Safe Impedence Mismatch?

[LowEnd88]

This is more to get confirmation on what I've read. I'm aware of and have read the stickies.

It would not be wise for me to run my 4 ohm SVT-CL into an 8-ohm cabinet because of a potentially high plate voltage in the tubes? This would be ok if I was using a SS amp though right? Simple Yes or No answer will do...

If I could match the SVT with the 8-ohm cab that would be great because I'm in between rigs right now and that would give me additional flexibility.

Thanks!

[will33]

It's best to run a tube amp at or below whatever ohm taps it has, that said, a lot of them can handle an upward mismatch up to double, ie: 8ohm cab on the 4ohm tap. The old fenders could handle this fine, don't know about the svt.

SS amp it's a non-issue. Those you can't drop below their rating but there is no limit as to how high an impedance you can run with them.

[beans-on-toast]

+1

As stated, you can get away with this with some amps. People report that they run their SVT's with an 8 ohm cabinet and don't experience any problems. I've tried it and prefer not to run my amp this way.

When you connect an 8 ohm cabinet to your 4 ohm amp, the tubes see double the impedance that they are expecting for optimal operation. For the amp, it is like running into a strong wind. There will be a decrease in the volume, it will have more distortion and less headroom when pushed.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Just try it.

If something blows, think twice before doing that again.

Regards
Sam

[Sinomis666]

I've been running my svt classic into a 8ohm trace Elliot & about every 9 months I would blow a valve! very annoying just brought myself a 410hlf cl ,my wife now hates me but the difference in sound &not worrying about blowin valves &maybe damaging my transformers is a dream