Watts Between Head and Cab

[Exile252]

I'm thinking about changing my cab on my amp set up, but I'm a bit uncertain as to what to go for. I have a Mark Bass Little Mark 250 Black Line (250w) hooked up to a Eden EX112 cab (300w). I'd like to go for a Mark Bass cab, however all the cabs they make are rated at 400w. Would that be too big a gap between my 250w head unit and the cab?

Thanks

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 9, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Reggaebass]

I use ashdown now but I used my little mark blackline with a Markbass NY15 for years with no problem 

[Exile252]

Cheers for the info guys. So if I'm correct in thinking, all will happen is it won't be as loud as if I used a 400w head?

[Japhet]

28 minutes ago, Exile252 said:

Cheers for the info guys. So if I'm correct in thinking, all will happen is it won't be as loud as if I used a 400w head?

Pretty much, although it's all very subjective. Some manufacturers quote very high output watts but the amps don't deliver. You'll find a 200 watt valve amp can butcher many a 500 watt class d or solid state amp for sheer power. If you're hooking up to a single 8 ohm cab you'll most likely only be getting a bit over 50% of your amps power anyway since they mostly deliver full power at 4 ohms (2 cabs).

[chris_b]

You can never underpower a cab. If you want a clean sound, less power into the cab gets you there.

[jrixn1]

1 hour ago, Exile252 said:

I'm thinking about changing my cab on my amp set up, but I'm a bit uncertain as to what to go for.

Why not happy with the Eden?  Not loud enough, don't like the tone, just fancy a change, ...?

[Exile252]

Just now, jrixn1 said:

Why not happy with the Eden?  Not loud enough, don't like the tone, just fancy a change, ...?

Just fancy a change really. Nothing against the cab, it's really nice.

[mcnach]

3 hours ago, Exile252 said:

Cheers for the info guys. So if I'm correct in thinking, all will happen is it won't be as loud as if I used a 400w head?

 

No, the watts rating of the cab mean nothing in this respect. A 400W cab just means it can *take* that much power before things go wrong (simplifying a bit). The wattage in a cab just states its limit (mechanical or thermal), that's why we tend to prefer cabs rated higher than the amplifier, but even that is not a hard and fast rule (even a 1000W amplifier has a level control  )

What's the impedance of the cabs? That will change things a bit, but not the wattage rating of the cab. 

 

edit: doh, I read that as a 400W *cab*... so what I said was not what you asked. 🙈🙉🙊

Edited November 9, 2020 by mcnach

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

2 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

It's only important that you don't exceed the rating of the cab,

There's no reason not to exceed the cab rating. That's only a problem if you run the amp at full tilt, while long before you reach that point the drivers will have run out of excursion and will be sounding quite horrible. A higher amp rating gets you more headroom. In the PA and hi-fi worlds, where clean sound rules, the recommendation is for amp power to be double the speaker rating. 

[Dan Dare]

Good advice from Bill as always. The upper wattage rating of an amplifier almost always means it can deliver that power in a very short burst (measured in milliseconds) and at a set/limited frequency. Steady state power delivery will be a lot lower. Few amplifiers have power supplies that are beefy enough to deliver high power over sustained periods.

Any decent drive unit will usually be able to deal with short term peaks of twice its rated power, provided it is mounted in a well designed cab. And as Bill points out, a high power amplifier will ensure the signal you send to the cab is clean. If you drive an amp into clipping, that can be far more damaging to a speaker than feeding it high levels of clean power.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Clipping can hurt tweeters and midrange drivers, because it increases the midrange and high frequency content to much higher than normal levels. It's the main reason why tweeters in bass cabs fail. It has no more effect on woofers than does water on a duck's back.