Sonic Bass Cabs

[Slapstyle]

Anyone with knowlege of Sonic Bass Cabs? I've got a pair of cabs, each with 2x10 and 1x18m all 8 ohm speakers. It looked like they were wired in parallel, but im not positive, and it seems that would make the resistance wierd, like 2.6 ohms or something. I've never been good at that. Anyone see these? Know the wattage or ohmage? I plugged one in through my GK MB500. Sounded a little farty. Am I underpowering it?

Thanks!

[BassmanPaul]

It's impedance for the love of Mike!!! Shhheeeeessshhh!

[will33]

Farting is overpowering....need more cabbage to go with your ohmage.

[will33]

If you want to be serious about it, check the impedance before you find yourself in the market for a new amplifier.

How does something "sound like it's in parallel" anyway?

Edit: "looked like", nevermind....check it anyway.

[BassmanPaul]

Originally Posted by will33

Farting is overpowering....need more cabbage to go with your ohmage.

I'll give homage to that statement!

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Slapstyle

Am I underpowering it?

Will it never end??? The horror, the horror...

[punkrocko]

Originally Posted by will33

If you want to be serious about it, check the impedance before you find yourself in the market for a new amplifier.

How does something "sound like it's in parallel" anyway?

Edit: "looked like", nevermind....check it anyway.

+1
Those were often sold unloaded, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what drivers are in there.

[will33]

Originally Posted by punkrocko

+1
Those were often sold unloaded, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what drivers are in there.

I didn't know anything about them, or that they were sold unloaded so, yeah, good idea.

OP, an 18/10's cab should have a crossover in it. Means you can't just stick a meter on the speaker cable. You need to take this thing apart and see exactly what you have there. Do this before you damage anything.

[punkrocko]

Back in the day you could get them empty, or loaded with some generic OEM Eminence, or an EV. This could have originally been an empty cab with no crossover that someone loaded with “who knows what”.

[will33]

Originally Posted by punkrocko

Back in the day you could get them empty, or loaded with some generic OEM Eminence, or an EV. This could have originally been an empty cab with no crossover that someone loaded with “who knows what”.

Nice.

[b-b-b-bass]

They have a lovely web site ... Sonic Bass Guitar Enclosures

[Slapstyle]

The websites crap. I emailed them but haven't gotten a responce yet. I know it's impedance, I was being a smart ass. I did say looked, not sounded like it was in parallel. I did take it apart, but with 4 different inputs it was tough to figure out what was going on. It had big old cast iron speaker frames and big heavy magnets. There was no writing on the back of the magnet, it was just black. There was a sticker on the underside of the magnet with some serial numbers and declaring the impedance of each speaker to be 8 ohms. Each speaker had 2 positive and 2 negative terminals, and it looked like they were wired in parallel, but tough to say as the back didnt come off, and you had to take the speakers out of the front to even get a peek. If they were in series, they'd be like 24 ohm cabs, and in parallel, they'd be 2.7 ohms. I'm guessing they're wired some other way and neither of those impedances is correct, but I'm not sure how they'd be wired. Like 2 in series to the sub in parallel maybe?

Further information: They definitely have a crossover. There are 2 parallel inputs and a high and low frequency input. The pain was that the 10's had a box within the cab, so you couldn't chase the wires back to the input jacks. It looked like there was a cable coming from the jack, drilled through the back of the internal box for the 10's that went to the positive and negative terminal of the first 10. Then on the secondary terminal it had a positive and negative connection going over to the other 10. I assumed (first problem) from there it went from the second terminal on the 10 down to the 18, and if I remember right, when I pulled the 18 there was only one set of wires going to it. So, it looks like it's in parallel, to my very untrained eye. At the crossover and inputs, they were all wired together and criss-crossed so it was tough to figure out what was going on there.

[Slapstyle]

UPDATE: Email from the manufacturor:

Gordon,

It's sounds like you have a Funkbass cabinet. The cabinet is 8 ohms because the 10" speakers are under a crossover. The cabinet wattage depends on the wattage of the 18" speaker. It can be either 200 watts or 400 watts if the speakers were factory installed.


Jim

Sonic Inc.
3383 E Layton Ave
Cudahy, WI 53110
tel: 414-483-5091
fax: 414-483-3344
email: sonicspkr@aol.com
website: The Official Sonic Speaker Website

[Pickinator]

Wow

Pretty heavy on the disrespect shown to the man seeking answers.