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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Two questions...
Q1) I have a 4 x 10" Hartke bass cabinet and a 1 x 15" Peavey bass cabinet. The Peavey sounds too 'muddy' on its own, the Hartke sounds too 'tinny' on its own.
Together, however, they sound like bass heaven. But it's just too much 'rig'.
I want to convert the 4 x 10" into a smaller 2 x 10" cab, but how to I configure the speaker connections? The speakers are 8 ohm and arranged in series/parallel to give a total impedance of 8 ohms.
If I hook 'em up in series, it'll be 16 ohms. If I hook 'em up in parallel, it'll be 4 ohms. How can I get two 8 ohm speakers to add up to 8 ohms?
Q2) I want to put one of the soon-to-be spare 10" speakers into my little Carlsbro Scorpion bass practice amp. The Celestion speaker in the Carlsbro looks like a toy compared to the massive magnet on the Hartke. But... it's only 4 ohms. And the Hartke, as stated above, is 8 ohms. How would putting an 8 ohm speaker in there affect anything? I guess it's a similar question to the first - how do I fool the amp into thinking the speakers have a different impedance.
Surely its not as simple as putting a 4 or 16 ohm resistor in series or parallel with the speaker terminals??? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Q1, if you have a pair of 8 ohm speakers you can as you said, get a total load of either 16 or 4 ohms, but not 8. Can't be done.
Q2, if you put an 8 ohm load on an amp that delivers it's maxium output into 4 ohms, you'll get a reduction in output. You can't make the load appear different to the amp |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | What are the consequences of using it in either configuration.
I'd assume series (16 ohm) would reduce the output, as with Q2, but what would happen with a parallel configuration (4 ohm)? |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Slow upload, double post... :rolleyes: |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | As long as the combined impedance is higher than the minimum load the amp is designed for, the only consequence will be a reduction in output. Going lower than the recommended minimum load could fry the amp. |
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Joined:
September 2004
Posts: 777
Location: East Wenatchee, WA | It partly depends on your amp too. If you have a two channel bass amp (such as driving your 15 and your 10's bi-amped) you can simply plug each 10 into one of the bi-amp holes and get two 8 ohm outputs.
Most pro-audio amps(including bass amps) are rated at 4 ohms, some to 2 ohms, so I would wire the speakers for 4 ohms if that is what you amp can handle to get the best power output. However, if your amps are 8 minimum, then you are probably stuck going to 16 and choking the output a bit. |
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Advice needed from amp / cab / speaker experts.
