Will someone explain headroom to me?

[Thylacine Dream]

I've tried looking through the FAQ, but nowhere seems to really start at the beginning, and you must admit it's a counterintuitive idea (what I know of it) to a newbie. Thanks!

[Exploiter8]

What does extra headroom sound like?

[knigel]

Ultimately you want your amp to provide you with this:

[chadds]

Max!!!!!

[Muzoid]

That's what we call the backstage area.....


:/

[B-string]

Hes on Eureka N N n now.

[Thylacine Dream]

So how does everything talked about in the link pertain to buying a cab that has fewer watts than the head powering it? That just seems to risk overpowering to me, though I know the amp won't be cranked any of the time, really

[GrowlerBox]

Originally Posted by Thylacine Dream

So how does everything talked about in the link pertain to buying a cab that has fewer watts than the head powering it? That just seems to risk overpowering to me, though I know the amp won't be cranked any of the time, really

It doesn't, because it's not pertinent to your initial question. Cabs don't "have watts", they are powered by them, and there's always a risk of overfeeding them, even if the head is "rated" lower than the cab.

[hrgiger]

I'll tell ya these kids nowadays, you have to tell 'em everything...

[DrSmith]

Originally Posted by Thylacine Dream

I've tried looking through the FAQ, but nowhere seems to really start at the beginning, and you must admit it's a counterintuitive idea (what I know of it) to a newbie. Thanks!

Headroom is how loud the amp can produce clean tones before it goes into overdrive and starts distorting.

How much headroom you need is really based on what sound you like, and how you intend to play. My preference was to always be clean, rich, with punch and articulation, and then shake the friggin rafters with it. So I needed a lot of headroom.

How you determine that with gear is technical voodoo magic to me. I never studied. I am sure there are some propellerheads out there that can explain it. Just talk to alotta players, listen to alotta players, then play thru a lot of amps and combos, with your bass.


Hope that helps.

[Sartori]

Headroom is how much clean volume you have above what you need most of the time, to put it simply.

Players who want a really wide dynamic range and to control the volume with how forcefully they play often want a lot of headroom. This is to ensure that even though they might not be using all of an amp's clean volume most of the time, it's there if they need it when they want to dig in.

Players who like a more overdriven tone typically won't want as much headroom, as it makes that overdrive harder to get.

It has little to do with having more wattage than your cabs are rated for. Your amp putting out a little more power than your cabs are rated for is fine. Having a ridiculously large mismatch doesn't do you any favors though, even if you like headroom, as even though the amp might not distort, the speakers stand a good chance to.

However, it should be noted that many manufacturers are rather misleading with how much they say their cabs are rated for in power handling.

[c2thej2theizzo]

[Son of Bovril]

It's got nothing to do with having more power than your cabs are rated for, it's to do with having more power than you need for the volume you play at. This means for example having a big enough amp that you can play at gig volume without being close to the limits of the amp, that way if there are spikes in the signal, they don't distort the amp and your sound stays clean.

Of course it is also a good idea to have cabs that can manage the full power of your amp so that they don't distort from the extra power put out by your amp during those signal spikes either...

Similarly a compressor/limiter can give you some "virtual" headroom without needing a bigger amp by squashing those signal spikes so you can ride your volume higher without clipping the amp but it may have an effect on your tone that some players don't want. many amp manufacturers build this into their amps to some degree for protection purposes as well.

[Sartori]

Also, what's with the picspam?

[Jazz Ad]

Let's dumbify (oversimplify) the whole thing.

-- The loudest your rig can get (x dB)
Headroom
-- What you need to get heard (y dB)
-- Silence (0 dB)

Headroom is the space between x and y dBs.

[Son of Bovril]

Yeah basically it means having a bigger rig than you need so that if you need to play a little harder the amp is still within it's comfortable limits so it still sounds the same only louder and more powerful instead of distorting or changing the sound due to limiting or pushing the amp etc.

[BROKEN OHMS]

A bit of an example for you:

I was using a Traynor YBA-200 head (200 tube watts) and it sounded amazing but to be heard with my band I had to turn it up way past the point of it distorting. Volume knob was around 6 or 7 I think.

I switched to a Fender 300 pro (300 tube watts) and now I have all of the headroom I'll ever need. My volume knob never goes past 2.5 BUT I could easily get twice as loud and stay relatively clean if needed.

Same cab for both scenarios.

OR...picture yourself jumping on a little trampoline in a room.
You on the trampoline is you playing your bass. The room is your amp\cab.
If the room has a 10ft ceiling you can still jump, but not as high without smackin' your head. Move your trampoline into a room with a 20 ft ceiling and you can jump as high as you want without fear of knocking yourself out!

[Thylacine Dream]

That's all perfectly logical and what I'd assumed, but in threads stemming from the FAQ Sticky, having more power in your amp than your cab is rated for is talked about as desirable for some reason beyond the cab of course being cheaper that way. And those posters relate this to headroom. I would quote one, but I'm really supposed to be doing something else right now

[Rebmo]

Headroom to me is having clean useable amp power over and above what I need to play in the band mix in various settings i.e. rehearsal studio, small club, med-large club, outdoors. Part of that amp headroom is achieved by having a bottom/bottoms that don't distort / fart out before the amp starts distorting. I do use a clean punchy tone for the most so "clean" headroom is important to me. I have a GK700rbII (480w RMS @4ohms) that provides barely enough headroom with my bottoms that really take some power to drive but it sounds great. So for more "headroom" I am going to try a GK1001rbII and see if it has the great 700 sound with more headroom. This extra power is not critical to me and can stay with the 700 but just want to try the 1001 for those situations (i.e. outdoor gig) where I might want to use more power. I can always ad growl by using the boost on these amps but clean heavy low end and punch is generally what I go for.

The "new" bottoms I have Hartke Hydrives, 115(500W RMS @8ohms) and 410 (1000W RMS@8ohms) paired at 4ohms, sound great with the 700rbII, but use a lot of the 700rbII's power to put out enough Low end in the band mix. (techies will argue the 115 and 410 don't match), so go ahead, sounds great to me. This bottom combo provides a tight punch with the 410 and nice lows with the 115 yet still reasonably fast response). I had bottoms prior that were lower watt rms capability but they tended to fart out near the top of the 700rbII and with these new bottoms, they stay clean. I primarily play a 80 G&L L-1000 with a real powerful low end and it takes a lot of clean power to deliver that low end.

So that's my story and techies might not agree with my terminology, but fundamentally I hope this helps.

[Son of Bovril]

I don't see why running more power than what your cab is rated for would be desirable, but I do do it all the time, mostly because those are just the cabs I have available...

While this can be risky for your cabs, it is perfectly fine as long as you listen carefully for the point where your drivers are starting to struggle and keep things below that level.

I would think it is however preferable to run cabs that can properly handle the wattage you are feeling them without risk of damage and see no tonal advantage to running lower wattage cabs beyond price.

Plus, as far as quality per price goes, the cheaper lower wattage cabs are probably more likely to get damaged due to often being of a lower production quality