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Owen
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Yesterday my new cab arrived. For the first time ever I have actually bought a new speaker. It is one of the new ACME 12" fullrange cabs. It is light and and looks great. I also bought a power amp to run it with my Demeter pre. The cab is 4ohm and the amp (cos I was not thinking) will only drive to 8 ohms. So I have a shiny new cab and no way of messing with it. D'ohwen!

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I bought the amp 2nd hand. I only have myself to blame. It is a superb piece of kit bit you cannot mess with physics. I got it for a good price so it will sell pretty easily to someone who has a small 8ohm cab who wants GOBS of power in a small package for not much money. Search for Chevin in the amps for sale section if you are interested (700W into 8ohms. 1u. 9 inches deep. 9lbs in weight).

The cab had to be imported from the US so swapping it is serious hassle!

I am cool with the situation, just feeling slightly stupid :)

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At home SPL you'll be fine using your amp (assuming the low impedance protection doesn't kick in) just don't turn it up loud! The minimum impedance restriction on amps is due to current capacity - only ask for 1% of its power output (which will still be loud at home) and you're only asking for 2% of its current capacity.

Edited by alexclaber
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[quote name='alexclaber' post='1306593' date='Jul 17 2011, 12:43 PM']....At home SPL you'll be fine using your amp (assuming the low impedance protection doesn't kick in) just don't turn it up loud! The minimum impedance restriction on amps is due to current capacity - only ask for 1% of its power output (which will still be loud at home) and you're only asking for 2% of its current capacity....[/quote]
Hi Alex, is the problem to do with the spec of the components or is just the amount of extra heat generated by running to 4 ohm as opposed to 8 ohm?

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It's complicated but the main risk is heat. The other risks are related to voltages and currents inside the transistors but all these failure modes are related to voltages or currents being too high, so regardless of how the transistor fails it will only happen when you have things turned up loud.

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I know that the impedance should match but I've done plenty of playing with cobbled together gear and run my HA350 through 2.5 Ohms for a few gigs (one being unbelievably loud!) and my rig served all the other acts too with no problems at all (lowest impedance they give a figure for is 4 Ohms).

Its got a fan and nothing seemed any hotter than normal. Not to be recommended but certainly at low volumes there shouldn't be a worry unless the amps designed like a racing car.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It works nicely with the amp running at 4 ohms but that is at home levels. I REALLY want to believe that one of the micro amps can speak with the authority of a proper, dedicated power amp. I have not tried it at gig levels yet because I have not had a gig and my wife does not love extreme LF in the house. I cannot understand it myself, but there it is. It speaks nice and clearly all the way down to bottom B in a consistent way. I will be back at work soon and I will be able to cane it and see then.

Importing it was easy-peasy. I paid and it arrived. It worked out at £600 - odd all in, which was a bit more than I was hoping for, but so far I am happy with it and can see it will fill the niche I intend it to fill. I will do a proper review when I have a bit more experience with it.

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  • 7 months later...

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