Ok lets face it....

[boywonder]

Im sure there must be a link on here somewhere which explains how to match head and cabs together even cross cabs etc.

Can you point me in the right direction.

Cheers

[mcnach]

[quote name='boywonder' post='1213031' date='Apr 27 2011, 07:22 PM']Im sure there must be a link on here somewhere which explains how to match head and cabs together even cross cabs etc.

Can you point me in the right direction.

Cheers [/quote]


what's the difficulty?

[boywonder]

head wattage, impedance etc. multiple cabs etc.

ie if you have a 500W head and a cab that takes 400 at 8 ohms and looking to pair it with other cabs with different impedances..... as you can see Im pretty new to bass tech stuff. im trying to find somewhere which debuggs how to match cabs and heads etc.

[Merton]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=135"]Here[/url]

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='boywonder' post='1213058' date='Apr 27 2011, 07:48 PM']head wattage, impedance etc. multiple cabs etc.

ie if you have a 500W head and a cab that takes 400 at 8 ohms and looking to pair it with other cabs with different impedances.....[/quote]
Yup, it's all there & should give you plenty of reading for a while.

But a good idea would be to find out exactly what's in each cab & at least investigate whether they can be rewired to match their impedance. That is if you're running them in parallel, ie. you've got two speaker outs on your amp & one cab plugged into each.

[boywonder]

Thank you

im'a gettin reading

[Prime_BASS]

Also a amp heads manual will say how many cabs of what impendence it can be connected to.

Take a look at Barefaced website (can't link as im on my phone) there is a tone of useful info there.

[paul_5]

Rule 1: don't use a cab (or cabs) with a 'smaller' impedance number than the one on the back of the amp i.e. don't use a 4ohm cab with an 8ohm head, unless you like shopping for new amps and have money to burn - that's literally what you'll be doing.

After that it gets a tiny bit more complicated, but not by much.

Rule 2: Using 2 x cabs of the same impedance will halve the 'impedance number' e.g. 2 8ohm cabs will give you a total impedance of 4ohms. Using 2 4ohm cabs will give you a total impedance of 2 ohms. Thankfully, nobody really makes bass cabs that aren't 4 or 8 ohms, so there's a whole bunch of stuff we don't need to bother about.

Rule 3: Don't mix impedances. Using a 4ohm cab [b]and[/b] an 8ohm cab will give you a total impedance of (memory fails at this point, but it's less than 4, probably 2.7 or something) not enough for an 8 or 4 ohm amp, so [b]don't do it[/b].

[alexclaber]

I'd delete Rule 3!

And head and cab wattage hardly matter at all.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='1213614' date='Apr 28 2011, 10:47 AM']I'd delete Rule 3!

And head and cab wattage hardly matter at all.[/quote]

Rule 3 is good for the 'math is hard' crew, and valve amp users. My pre lending valve amps question is 'If you have an 8ohm and a 16 ohm cab, to what impedance should you set my nice valve head that I am graciously lending you?'. The correct answer being '8 or 16 ohm, and only use that cabinet.'

[alexclaber]

Except if you're using say a 2x10" and 4x10" in which case 8 and 4 ohms respectively is best. And the real impedance curves of all cabs are so wiggly that with valve amps using the next highest tap is perfectly fine (and actually better for some cabs)...

[Machines]

[url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage[/url]

[CPBassman]

[quote name='boywonder' post='1213031' date='Apr 27 2011, 07:22 PM']Im sure there must be a link on here somewhere which explains how to match head and cabs together even cross cabs etc.

Can you point me in the right direction.

Cheers [/quote]


help here too, Ive just bought an Orange Bass Terror with the SP 212 isobaric cab. Wonderfull so far so I really fancy getting another matching cab to make a mini 4 x 12 stack. Whats the best connection? is is amp to cab to cab or amp to cab / amp to cab as there are two speakon outputs on the head. There is also a switch between 4 and 8 ohm. Im a bassist not a physics expert......... HELP.

I may appear stupid here but Im really stuck lol

Cheers

Col

Edited April 30, 2011 by CPBassman

[obbm]

[quote name='CPBassman' post='1216205' date='Apr 30 2011, 11:18 PM']help here too, Ive just bought an Orange Bass Terror with the SP 212 isobaric cab. Wonderfull so far so I really fancy getting another matching cab to make a mini 4 x 12 stack. Whats the best connection? is is amp to cab to cab or amp to cab / amp to cab as there are two speakon outputs on the head. There is also a switch between 4 and 8 ohm. Im a bassist not a physics expert......... HELP.

I may appear stupid here but Im really stuck lol

Cheers

Col[/quote]

According to the specification the SP212 is 8-ohms so if you connect two of them to the BT500 you will have a total load of 4-ohms so set the switch accordingly.

How you connect them is immaterial as it will not effect the total load.

If you use good quality large cross-section cables then it makes no difference whether you connect the cabs separately or daisy-chain them. There is a school of thought that says connect each cab directly to the head as in the very unlikely event of a cable failure then the other cab will keep on working. Whichever way you do it you will still need 2 cables so make sure you use good ones.