  But it never  becomes shrill, just more pinpoint spiky.  Beef up the bass, and the tone warms and fattens up, yet it doesn't lose distinction.  Cut our boost the mid range, and you're not dealing with obsessive honk or wimpdom, you're simply looking at more density, or a hollowing of the tone.

   As the tone controls must perform for all inputs equally, you're going to use them sparingly.  But it is good to know, and almost magical to observe, that if you need to make even a fairly drastic adjustment to cure one problem sound, you are not going to louse up all your other sounds in process.  Change them, sure but not louse them up.   There is a difference.

PATCHING

The post-fader effects loop lets you patch in your trusty effects processor, but levels and intensities must be set on the effects unit.  Remember, any processor you attach affects all input channels; you cannot pick and choose.  With this in mind, a light coating of reverb is all I'd recommend.

   George Benson keyboardist David Withan, a confirmed Barbetta user, generally links two amps as a stereo pair, feeding them from his left and right mixer outputs.  Withan's testimony is "Set it and forget it."  He finds it especially crisp and punchy in the low end for piano.  (He uses a Roland MKS20.)  Set it and forget it  is about right, too, because of the positioning of the controls.  If you want to make adjustments during a gig, you have to dive over the unit and scramble about at the back, which may not be your, or the audience's, idea of stagecraft.

YOUR TRUE VOICE

Finally we come to the who, where, and why of the matter.  The Sona 32C is not a typical keyboard combo.  If you're looking for routing options, individual effects levels, and the like, this is not the unit for you.  On the other hand, if you're looking for unbridled quality, the Sona 32C will serve well as the amp and speaker components of your system.  I suggest a small mixer to accompany, however.

   The power rating of 160W should be enough to fill a small club or cut through the murk and mayhem of the theater or concert stage when used for onstage monitoring.  Being able to hear yourself onstage is a fundamental requirement.  And yet, monitoring has always been a problem for me, as it is for most keyboard players.

   I have used everything from socking great, 1,000-watt, full-range, mini P.A.s,to near-field studio monitors, to house wedges.  Sometimes, nothing is the better option.  The compact, portable, punchy Barbetta Sona 32C is one of the best solutions I've come across. 

Julian Colbeck is the author of keyfax books  1 to 5 and, frightening as it may seem, is also a keyboard player, currently with Steve Hackett.

EM METERS RATING PRODUCTS FROM 1 TO 5

FEATURES                   2.5

EASE OF USE               3.0

AUDIO QUALITY            5.0

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