Volume and Wattage Differences Ampeg/Carvin

[guitarjam6]

I just used my buddy's Ampeg BA115T amp last night to fill in since the Carvin BX500 in my BR510 combo blew up a few days ago. I thought I'd have to DI the little Ampeg just to get in the mix, cause sometimes I have trouble being heard with the 300w the Carvin puts out, but it put out like a champ.

Played at a bar with a 6 piece funk setup, drum/bass/2 guitars/sax/trumpet... The Ampeg, rated at 100w into 1-15" sounded louder and cut through better than the Carvin running 300w into 2-10. It certainly wasn't as clear of tone. Much more rock sounding as compared to the tighter funkiness of the Carvins 10s.

I'm just wondering what would cause that. Could the Carvin amp been messed up the whole time and just put out less power(sound) than it's supposed to? Or, does having a 15" speaker just move that much more air? The Ampeg is a ported cab and the Carvin combo is not.

Thanks for the insight everyone.

[jazzblade]

One fifteen does have more area than two 10's I believe. It may have been that you had the bass placed somewhere that it tied into the room boundaries well and gave you more Apparent output. Some rooms just tie in better for bass than others. As to the tone of that bass, that's up for debate.

[anonymous02282011]

Originally Posted by jazzblade

One fifteen does have more area than two 10's I believe. It may have been that you had the bass placed somewhere that it tied into the room boundaries well and gave you more Apparent output. Some rooms just tie in better for bass than others. As to the tone of that bass, that's up for debate.

1.) The area of a circle = pie r squared

for a 15" speaker, roughly 176.7"

for a 10" (times 2 for a 2x10), roughly 157"

I say roughly because speaker faces are not flat surfaces, but if we assume the same angle of depth than we can conclude that a single 15" speaker has greater surface area than a 2x10

BUT . . .

I bet this had more to do with either cabinet efficiency, or, that the single 15 had less lows than the 2x10.