4 ohm or 8 ohm?

[Guest MoJo]

I currently run a Peavey MkVI head into a 4 ohm Peavey 410TVX and all is fine and dandy. I am thinking about buying a 210TVX for gigs when I don't need that much volume.

The question is this: If I buy a 4 ohm 210TVX and at gigs where I might want extra volume, run the 210 in in conjunction with my 410TVX, with them being the same impedance, the output from the amp will be shared equally between the two cabs, so half the power will be going into the four speakers of the 410 and half into the two speakers of the 210, driving the speakers twice as hard in the 210 as in the 410 so, do I need an 8 ohm 210TVX to overcome this problem?

Thanks

Mark

[alexclaber]

Yes!

Alex

[obbm]

If you bought a 4-ohm 2x10 and used it with 4x10 the total impedance would be 2-ohms.

You should be asking yourself "is my Peavey head capable of driving a 2-ohm load without expiring?"

[chris_b]

I think the Peavey 210TVX only comes as 4 ohm.

You are right, you need an 8 ohm 210 to go with a 4 ohm 410 to even out the power to all speakers but you won't be over driving the 210 unless you keep the amp on 11 all night. What you will be doing is putting less power into the 410 than it would usually get.

[Guest MoJo]

By my calculations, running an 8ohm 2x10 in parallel with a 4ohm 4x10 reduces the overall impedance down to a nominal 2.6667ohms releasing more power from the amp.

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='obbm' post='559006' date='Aug 3 2009, 09:55 AM']If you bought a 4-ohm 2x10 and used it with 4x10 the total impedance would be 2-ohms.

You should be asking yourself "is my Peavey head capable of driving a 2-ohm load without expiring?"[/quote]

A lot of people have said that they have driven their old Peavey amps down to 2 ohms without any problems at all.

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='bassman2790' post='559526' date='Aug 3 2009, 07:00 PM']A lot of people have said that they have driven their old Peavey amps down to 2 ohms without any problems at all.[/quote]

Lots of the Peavey bass amp range will go down to 2 ohms, so as you say an 8 + 4 ohm pair of cabs (nominal 2.7 ohm) wouldn't trouble many of the Peavey range BUT I'd check that your amp does 2 ohms.

As has been stated most of the Peavey 2x10's were 4 ohm (especially the early ones) but I'm sure I've seen some of the later 2x10's were available as an optional 8 ohm... again check.

Just to throw into the mix; I ran an 8ohm Peavey 4x10TX and a 4 ohm Peavey 2x10TX with a GK 800RB and the way that the GK is set up you could only use the 100w output with an 8ohm cab. This meant I had the 100w (full range) output running the 8 ohm 4x10 and the 300w (full range) output running into the 4 ohm 2x10. In theory NOT the best way to do it but the only way that I could utilise both cabs with the amp that I had at that time. I ran that rig with no PA support in a (loud) pub rock band and I had no problems being heard or with drivers complaining. So long as you follow a few simple rules you'd be surprised what can work.

[Guest MoJo]

The Peavey MkVI I have is rated at 275w into 4ohms or 400w into 2 ohms so should run at 2 ohms without any major problems as long as I'm not running it flat out. The devil in me :brow: wants to add another 4ohm 410TVX but that doesn't solve my problem, what to do at small gigs, when volume's not an issue but space may be.

[Alien]

[quote name='bassman2790' post='559551' date='Aug 3 2009, 07:28 PM']The devil in me :brow: wants to add another 4ohm 410TVX but that doesn't solve my problem, what to do at small gigs, when volume's not an issue but space may be.[/quote]

Add a pair of 8 Ohm 210s for the same effect and the ultimate in flexibility

A