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12-26-2012, 07:47 PM
| | | | SWR Big Ben 18 cab -- wattage to move it?
Someone is selling one of these bad boys for 150 bucks on craigslist. I've heard good things, but I've also heard that they need some serious wattage to get going.
I've got a sunn beta head, which is only 100 watts ("only" 100--I know Sunn's are always louder than their wattage implies) at 4ohms. The Goliath is 8ohms. Think it will be enough to move it? Maybe run in parallel with a second 8 ohm cab for sound diversity?
Last edited by e_mann : 12-26-2012 at 08:43 PM.
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12-26-2012, 08:51 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Haven | | | It's a snappy, quick, sensitive speaker, in my limited (in store) experience. $150 is a great deal.
Your Sunn will sound great through the bag end 18.
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12-26-2012, 08:53 PM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Standalone  It's a snappy, quick, sensitive speaker, in my limited (in store) experience. $150 is a great deal.
Your Sunn will sound great through the bag end 18. | Awesome. I'm running a second beta bass really dirty through an 810, so pairing with this should give me some really nice cleaner lows in addition to the punch. Thanks! |
12-26-2012, 09:01 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New Haven | | | Don't think of it as a sub so much-- I found it to be a clean full range speaker. So much so that I go to thinking of the word "standalone" as it applied to bass cabs. And I changed my TB screen name!
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egad, a base tone denotes a bad age!
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12-26-2012, 09:19 PM
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Artist: Sadowsky, Bag End, Visual Sound, Pedaltrain, George L | | Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Nashville, TN | | | I had a Big Ben for a long time. I had it paired with a Goliath 3 and a SM900 head and later a MiniMo Pre and Crown K1.
The above post about full range is correct. When I first got the Sm900/Goliath/Big Ben rig I called SWR and asked them about the crossover. The rig sounded better full range tha biamped. They told me they designed it to run full range and that the cross over and biamp features on the 900 where cheap to included and "added value" to the amp.
Keep in mind you are really under powering the cab. Also not that your amp is 100 watts at 4 ohms. You'll loose some of that if you run at 8 ohms. Maybe as much as half. If you start hearing distortion in the head be extremely careful. You can damage the speaker and it will be A LOT more than $150 to replace.
If it has a grey grill that's a OLD one, from when Steve Rabe still owned the company. |
12-26-2012, 09:24 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brookfield, CT | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Got2SadowskyNYC Keep in mind you are really under powering the cab. Also not that your amp is 100 watts at 4 ohms. You'll loose some of that if you run at 8 ohms. Maybe as much as half. If you start hearing distortion in the head be extremely careful. You can damage the speaker and it will be A LOT more than $150 to replace. | Why do you say this? No way he'll hurt Ben with that little amp. It's fine.
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Originally Posted by Bassist4Eris My reggae skills are rudimentary enough that I just play whatever the original guy played. :) | |
12-26-2012, 09:35 PM
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Artist: Sadowsky, Bag End, Visual Sound, Pedaltrain, George L | | Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Nashville, TN | | | Bass speakers don't like the type of clipping that comes from a solid state power amp. It's harsh and can damage the voice coil.
When tube amps overdrive they have a natural compression. Solid state doesn't do this.
If you don't believe me that's fine. Knock yourself out and run it wide open. Not my money. |
12-26-2012, 09:38 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brookfield, CT | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Got2SadowskyNYC Bass speakers don't like the type of clipping that comes from a solid state power amp. It's harsh and can damage the voice coil. | Urban myth. Simply not true. This can damage tweeters, but not woofers.
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Originally Posted by Bassist4Eris My reggae skills are rudimentary enough that I just play whatever the original guy played. :) | |
12-26-2012, 09:43 PM
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Artist: Sadowsky, Bag End, Visual Sound, Pedaltrain, George L | | Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Nashville, TN | | | I've seen it happen. But hey, not my money. |
12-26-2012, 09:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Got2SadowskyNYC Keep in mind you are really under powering the cab. Also not that your amp is 100 watts at 4 ohms. You'll loose some of that if you run at 8 ohms. Maybe as much as half. If you start hearing distortion in the head be extremely careful. You can damage the speaker and it will be A LOT more than $150 to replace. | The big ben is rated at 400 watts at 8 ohms, so I didn't want to throw my orange terror at it, which can do 500 watts at 8 ohms. Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing with my equipment. |
12-26-2012, 09:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brookfield, CT | | | To answer the question, it should get pretty loud with that head. Not death metal loud, but decent. If it's not loud enough, you need a bigger head. I used to run mine with a GK800RB- plenty loud for most any situation.
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Originally Posted by Bassist4Eris My reggae skills are rudimentary enough that I just play whatever the original guy played. :) | |
12-26-2012, 09:55 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brookfield, CT | | | No reason not to use the Terror with it -- just use common sense.
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Originally Posted by Bassist4Eris My reggae skills are rudimentary enough that I just play whatever the original guy played. :) | |
12-26-2012, 10:37 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: GTA Ontario Canada | | | I often ran my Big Ben under my Baby Blue II 110 combo. The BBII is only 160W at 4 ohms so the Big Ben was seeing about 80W. It's a marvelous cab for small power as the surface area of that 18" speaker really capitalizes on what power you give it.
I think you'll be very happy with it and @ $150 you can't go wrong. |
12-27-2012, 01:52 AM
| | | | Threads like this is why I miss BillF.
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12-27-2012, 03:17 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Czech Republic | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Got2SadowskyNYC I've seen it happen. But hey, not my money. | You've seen a speaker fail. No-one will argue with that. Your inference about the cause is way off the mark.
The important difference between a sine wave and a square wave of the same amplitude is that the square wave will supply twice as much power to the load. A bass signal is not a sine wave and a clipped signal only approaches square, but the same principle applies.
Too much power damages speakers either through overheating or over-excursion - tweeters included. Speakers don't give a damn about the shape of the waveform.
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Last edited by dincz : 12-27-2012 at 03:20 AM.
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