Help... need to improvise an amp for a speaker test

[pulse]

Hi

Tomorrow I am receiving a Ebay item delivered directly by the seller (local) its a Trace elliot 1153 cab. I have no amp at home and no way to test it when it comes.

Have two choices

1- use my home stereo, is there a way to wire it to a jack cable and plug that into the Cabinet? is it risky for the cabinet or amp to do so?

2- blow 100 Euro on an EHX 22 Caliber. But I am very low on money right now


Any advice on the Home amp idea or any cheaper options than the 22 caliber welcome

cheers
J

[lunarpollen]

You don't know anyone with an amplifier? Or any music shop that would let you bring the cab in and plug it in?

It's a 200 watt cab, 8 ohms; using your home stereo would probably be safe. Check the small print on the back of the stereo amp to make sure. All you'd need to do is wire a 1/4" mono plug to the end of one of the stereo speaker wires. Then you run the cab in place of one of the stereo's regular speakers.

[pulse]

I dont really have time to arrange an amp and have no car to move the cab around, also it arrives at my place in the evening, I just want to make sure I am not handing over money for Crud.

Thanks a lot for your reply - I may try the home stereo route.

J

[RickenBoogie]

I must ask, why would you buy a bass cab if you have no amp?

[pulse]

he he

its because both my amps are locked up in band rooms over the other side of town

i have no key and the chance came along to get this new cab for cheap at short notice

[Calaverasgrande]

I have run several of my bass cabs as home theatre subs in the past
( I have a lot of cabs okay?) It works fine as long as you dont go above or below the recommended impedance of the stereos amp. Usually 4 or 8 ohms.
I wouldnt play bass thru the stereo, just pump some hiphop tunes that have a lot of bottom end so you can be sure the cones are viable.

[DukeLeJeune]

Plug your 1/4" jack cable into the cab.

Disconnect one set of speaker wires from one of your home stereo speakers. Do not turn your stereo amp on; we're going to do a practice run first.

Touch the + end of the speaker cable to the tip of the jack cable, and the - end to the barrel, above the little black ring. Your stereo amp is off, right? Okay, if your amp was on, that would send the signal through the bass cab and you should hear sound.

Now what you DO NOT want to do is a) touch the + and - ends of your speaker wire to one another; or b) touch them both to the tip of the jack at the same time; or c) touch them both to the barrel of the jack at the same time. Do any of these with your amp turned up high, and you will find out how rugged your amp really is.

Your stereo amp is still off, right? Okay, do you think you can do this for real, with the amp on? If so make sure the + and - leads aren't touching each other or anything else for right now, and turn the amp on. Don't turn it up too loud at first, just to be safe. I presume the other speaker stereo is now playing. Okay, be careful and touch the + lead to the tip and the - lead to the barrel. You should get sound.

Actually if you get mixed up and touch the - lead to the tip and + lead to the barrel, you'll still get sound. Just don't touch 'em both to the same place at the same time, and when you turn your attention back to the amp to change volume or turn it off, take the leads off the jack and make sure you are holding them apart so they can't touch.

After doing a low-volume test and not blowing anything up, you can goose the volume a bit and see if there's any obvious distortion at higher volumes.

[pulse]

hey dudes

thanks for the answers

it worked

I got me a nice deal on the 1153 plus delivery and it seems almost mint

well pleased, and the seller was a decent bloke