Relatively Nooby Valve Question

[parker_muse]

I've got a superfly 500 which i currently play into a 1x15 (400watts at 4 ohms) and a 2x10 (300 watts at 4 ohms). The cranked the amp distorts, really noticeably at about 8/10.

I'm looking to get the Impact by Status 120 valve amp on here. Running it at 4ohms would it distort (in a bad way) running through the 1x15 cab? Do you need extra headroom for a valve amp as i know they are much louder then solid state?

[stevebasshead]

Hi, connecting both those cabs to an amp means they're presenting a 2 ohm load. Not many amps are capable of handling a 2ohm load, most prefer to work at 4 or 8 ohms. I don't know the specs of the Ashdown or the Impact, but you need to be sure the Impact will safely run at 2 ohms before you buy.

[obbm]

It's a valve amp so you need to select the correct impedance tap for the output transformer on the rear panel and use the correct impedance speaker. In this case 4-ohms or 8-ohms. No other impedance will work safely and especially not 2-ohms. Connect your two cabs to the two speaker sockets and you can wave goodbye to the output transformer and look forward to a hefty repair bill.

You will be unable to use both 4-ohm cabs unless you use a serial cable to make the two cabs become 8-ohms. This is not the same as daisy chaining the cabs.

In theory it should not distort at all when driving the 1x15, it all depends how much gain you crank in at the front end. Distortion with valve amps is much more agreeable than with solid-state amps.

If you plan to run the amp flat out then you will probably get distortion. The only way to sensibly answer your question is for you to connect the amp to your speaker and try it.