Carvin. No, don't laugh -- really! It's great! I've been playing Carvin since @ 1993 when I was single and had all the cash to get whatever I wanted, and after trying literally everything out there, what worked best for me was a PB300 head through a variety of cabs over the years with Carvin drivers, and an SWR Triad cab for most of that time.
Fast forward to present: needed to get rid of the weight of the cab and get a rig I can run both EB & DB through. And now, with wife & son, limited budget, of course.
Where to go: back to Carvin. Their new MB12 with a 1X12 + 1X6.5 + tweeter is the most neutral sounding amp I have ever played through. Just plug in and go, with minimal tweaking necessary. When I need that bottom 1/2 octave, I put it on top of a homemade ported 1X15 loaded with - you guessed it - a Carvin driver from @ 15 years ago that I used to use with the PB300. For price/performance, it beats all of the better known names and the "boutique" amps hands down.
Everyone on both the EB and DB side of the bands I play in are all really impressed with its clarity, tone and presence. For me, it is very easy to use, intuitive, has the best usable contour curve I've ever used that really brings out the character of instruments, not just some engineer's idea of slap tone, and very versatile, with two parametrics. It also has all the features we've all come to expect from an amp, including onboard compression and a really clean and quiet XLR line out. No, it doesn't have an fx loop, but I've never used one on bass, anyway.
Save yourself several hundred dollars on your next amp purchase and look into an MB12.
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