Stupid Question But Gotta ask

[elephantstone]

Right i think i may be being a little stupid here... but here goes.


my amp is 200 watts into 4 ohms.

i have an ampeg cab rated at 8 ohms so the output from the amp is only 120 in to the cab.

it is my understanding from reading the net that if i get another cab rated at 8 ohms and run it in PARALLEL i will be able to get the maximum power out of my amp, i.e 4 ohms?

is this correct or just plain stupid?

thanks

ES

[chris_b]

It's not a stupid question. Don't worry about "parallel" or any other tech stuff.

2 x 8ohm cabs = 4 ohm to your amp

2 x 4 ohm cabs = 2 ohm to your amp

1 x 8 ohm and 1 x 4 ohm cab = 2.7 ohm to your amp

Most amps have a minimum 4 ohm load so you can use 1 x 4 ohm cab, 1 x 8 ohm cab or 2 x 8 ohm cabs.

Go below the minimum and the amp will overheat and blow a fuse, or just blow.

A 200 watt amp will be 200 Watts at 4 ohm so you can use 1 x 4 ohm cab or 2 x 8 ohm cabs to get the 200 watts.

Edited February 3, 2011 by chris_b

[elephantstone]

thanks man, just needed to check.

so my amp has two 8 ohm outputs on the back so i just connect each 8ohm cab into these outputs to get 4ohms or daisychain just the 2 cabs together?

thanks for your time

ES

Edited February 3, 2011 by elephantstone

[razze06]

[quote name='elephantstone' post='1113684' date='Feb 3 2011, 11:47 AM']thanks man, just needed to check.

so my amp has two 8 ohm outputs on the back so i just connect each 8ohm cab into these outputs to get 4ohms or daisychain just the 2 cabs together?

thanks for your time

ES[/quote]

Either will work and give you 4 ohms

[chris_b]

Yes. Connecting the second cab to the first cab is exactly the same as connecting both cabs to the amp. Your amp will give each cab 100 watts. I assume the cabs can handle that. Just listen and if anything doesn't sound right, turn down or checkout what is happening.

[elephantstone]

[quote name='razze06' post='1113688' date='Feb 3 2011, 11:51 AM']Either will work and give you 4 ohms[/quote]


cheers guys thats clarified for me!

All the best

ES

[alexclaber]

Note that it won't really be the extra wattage from the amp (due to the 4 ohm nominal load) that makes things louder when you add a second cab, it'll be the increased sensitivity (3dB more) and the increased excursion-limited power handling (another 3dB), so if you were running out of clean lows with just the one cab you'll get 6dB more of them with two. And 6dB more is quite a lot louder - in the bass region at typical loudness it equates to almost twice as loud, due to the way our ears work.

So to recap - you're not louder because you have 200W instead of 140W, you're louder because you have twice as much 'speakerage'!

[elephantstone]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='1113777' date='Feb 3 2011, 12:53 PM']Note that it won't really be the extra wattage from the amp (due to the 4 ohm nominal load) that makes things louder when you add a second cab, it'll be the increased sensitivity (3dB more) and the increased excursion-limited power handling (another 3dB), so if you were running out of clean lows with just the one cab you'll get 6dB more of them with two. And 6dB more is quite a lot louder - in the bass region at typical loudness it equates to almost twice as loud, due to the way our ears work.

So to recap - you're not louder because you have 200W instead of 140W, you're louder because you have twice as much 'speakerage'![/quote]


hey man, thanks for the input, i have actually been reading similar stuff to that on your Barefaced website.

Thanks,

ES