adding a 2nd cab question

[PATTY1]

i have a SWR400 bass amp driving a peavey 410 8ohm cabinet, can i add a 210 cabinet and what ohm rating should it be ???

[5StringBlues]

If your minimum ohm load is 4 ohms on the head,you want another 8 ohm cab.

[SurferJoe46]

Straight from Peavey:

Power Output ~ SWR 400
400 Watts @ 4 ohms
250 Watts @ 8 ohms
(minimum load = 4 ohms)

Suggested Speaker Enclosures
*SWR WorkingPro 4x10
*SWR Goliath III 4x10
*(1) SWR WorkingPro 4x10 & (1) SWR WorkingPro 1x15
*(1) SWR Goliath III 4x10 & (1) SWR Son Of Bertha 1x15
*(1) SWR WorkingPro 4x10 & (1) SWR WorkingPro 2x10
*(1) SWR Goliath III 4x10 & (1) SWR Goliath Junior III 2x10 (8 ohms)

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by PATTY1

i have a SWR400 bass amp driving a peavey 410 8ohm cabinet, can i add a 210 cabinet and what ohm rating should it be ???

If you add 2 further 10 inch loudspeakers with an impedance of 16 ohms
each wired in parallel to make an 8 ohm cab.
Four of your 10" speakers will be getting precisely half the power of the other two.
Therefore limiting the overall power of your rig to the exact point of fart out of a 2 X 10 cab + whatever coupling effect you get from the under driven 4 X 10.
Now lets look at the only other possibility here 2 x 10 inch 4 ohm speakers wired in series.
Same problem each 10" loudspeaker on the two by ten still gets twice the power that any of the other 10's get.
So what is the impedance of a 6 x 10 I hear you ask, well usually
its arranged series parallel like your peavey but obviously with 2 sets of 3 X 8 ohm speakers in parallel wired one set in series with the other, total 5.3 ohms.
So if you add a pair of speaker sockets each wired in parallel to your peavey cabs 2 parallel circuits and output these to a tweeterless 4 ohm 2x10 which is rewired one speaker to each socket.
You have 5.3 ohms and a balanced load to each 10"

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by 5StringBlues

If your minimum ohm load is 4 ohms on the head,you want another 8 ohm cab.

There is more to this than simple mathematical division.

[James Judson]

Basmec has some fuzzy math there. Bottom line is: Any combination of speakers that add up to 4 ohms will work.

What he got right is if you have two cabinets of 8 ohms plugged into your head you will have an 4 ohm load. Your amp will like that with possibly no problem. If there is a problem it may come from the cabinets sharing the watts. The 2 tens will be working harder than the 4 tens. If all the speakers are the same you will have 2 speakers that are driving twice as hard as the other 4.

Look at the watts rating. Will the 210 cab take the same watts as the 410? If yes then your set.

If you have the cabinets already go ahead and try it. If you don't have the cabinets I would go for another 410 so you will have more of the same only louder.

With that all said musicians use mismatched speakers all the time. Sometimes without knowing cuz the speakers are inside the same cabinet.

Heres what you need to remember. Matching ohms saves your amp. Matching watts saves you speakers. There is actually a bit of wiggle room here.

Good luck

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by James Judson

Basmec has some fuzzy math there. Bottom line is: Any combination of speakers that add up to 4 ohms will work.

What he got right is if you have two cabinets of 8 ohms plugged into your head you will have an 4 ohm load. Your amp will like that with possibly no problem. If there is a problem it may come from the cabinets sharing the watts. The 2 tens will be working harder than the 4 tens. If all the speakers are the same you will have 2 speakers that are driving twice as hard as the other 4.

Look at the watts rating. Will the 210 cab take the same watts as the 410? If yes then your set.

If you have the cabinets already go ahead and try it. If you don't have the cabinets I would go for another 410 so you will have more of the same only louder.

With that all said musicians use mismatched speakers all the time. Sometimes without knowing cuz the speakers are inside the same cabinet.

Heres what you need to remember. Matching ohms saves your amp. Matching watts saves you speakers. There is actually a bit of wiggle room here.

Good luck

There is nothing Fuzzy about my maths and a loudspeakers thermal rating has nothing to do with balance unless in doubling the thermal wattage rating of the speaker you also reduce its efficiency by 3dB.
A balance of power split evenly between similar loudspeakers is the
only intelligent way forward.
PS This quote almost right "With that all said musicians use mismatched speakers all the time. Sometimes without knowing cuz the speakers are inside the same cabinet".
It should have read moron, not musician.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by PATTY1

i have a SWR400 bass amp driving a peavey 410 8ohm cabinet, can i add a 210 cabinet and what ohm rating should it be ???

Yes, and for equal power distribution it should be 16 ohms.

[IvanMike]

play nice kids.

good luck finding a 16 ohm 210. i have used 8 ohm 410 and 210 cabs on the same rig with good results. However, the 210 was rated for a lot more watts than it was getting and had pretty high excursion. Yes, each individual driver in the 210 will get twice the wattage as each driver in the 410, but the net effect may be that the cabinets sound about as loud as one another (maybe).

best advice? bring your rig to the store and try it with the 210 cabs you're thinking of.

[Bassmec]

Well Bill! If he does the added socket pair thing he can use the 2 X 10 with a pair of speaker cables stand alone for a practice or small gig.
Assuming its safe at 400 watts!.
What does the amp put out at 16 ohms for a possible stand alone 2 X 10 option?

[IvanMike]

Originally Posted by Bassmec

Well Bill! If he does the added socket pair thing he can use the 2 X 10 with a pair of speaker cables stand alone for a practice or small gig.
Assuming its safe at 400 watts!.
What does the amp put out at 16 ohms for a possible stand alone 2 X 10 option?

that's some serious rewiring and probably would involve switches. I say don't reinvent the wheel. try the "see how they sound" option 1st.

my guess is 160 watts @ 16, maybe less. you don't want a 16 ohm cab, those are for guitar players...

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

play nice kids.

good luck finding a 16 ohm 210. i have used 8 ohm 410 and 210 cabs on the same rig with good results. However, the 210 was rated for a lot more watts than it was getting and had pretty high excursion. Yes, each individual driver in the 210 will get twice the wattage as each driver in the 410, but the net effect may be that the cabinets sound about as loud as one another (maybe).

best advice? bring your rig to the store and try it with the 210 cabs you're thinking of.

Yup! Well once he has finished auditioning 4 ohm 2 X 10's he can just rewire the one he chooses in series. Also thinking about cabs with a tweeter, knowing that there are no inductive components in the crossover design in circuit with the bass drivers is a must.
Very few bass cabs have a low pass filters anyway, Good job!.
I still like my funky added sockets ploy best though.
But that takes wiring the high pass filter to the sleeve of one speaker
socket in the 2 x 10 and the tip from the other if you separate the speakers to sockets. Not hard to do and makes it a very adaptable
system.

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

that's some serious rewiring and probably would involve switches. I say don't reinvent the wheel. try the "see how they sound" option 1st.

my guess is 160 watts @ 16, maybe less. you don't want a 16 ohm cab, those are for guitar players...

"We don't need no stinking switches!".
Just an added pair of speakon sockets in the back of the 4 X 10 cab will do. Its nothing like complicated.