I recently acquired a 70's ampeg 8x10. Before this I was using 2 2x15 sunn cabinets, both at 16 ohms, for an 8 ohm load through a acoustic b800. I'd like to pair one of the Sunn cabinets with the 8x10. I am a little concerned for the head though, if my math is correct, the load will be 3.2.
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4ohm max load, powering 3.2 ohm
- Thread starter RandallHuth
- Start date
nope and nope; the head would be pushed below 4Ω (you risk smoking it), and besides most of the power would be shunted away from the 16Ω cab to the 4Ω cab, so you wouldn't hear that 2x15 cab anyway.
on top of that, mixing different kinds of cabs together is usually less than awesome for bass; so i guess it's "nope, nope and nope".
besides, one good svt cab getting all 800 watts might beat out 4 old 15s getting like half that anyway.
on top of that, mixing different kinds of cabs together is usually less than awesome for bass; so i guess it's "nope, nope and nope".
besides, one good svt cab getting all 800 watts might beat out 4 old 15s getting like half that anyway.
Some of those old early 70's 8 10's were only rated at 250 watts. The later ones were rated at 400 watts. I don't think the 800 watt cabs came out until the mid 80's but i'm not sure on that one. From what I've read , the lower rated cabs were capable of more than they were rated for. That said , in most cases I've seen , an 8 10 will be enough for just about any gig. Running an amp at lower than it's rated ohm load can be a very bad thing so if it's rated for a 4 ohm load , I wouldn't run it at anything lower than that.
Other than moving it, I loved my old towel bar SVT cab. I never felt like I needed more including lots of festival stages back in the 70's and early 80's.
I learned in sound engineering school that Ampeg SVT 8-10 cabs (4x 2-10) have their drivers padded within the enclosure. You can't blow them up.
Overloading your amplifier will most likely destroy it so don't do that. I would load it to no less than 4 Ω. But in your case, I think you could pull it off without overloading your amplifier though. The SVT cab is loaded with 32 Ω drivers in series?parallel witch equals 4 Ω. If you wire that in series that with the 2 x 2-15's wired in parallel (8 Ω) your net load impedance will be 12 Ω, but i don't think you'll like it because L.F. sound waves do not combine well without causing peaks and dips in the frequency response or the comb filter effect.
Combining L.F. enclosures is something that is going to yield less than desirable results and that is why you never see more than one type of enclosure in sound reinforcement. Every output group uses the same L.F. enclosures.
What would be a choice setup is: the 2x 2-15's in parallel (8 Ω) or 4x 2-15 in series/parallel (8 Ω)
or: 2x 8-10's in series (8 Ω) or 4x 8-10 in series/parallel (8 Ω)
Overloading your amplifier will most likely destroy it so don't do that. I would load it to no less than 4 Ω. But in your case, I think you could pull it off without overloading your amplifier though. The SVT cab is loaded with 32 Ω drivers in series?parallel witch equals 4 Ω. If you wire that in series that with the 2 x 2-15's wired in parallel (8 Ω) your net load impedance will be 12 Ω, but i don't think you'll like it because L.F. sound waves do not combine well without causing peaks and dips in the frequency response or the comb filter effect.
Combining L.F. enclosures is something that is going to yield less than desirable results and that is why you never see more than one type of enclosure in sound reinforcement. Every output group uses the same L.F. enclosures.
What would be a choice setup is: the 2x 2-15's in parallel (8 Ω) or 4x 2-15 in series/parallel (8 Ω)
or: 2x 8-10's in series (8 Ω) or 4x 8-10 in series/parallel (8 Ω)
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