Cabs to Optimize a Hartke HA5000

[Daryl M]

Hello Basstalk

Cabs to Optimize a Hartke HA5000 for use with a 5 string

Hi Guys, I am doing my obsessive little head in figuring the best option to get the maximum out of my Yamaha BB615 5 string and Hartke rig

My Hartke HA5000 contains 2 power amps of 250W at 8ohm each, They can be run mono or biamped but they cannot be bridged

My cabs are a Hartke XL210 and Hartke XL115.
I often biamp with the highs to the 210 and lows to the 115. The problem is that each power amp is only delivering 175W into the 8ohm cabinets adn my Drummer plays loud.

The options are:
1. To add another XL115 for the lows

2. Add a 4ohm cab for the low end, maybe a sub, and put the 210 and 115 cabs together for the highs.

Cost is an issue, so is portability.

The thing is without access to test gear I don’t know what frequencies are actually coming out of my Yamaha BB615 and for that matter what frequencies the amps and speakers will reproduce.

So I look forward to your input with the aim of getting better overall power and deeper, fuller bass

[BurningSkies]

Don't bi-amp unless you've got a dedicated mid cabinet designed for such use. Since you've got two amps that can go down to 4ohms, I'd be looking at getting TWO 4x10 cabs that both can do 4ohms. That way you're getting maximum cone area, maximum wattage combined with two cabs guaranteed to work well together.

[Daryl M]

Two 410s well that was something I had not come up with myself, hmm, I will ponder that.

I was Biamping at about 600 hz with the highs going to the XL210, this is because if I just run mono signal into the 210 it complains at higher volume, Biamped I can run it quit hard, with the XL115 looking after the lows.

The spec on the XL115 says 30hz to 2.5Khz, but is that at -3db, -10db or other level

[BurningSkies]

Originally Posted by Daryl M

Two 410s well that was something I had not come up with myself, hmm, I will ponder that.

I was Biamping at about 600 hz with the highs going to the XL210, this is because if I just run mono signal into the 210 it complains at higher volume, Biamped I can run it quit hard, with the XL115 looking after the lows.

The spec on the XL115 says 30hz to 2.5Khz, but is that at -3db, -10db or other level

That's because you're running out of excursion on the 2x10, but it's not designed as a 'mid' cabinet, its just half a 4x10 that's not tuned very low. And you're asking a single 15 to take a heck of a lot more wattage than the two 10's.

Don't engineer with your eyes. 10's can go just as low or lower...and with more drivers, you're not pushing any driver that hard nor are you asking any one driver to work harder than the others. With double 4x10's you also get more volume because of more speaker cone area, without pushing your amp as hard or your speakers as hard and with more low end reinforcement.