Peavey 1820 resistance ?uestion

[clintotron]

I have an '80s Peavey 1820 cab (2x10, 1x18) and it has a pretty decent sound for what it is. It is rated 400w @ 4 ohms with a built in crossover (full-range inputs) or biamping inputs. Would two 200w heads slaved from a crossed-over preamp be the max or would two 400w heads (in the same fashion) be the max for this cab, assuming they are putting out maximum wattage at 4 ohms each? I guess what I'm asking is this: In addtiton to the entire cab being rated at 400w, 4 ohms, are each biamp input also rated this or is it half the wattage and twice the resistance?

[Sundogue]

Commercial cab manufacturers always list the wattage rating of the speakers (at which point the voice coil will melt). They never list the wattage in REAL displacement limitation, which is MUCH lower than the listed speaker wattage and the the real world limit before you blow your speakers.

Typically one will blow the speakers in a cab long before they fry the voice coil (at its listed wattage rating). Which is why most speakers are pushed too hard and fart out or blow, yet the voice coil itself never melted.

I would guess that the cab is displacement limited to 200 watts or a bit more (which will get quite loud!) so one 200 watt head should be sufficient.