Diff between closed back and opened back amps?

[Kyokkai]

Yo ppl. I was stuck between the marshall MG15 and the laney LX20 15w cos the laney is opened back and the mg15 a closed back(is it? I heard its an open back too...confused). I dont know the diff so i went to search and saw some people say close backs sound more directional and opened backs are more fuller and will spread the sound around the room etc. etc. But I'm still not quite sure so I thought softies would be more experience. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of close backs and open backs and which one, the laney or the marshall shld i get? Tell me the tonal diffs of these two amps too and which one is better. I sincerely apologise for my noobness. lols. I play J-rock/Visual kei and some chi-pop/rock songs, and FYI, I have a dist/heavy metal pedal so i dun really need a good dist. Just normal-high dist will do. But you can also tell me which has a better dist and which one is cleaner etc etc. THNX!

 

[theunknown]

have u even try both amps? or even hear them before? or even see them before (real life)?

 

[Kyokkai]

I have nv tried them b4 but of cos i have seen them in real life b4...lols...i heard them on the net and the laney once i was trying an ibanez at swee lee. But i couldn't tell cos i only tried for less then 10 mins? And i was focusing more on the guitar.

 

[hay88]

go for the closed back one and make sure u screw in the back cover as tight as possible

 

[ciki]

closed back will give you "more" bass response/low end... since you never tried them before, best is to try them both personally and made a decision on what you hear n like more.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

given everything being equal, these are the general qualities that i know of:

closed back
-more bottom end, tighter bass response
-sound produced is more directional
-less complex high end harmonics

open back
-less bottom end
-sound produced will spread in more directions than just "front-of-speaker"
-more chimey complex harmonics in the higher frequencies

but given that both amps are different and that the speakers and the cab sizes are also different, these general guidelines might not apply. you have to try both amps in order to do a fair comparison

 

[Kyokkai]

Lols...ok...thnx for all the help. The guy at citymusic told me open back are more for bass sounds. So he was talking crap? Lols. I dunno cos i'm not experience enough to judge you all and him. Though, i trust you all more cos that was what others say on other forums too. I really appreciated u ppl for helping me out. Anyway, I decided to get a partial opened back amp (VOX pathfinder). Thnx ppl!!!

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

the vox pathfinder is a good choice. it's open back design is one of the reasons for it's clear and balanced tone.

 

[Everdying]

mg15 is a open back.
if you really wanna hear the difference between closed and open, go compare regular mg15 with the mg15 MSii micro stack which is closed back.
the mg15 micro stack will blow the regular mg15 away, even tho both are essentially the same amp.