Eminence Legend 1518 - 150W 8ohm

I chose this speaker for a custom Vibroverb build based mostly on reviews and Youtube demos. It's always a bit of a gamble when choosing a speaker you haven't used before, but I have to say, I really like the performance and tone of this speaker in the Vibroverb. An efficient speaker with a full, well balanced sound. Lots of low-end, but not overwhelming. Clear, singing highs, but not harsh. It really contributes to the 'vintage' sound. I play at moderate volumes and depend on pedals for overdrive, so I can't comment on how this speaker handles loud, tube amp overdrive. I'm very happy with this purchase and recommend it. Thanks Next Gen for the quick processing of the order.

I waited a while to write a review as the speaker needs to be broken in before determining where it's tonal character is going to land. I installed this speaker in a Peavey Valve King II 20 combo in the hopes of getting more headroom from the 20 watts the amp delivers and to get a fuller and bigger sound for cleans. I'm really happy with the overdrive channel on the amp. I found that the clean channel breaks up really quickly and makes it hard to get nice jangly cleans on a guitar with humbuckers with moderate to high output. The speaker is rated at 150W and I was concerned that it would be more speaker than the amp could drive but I'm happy to report, that is not the case. When swapping the speaker, I also did a full tube swap and changed the preamp tube from a 12AX7 to a lower gain 12AT7. This lets me dime the amp on the clean channel with excellent control over the breakup characteristics of the amp. The speaker is very efficient at 102.2dB (surprising for a 15") so if any output was lost from a lower gain preamp tube, it seems to have been made back by I estimate 2-3 dB of efficiency over the stock Valve King 12" that it replaces. Shipping was amazingly fast. The speaker was packaged in a manilla brown generic cardboard box and padded with injected vacuum foam. The speaker frame was nicely protected but the face of the speaker was up against a flat side of the box. This could lead to disaster if in shipping the corner of another box hits the flat side the speaker with the cone during shipping. This is not indicative of shipping or packaging practices of Next Gen as the product was drop shipped. The package thankfully arrived in perfect condition so in this case, packaging was not an issue. The speaker has a big, full sound and sounds amazing with reverb and tremolo. The build quality is great for the price, this is not a cheaply made speaker. The quality of sound and construction defies the price.