Will this work? (Newbie Question)

Carpediem930 · #1 08-01-2011, 07:03 PM

I am looking to get a portable, less massive amp setup than what i have now. I am looking at a Markbass 102P cabinet and a Gallien-Krueger MB Fusion 500 head. Would getting the 8ohm 102P work for that? I'm still trying to figure all that business out when it comes to loads and Ohms

*edit* Sorry, I thought I was in the Amp section. My bad!

darkstorm · #2 08-01-2011, 07:21 PM

Should work. Do you like the sound of the 2x10 better then their 1x15? I found I generally liked the sound of 1x15 cab better then the 2x10 types when I was purchasing expensive rig. Due to the 2x10's being boomier and not as well balanced lows thru highs, they where overly bassy sounding cabs to me. I ended up getting eden nemesis 15" combo and ext 15" cab btw. Markbass didnt exist back then as best I know. Lol.

dave64o · #3 08-01-2011, 07:26 PM

Ask a Mod to move it.

Yes, that should work. I just got a MB500 (very similar to the MB Fusion 500 except it has a solid state preamp, I really like it a lot!) and am very interested in that same cabinet. In fact, I had a hard time not jumping on a few I saw for sale recently, I just didn't have the cash to spend at the time.

That cabinet comes in both a 4 or 8 ohm model and the head you're looking at will work with a 4 ohm load, so you'd be fine with either one. If you get the 4 ohm model, then wouldn't be able to connect a second cabinet to the head because you'd already be giving it a 4 ohm load. But at least you'd get maximum power out of the head. If you got an 8 ohm model, then you could add another 8 ohm cabinet later because a pair of 8 ohm cabs would present a 4 ohm load to the head. The benefit of this is you'd have double the number of speakers (4 instead of just 2), giving you more volume out of that configuration.

Carpediem930 · #4 08-01-2011, 07:48 PM

Thanks everyone! I haven't tried the 1x15, I still will test that out before I decide, but I was rather pleased with the sound coming out the the 102 I tried.

Carpediem930 · #5 08-02-2011, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave64o

Ask a Mod to move it.

Yes, that should work. I just got a MB500 (very similar to the MB Fusion 500 except it has a solid state preamp, I really like it a lot!) and am very interested in that same cabinet. In fact, I had a hard time not jumping on a few I saw for sale recently, I just didn't have the cash to spend at the time.

That cabinet comes in both a 4 or 8 ohm model and the head you're looking at will work with a 4 ohm load, so you'd be fine with either one. If you get the 4 ohm model, then wouldn't be able to connect a second cabinet to the head because you'd already be giving it a 4 ohm load. But at least you'd get maximum power out of the head. If you got an 8 ohm model, then you could add another 8 ohm cabinet later because a pair of 8 ohm cabs would present a 4 ohm load to the head. The benefit of this is you'd have double the number of speakers (4 instead of just 2), giving you more volume out of that configuration.

Ok, so here's a really dumb, ignorant, newbie question. What's the difference between getting more power using a 4ohm cabinet vs. more volume with two 8ohm cabinets?

ian_s · #6 08-02-2011, 11:26 AM

You don't hear watts. More speakers will be louder than more watts, assuming the speakers are working together and not at cross purposes. Use two identical cabs, 8 ohms each, then you can use one or both depending on what the gig calls for.

pbasswil · #7 08-02-2011, 11:37 AM

Just a general point to keep in mind: watts aren't like, for instance, dollars: $100 is ten times as much as $10. But it doesn't work like that with volume vs. watts, so don't get caught up in that.
All other variables being equal, 100 watts sounds louder than ten watts; but not nearly as much as you might assume!

500 watts may be slightly louder than 375; but you can only count on that if you connect both powers to the same type of cabinet. There are other factors that may matter more than the difference between those two watt figures. One factor is cabinet sensitivity and efficiency.

So for instance, an efficient speaker hooked up to 375 watts could easily be louder than an inefficient design hooked up to 500.

Anyway, you'll get a feel for this once you've experienced a bunch of gear combinations; and then you won't take watts so literally -- or linearly!