Power Rating Question

[bcmusician]

Hey, I'm new to the forum, and still a little wet behind the ears on the whole power rating thing, so go easy on me haha.

That said, I just purchased a Carvin RL 118 cab that's rated at 600 watts at 4 ohms on the back. My friend's trying to sell his Peavey Tour 700 head. Obviously, 700 is more than 600, so I'm a little hesitant (Not to mention the reviews I've read about the Tour 700 having problems with cutting out, though I've also read that's easily fixed). I'm guessing the golden rule is never add what a cab can't handle, though he was saying that's not necessarily true and power ratings can be complicated. Yeah. Like I said, I'm hesitant.

[Jaco who?]

The 1x18 will never actually see the 700 watts. The displacement limit (the actual power it can handle before the speaker reaches x-max and starts to fart out) is probably half of that 600 watt rating anyway. The 600 watts is just a thermal rating for the voice coil. That said, you'll probably be surprised how loud it gets with less than half the Tour 700's wattage.

A 1x18's frequency range will be pretty limited by itself, you might consider an older Peavey Firebass (or another 2Ω head) instead and use it with another 4Ω cab that can reproduce what the 1x18 cannot. I'd worry more about the muddiness than blowing the speaker, but that's me, one man's muddiness is another's tone heaven.

[Pat C.]

Originally Posted by bcmusician

Hey, I'm new to the forum, and still a little wet behind the ears on the whole power rating thing, so go easy on me haha.

That said, I just purchased a Carvin RL 118 cab that's rated at 600 watts at 4 ohms on the back. My friend's trying to sell his Peavey Tour 700 head. Obviously, 700 is more than 600, so I'm a little hesitant (Not to mention the reviews I've read about the Tour 700 having problems with cutting out, though I've also read that's easily fixed). I'm guessing the golden rule is never add what a cab can't handle, though he was saying that's not necessarily true and power ratings can be complicated. Yeah. Like I said, I'm hesitant.

That amp/cab combo will match up fine. The amp's rating of 700 watts is its maximum output, it's unlikely that you'd be able to make it produce that much power continuously. It's not usual to use an amp that's up to twice the speaker's rated power. The extra power is only there for headroom, and most speakers can handle short, transient peaks of power beyond their continuous rating.

Couple of things...

• heavy use of boosted low frequencies on the EQ will force the amp to put out higher power and could lead to speaker overexcursion.
• the octave feature on that amp could have a similar effect.
• Peavey's DDT compression usually does a pretty good job with speaker protection.
• Keep an eye on the clip light, if its flashing like a xmas light then you make want to back the volume down.

Also, check out this thread for amp FAQ.

[Bass_Pounder]

In addition to what has already been said, I will add that unless you are looking for a real "thumpy" deep low end sound, you are going to need another cab with that one.

I owned a RL118, and to me, it was not useable as a stand alone cab. I like a nice punchy clean tone like Steve Harris. I used to to pair it up with a 2X12 and that worked well.