Simmons DA2112 Advanced Drum Amp

Most Liked Negative Review

Not as loud as the DA200sb it replaced

I use this to practice at home and as a monitor at jam sessions. it is replacing a 200watt DA200sb. I play with a Yamaha DTX502 series. It excels on features but falls short on the 2 most critical issues Great features that work: -The 4 band EQ is great the DA200sb had to much mid range this helps a lot. - multiple stereo inputs.you can hook a lot up to this with out a mixer or audio interface - Input 3 isolation is awesome because I can get an isolated headphone mix and a separate PA mix - I use the aux input for practice to play along to iTunes, Spotify and YouTube. - it has a pole mount - I have not used the link feature. If I keep this I will get the sub and/or another DA2112 - I have used this as a single speaker PA for 2 people. I played with a guitarist using an iRig. It sounded good but was so quiet we didn't use a microphone to chat while jamming. Features that fall flat: -it is very low volume. I have to turn this up to max input and almost max master to not here the sound of sticks hitting rubber heads when I play heavy. This is approximately 4x higher than the DA200b for the same volume. On a scale of 1 to 10 the DA2112 @ 9 = the DA200sb @ 2.5. - The sub is not as effective up close. To hear and feel the base over the pedal noise I have to turn the low eq all the way up, or move the amp across the room where I can no longer adjust while at my kit. The DA2112 @ 10 = the DA200sb @ 3 - With head phones I have to max out the volume at about 2x the volume for the DA200sb. The DA2112 @ 10 = the DA200sb @ 5. - this means there is no headroom to get more volume. For 90% of my use this is OK. I just don't get to play as loud as I used to. The worst feature: -The bluetooth emits a very loud buzzing noise even with all input and volume set to zero. To over power the buzz it has to be at almost 50% volume. when the music stops you can here the buzzing. -The buzz volume does not change with the master or input volume. but it will get a little quieter if I turn all 4 eq down all the way to -50%. - if I use the headphones only, the people in the next room can still hear the bluetooth buzzing, with the master volume set to zero. It doesn't buzz much in the headphones. - I use the bluetooth 100% of the time I play at home because I use my phone to control the drums via USB and stream music to play along to, - Based on the reviews I have read this is not an issue in every unit. If I trade for a Mackie thumpmaser 12 or an Alesis Striker 12 it will only be for the volume issue since those don't have Bluetooth. I can get around the bluetooth issue by using a different device like a laptop with 1/8" inputs. I don't like this option as Bluetooth is a key feature used to market the system and should be significantly better I would rather have the DA200sb back as the only function it didn't have was 1 of the inputs, input isolation and only a 3 band EQ. I used (2) Yamaha NS-6590s as satellite monitors. It had plenty of headroom and with a little mixer I had even more inputs.