450 watt amp head- what speakers?

[bass445]

im kind of stuck with what speakers to buy for my 450 watt amp head.

oh and my amp head is a behringer BX4500h

[chris_b]

What's your budget? Do you play in an acoustic duo or metal band?

[bass445]

i play in a school rock band and my budget is about £60

[Mog]

For £60 you are not gonna get a hell of a lot. A used PA speaker maybe. 500 watts 1x15 at 4ohms sounds about right.

[Mr. Foxen]

BDI21.

Watch local ads and make rubbish offers on any bass cab that comes up.

[Colledge]

ive seen a few ashdown mag series cabs going for about £75, probably the best quality/price ratio you're gona get.

[dannybuoy]

Either one of those or a Peavey cab. There's plenty of cheap Peavey Black Widow 1x15 cab on the used market.

[Conan]

As they said above! Sixty quid really is not much at all for buying any kind of half-decent cab. If you could bump your budget up to nearer £100 you would open up a whole load of options.... beg, borrow or steal that extra forty quid my friend!

[d-basser]

Keep an eye out for a Peavey Black Widow, probably the best really cheap cab you can pick up

[CraigPlaysBass]

+1 On the Peavey Black Widow 1x15.

That's the cab I used in my first rig, picked it up for £42 down from £50

Edited June 12, 2010 by CraigPlaysBass

[karlfer]

I've got a 600 watt, 8 ohm 4x10 Ashdown Mag, UK made, coming on the market very soon. Pretty much immaculate.
However, like everything else, you need to check how many watts your amp pushes out at different ohms.
I will be wanting a very reasonable £110 picked up.
As was said before, once you get around the £100 mark, you will find some very good gear.
Good luck,
Karl.

[bass445]

thanks for the info guys, but that isnt what i asked, i asked what wattage of speakers i need for a 450 watt amp head

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='bass445' post='865742' date='Jun 13 2010, 10:03 AM']thanks for the info guys, but that isnt what i asked, i asked what wattage of speakers i need for a 450 watt amp head[/quote]

Wattage doesn't mean anything, so ignore it. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3730"]See here if you wanna get complicated.[/url]

[mcnach]

[quote name='bass445' post='865742' date='Jun 13 2010, 10:03 AM']thanks for the info guys, but that isnt what i asked, i asked what wattage of speakers i need for a 450 watt amp head[/quote]


*generally* you'd want at least as much as the amp can output.
When a speaker is rated to 100W, it means it can take 100W... but low frequencies tax the speaker more than higher frequencies, so speakers that are made to reproduce bass frequencies will be ok, but if you use a 100W car speaker you'll blow it easily.

Your head outputs 450W at 4ohm. If you use an 8ohm cab with it, you'll get less power, closer to 300W. It makes a difference, not a huge one, but it makes a difference in volume.

The higher the rating of a speaker, the more you can relax *generally* about not pushing it too hard from your amp.
But it's better to have a powerful amp that you're not pushing hard into a less power-rated speakers (the amp won't clip), than a lower power amp, pushed hard (can clip) into higher-rated speakers (you can still damage them).

Your Behringer head is not the best quality head ever... but I happen to think it sounds very nice. A bit heavy, the fan is a bit noisy, but it has a nice bass tone. That and the 300W version are my favourite budget heads. 450W is a good number too. Obviously you are limited by your budget and what you can find around second hand in terms of speakers. You should be able to find a 4x10" cab for around £100 that would work. It may be 8ohm, in which case you don't get the full 450W, but you may not notice the difference.
You will notice a difference when you try more expensive cabs, with more efficient speakers, and maybe using two cabs instead of only one... but you should be able to find an old 4x10" in functional shape that will allow you to play any gig. For big venues you will always by DI'd or through a microphone anyway, so power is not a big issue and you mostly end up using your amp to hear yourself onstage.

Whatever speakers you end up using... avoid pushing your amp too hard. If your amp can output 300-450W and you don't hear enough of it, the answer doesn't lie in rasing the volume to the max, but in understanding frequencies. MOst people I see complaining "my 500W is not loud enough" they're just boosting the very low frequencies a lot and they don't have much mids going on. You'll get rumble and it's feel powerful by itself, but in a band context you will hear little. Mid frequencies is where the trick is at. Low mids for punch, and higher mids for definition and cutting through. If you really need TONS of ultra low frequencies, then talk to the sound guy leave the house PA to take care of that.

Confused?
A bit?

Good ;-)

Just go out and play, it's the best way to find out stuff.

I bought a 2x10" cab rated at 300W and the 300W version of your amp for £100 used. Those behringer cabs are not fantastic, but if you really don't have more money, you do what you can, right? You can always get one, and maybe in the future get another. Two 2x10" cabs are easier to move than a single 4x10".

Anyway... you have to figure that out yourself. Good luck!

[Mog]

[quote name='bass445' post='865742' date='Jun 13 2010, 10:03 AM']thanks for the info guys, but that isnt what i asked, i asked what wattage of speakers i need for a 450 watt amp head[/quote]
Any cab rated at 450 watts and above will be suitable. If the cabs are rated 8ohms then you can run two of them. If you want full power from one cab then it has to be rated at 4ohms. Connect through the speakon jack for the best signal when using one 4 ohm cab.

[Conan]

[quote name='bass445' post='865742' date='Jun 13 2010, 10:03 AM']thanks for the info guys, but that isnt what i asked, i asked what wattage of speakers i need for a 450 watt amp head[/quote]

The two factors are linked. At that budget you are going to be more constrained by what you can [i]find[/i] than how many "watts" it is supposed to be able to handle! I would have thought that finding a single cab that can handle 450w (and is 4 ohms impedance) for sixty quid is just about impossible - but you might just strike lucky! Some old Trace Elliot cabs often come in at that price bracket, but they tend to have power ratings in the 200-300 watt neck-of-the-woods. On the other hand, they are probably rated far more conservatively than your Behringer head - so you would probably be OK, especially if it is an 8 ohm cab.

As I mentioned earlier - your greatest constraint is your budget, but don't give up!