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300w vs 500w head with 450w cab?

G

GlennW

Inactive
Sep 6, 2006
7,107
202
#1
I have a 1x15 cab with a Emi K-Lite 3015, 450w @ 8 ohms.

I'm in the market for a light head, and am considering the Carvin BX500 and the GB Shuttle 9.0, 300w and 500w @ 8 ohms respectively.

I'm leaning hard towards the STL9.0, and the only thing making me hesitant is the 500w rating. I figure it'll be fine as long as it isn't too loud, and that with reasonable volume I wouldn't be pressing my luck on overloading the cab.

Any thoughts, experiences?
 
#2
1. Its good to have the extra wattage on tap, even if you dont use it. 2. depending on the cab, most cabs (not all) can handle more watts than the rating states. Rating is generally what the cab can handle constantly without strain. Companies like to be conservative on this value. Look up Cab effecientcy. Hope this helps! Shuttle!
 
#3
pan1k said:
1. Its good to have the extra wattage on tap, even if you dont use it.
Click to expand...
Only for head room purposes.
2. depending on the cab, most cabs (not all) can handle more watts than the rating states. Rating is generally what the cab can handle constantly without strain. Companies like to be conservative on this value. Look up Cab effecientcy. Hope this helps! Shuttle!
Click to expand...

sorry no.

Most cabs can in fact not handle what they are rated for. Some not even half of what they are rated for.
 
#4
Cab ratings are not to be taken seriously. But, ANY amp is capable of blowing ANY cab, regardless of wattage ratings of either one. Low frequencies eat up your power, and are much harder on spkr cabs. Always be aware of this, and then don't fret over the ratings. Your ears are your friend.
 
#7
pan1k said:
The debate begins. What you should do is just get a fEARful and get either head.
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Please go buy a 210 rated at 400 watts. Then pump an E or B string through it at anywhere near that wattage.

Commercial cab ratings are thermal ratings, not mechanical ratings. That isnt debatable. Those thermal ratings have little or no bearing on the power handling capabilities at low frequencies.
 
#8
GlennW said:
I have a 1x15 cab with a Emi K-Lite 3015, 450w @ 8 ohms.

I'm in the market for a light head, and am considering the Carvin BX500 and the GB Shuttle 9.0, 300w and 500w @ 8 ohms respectively.

I'm leaning hard towards the STL9.0, and the only thing making me hesitant is the 500w rating. I figure it'll be fine as long as it isn't too loud, and that with reasonable volume I wouldn't be pressing my luck on overloading the cab.

Any thoughts, experiences?
Click to expand...

Both those amps are powerful enough to damage a 3015 driver - so be careful with either one.
 
#17
Especially when you're dealing with solid state amps, you have to be very careful about the amp clipping, which as the term implies the tops of the waveforms are being clipped off and not only is a square wave being presented to the speaker - meaning it is moving the voice coil to one position and burning in there - but when the amp clips it is no longer presenting an rms averaged music signal, but a full peak-power DC signal to the speaker. So a 300 watt rms amp that is clipping is going to hit the speaker with over 400 watts of DC power, which will fry the voice coil in a heartbeat. So in many cases it's easier to blow a speaker with a smaller underpowered solid state amp than with an over-powered one. That doesn't give you a free ride - you can't just crank a 500 watt amp into a 300 watt rated speaker and think you're O.K. just because the amp isn't clipping - you still have to use common sense about it as you can easily blow the speaker with too much clean power as well. But if done right it's usually advisable to have an amp rated somewhat above the power rating of the speaker to give it the headroom so it doesn't clip.
 
#18
Freight Train said:
Especially when you're dealing with solid state amps, you have to be very careful about the amp clipping, which as the term implies the tops of the waveforms are being clipped off and not only is a square wave being presented to the speaker - meaning it is moving the voice coil to one position and burning in there - but when the amp clips it is no longer presenting an rms averaged music signal, but a full peak-power DC signal to the speaker. So a 300 watt rms amp that is clipping is going to hit the speaker with over 400 watts of DC power, which will fry the voice coil in a heartbeat. So in many cases it's easier to blow a speaker with a smaller underpowered solid state amp than with an over-powered one. That doesn't give you a free ride - you can't just crank a 500 watt amp into a 300 watt rated speaker and think you're O.K. just because the amp isn't clipping - you still have to use common sense about it as you can easily blow the speaker with too much clean power as well. But if done right it's usually advisable to have an amp rated somewhat above the power rating of the speaker to give it the headroom so it doesn't clip.
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This is also a myth. Clipping an amp doesnt hurt woofers. If it did every single guitar cab that uses distortion would be dead.
 
#19
Like Freight Train said clipping blows speakers probably 10 tiems more often than delivering too much "CLEAN" power to a speaker.

Clipping happens most often when the power supply can no longer deliver enough voltage to produce the given frequency at the given amplitude.

Again, this is most common in solid state amplifiers.
 

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