2nd cabinet

[c3scott]

I have an ampeg b2r head rated at approx 200 w at 8 ohms and 350 watts at 4 ohms, with a svt 15 cab rated at 200 watts at 8 ohms, that isnt loud enough to hear in the rock band in which i play. Im looking to get another 8 ohm 1x12 or 2x10. The question is: Is it wise to purchase an 8 ohm cab that is rated for more watts than what my amp will push? For instance Ive been looking on Ebay and some of the cabs are rated much higher than my head will provide. Will I damage anything by pushing to little watts through the speakers? PS Ive searched and searched prior posts so if this is redundant please provide a link. thanks GREAT SITE

[Mudbass]

If you use it wisely you should be OK, but you're going to have to watch your EQ. A fairly flat EQ, or boosted mids will give you a lot of LOUD with the equipment you have in mind. You want to avoid a "smiley face" EQ because that sort of setting gobbles up a lot of power without prodoucing a lot of volume and it would be easy to drive your amp into clipping that way.

[cornbread_medhotmail.com]

It won't hurt your head to go with a higher wattage rating. If you upgrade your head to a more powerful unit you'll have the headroom without having to worry about blowing something up. On the other hand, you don't want to get something that is so power hungry that you defeat the purpose. I would run 2 8 ohm cabs in series to get the full power of the amp and push more air.

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by cornbread:

It won't hurt your head to go with a higher wattage rating. If you upgrade your head to a more powerful unit you'll have the headroom without having to worry about blowing something up. On the other hand, you don't want to get something that is so power hungry that you defeat the purpose. I would run 2 8 ohm cabs in series to get the full power of the amp and push more air.

Won't two 8-ohm cabs in series create a 16-ohm load and reduce the amount of wattage? Don't you want two 8-ohm cabs run parallel to yield a 4-ohm load overall to maximize the amp's power?

 

Also, there has been much discussion on this board about clipping -- which can be dangerous to your speakers and is related to not having enough power feeding them. Depending on your needs and how you EQ, etc. -- you should probably be okay with a higher rated cab as long as you're careful about clipping. Try a "search" using the keywords "clip" and "clipping" to see what you can learn from previous threads.

 

Welcome to the board!

 

Peace.

[g.]

No matter if your potential total driven wattage is less or more than your cabs, you still have to listen for any tell-tale signs of impending damage. Yes, it's another case in music making and listening where the Ear remains paramount.

 

I hope I won't have to watch another thread with a bunch of bad posts on what ohm loads are presented by multiple cabs ; }

 

<-- greenboy ---<<<<   no, my second cabinet is NOT a liquor cabinet ; }

[g.]

Oops, forgot to say: yes - get an 8-ohm cab and run it with the standard (for good reason) built-in parallel wiring, which will make for a 4-ohm load. You might be happier with a 210 in this case, one that is more efficient to make up for not having a K-watt of power on tap ; }

[KikkyMonk]

so series increases ohmage (resistance) and parallel drops it... got it

 

Dave

 

that makes sense because in series it runs through one then the other which would double in the resistence while paralell runs through both through diff outputs which would half the resistence.

[cornbread_medhotmail.com]

Yeah, I meant to say parallel. I was thinking parallel but typed series instead. They should have a spell checker that picks up on these mistakes. It would make me look a lot smarter than I actually am.