Am I right with these Ohms ratings??

[Linus27]

Just a quick question about my amp and the Ohms ratings.

I have an Ashdown MAG 300H EVO II Head with a speaker outputs minimum impedance 4 Ohms. I am running it through an Ashdown MAG 115 Deep Cabinet (Evo II) which is rated at 8 Ohms with a power handling of 250 watts. So am I correct in thinking that roughly, I am getting about 180W out of the available 307W as I am running it at 8 Ohms?

If so, if I also add an Ashdown MAG 210T Deep Cabinet (Evo II) rated at 8 Ohms with a power handling of 200 watts, would this setup then convert to 4 Ohms and I would get the full 307W out of the Ashdown MAG 300H EVO II Head.

Thanks in advance.

[lemmywinks]

Yep, you'd have 307w @ 4ohms

[Al Heeley]

Does that mean there is a potential then for overloading both cabs at high vols or is the 200/250W continuous power rating with ability to handle transient peaks much higher?

[Musky]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='370688' date='Jan 5 2009, 10:29 AM']Does that mean there is a potential then for overloading both cabs at high vols or is the 200/250W continuous power rating with ability to handle transient peaks much higher?[/quote]

The thermal rating of both cabs is 450W (250W + 200W) RMS, though they'll be able to handle more on peaks. Whether the speakers can mechanically handle the output in the low end is a different matter though.

[bass_ferret]

This is all covered in the [url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage"]basschat wiki[/url]. Have a look there.

[Adrenochrome]

Yup that amp runs at ~180w when attached to 1 x 8ohm speaker and ~307w when attached to 2 x 8ohm speakers
(The ohm ratings on cabs are approximate). The main benefit is likely to be more speakers moving air and the top cab being near your ear level.
The amp can send peaks of up to 500w, so probably best not to have volume on full with either or both speakers attached.

[Tee]

I've been reading the wiki and i have a question to put to people.

I have a 350 watt 8 Ohm cab (Aguilar DB210) which i use with my Orange AD200 valve head (200 watts. I never have to turn the volume past half way). I want to get a cheaper SS back up and i have my eye on MAGs. Would i be crazy getting the Mag 600 (575w) and using it with my cab? At 8 ohms it would be drawing about half the power and i doubt i'd have the volume full up. Or, would it be more sensible opting for the Mag 300 (307w), which as mentioned would be pushing 180w? But i'm probably more likely to be pushing it harder.

Linus, do you find your current set up loud enough?

Edited January 5, 2009 by Tee

[Linus27]

[quote name='Tee' post='371424' date='Jan 5 2009, 09:22 PM']I've been reading the wiki and i have a question to put to people.

I have a 350 watt 8 Ohm cab (Aguilar DB210) which i use with my Orange AD200 valve head (200 watts. I never have to turn the volume past half way). I want to get a cheaper SS back up and i have my eye on MAGs. Would i be crazy getting the Mag 600 (575w) and using it with my cab? At 8 ohms it would be drawing about half the power and i doubt i'd have the volume full up. Or, would it be more sensible opting for the Mag 300 (307w), which as mentioned would be pushing 180w? But i'm probably more likely to be pushing it harder.

Linus, do you find your current set up loud enough?[/quote]

Tee, I really don't know as I have only used it at home and not in a live senario. However, I do suspect it will not be loud enough thus the reason to buy the 210 so I can get more out of my amp.

[Musky]

You'd probably be Ok. I'd expect the Mag to knock out about 380W into 8 ohms as the half the impedance/twice the power thing tends to more theoretical than any relation to real life. You're more likely to run into difficulties if you use compression or distortion, but if you use your ears for any worrying noises you should be ok.

[bass_ferret]

[quote name='Tee' post='371424' date='Jan 5 2009, 09:22 PM']I've been reading the wiki and i have a question to put to people.

I have a 350 watt 8 Ohm cab (Aguilar DB210) which i use with my Orange AD200 valve head (200 watts. I never have to turn the volume past half way). I want to get a cheaper SS back up and i have my eye on MAGs. Would i be crazy getting the Mag 600 (575w) and using it with my cab? At 8 ohms it would be drawing about half the power and i doubt i'd have the volume full up. Or, would it be more sensible opting for the Mag 300 (307w), which as mentioned would be pushing 180w? But i'm probably more likely to be pushing it harder.

Linus, do you find your current set up loud enough?[/quote]
Where you turn the volume knob is totally irrelevant as volume controls operate differently depending on input level and everything else so you could be getting full beans on half. If you want to know what the Mag 600 puts out into 8 ohms I expect the specs will be on the Ashdown website. As for whether the cab can handle it, read the wiki article again - particularly the big letters at the top.

[Tee]

Sadly it's not on their website, that i could find. I emailed them and got a reply saying "1 x 8 ohm cabinet you will get half power." I would have thought it might have been closer to two thirds perhaps.

[BOD2]

Don't get too hung up on power ratings. The relationship between power and volume is not straightforward.

All other things being equal you need approximately 10 times the power (watts) to get 2 times the volume.

Think about that for a minute. That means that, into the same speaker cab, a 1000 Watt amp is only around twice as loud as a 100 Watt amp. That makes the difference between, say 200W and 300W not so significant.

What does make a difference in volume is the efficiency of the speaker cab (i.e. how good it is at turning power into volume) and the number of speakers that you have. Provided the speakers work well together, having more speakers will give you more volume.