600w or 300w cab with a 500w 8ohm head

[pete194a]

Hey guys

Since the world situation seems to improve, me and my band want to start doing gigs. I am therefore planning to buy a 410 cab, as I can read here that it will usually be powerfull enough at concerts.

I am a bit confused about all this with watts and ohm. I have found both a 600w 8 ohm 410 cab, and a 300w 8ohm 410 cab.
Will I be able to use any of those cabs with my 4 ohm 1000w / 8 ohm 500w head?

And would 300w even be enough power for concerts?
Thank you very much for the help

kind regards

 

[Raf Seibert]

You can use the 600 watt 8ohm cab with your head just fine. You could probably use the lesser cab (300W), too, but you would had to be careful as you turned it up. However, with 500W coming from the head (at 8ohms) the 600 watt cab would probably bear fine. That 300 ohm cab wouldn’t be vastly less loud than the more highly rated one, but you could damage it if you tried to drive it too hard.

 

[mmbongo]

What make and model exactly are the cabs? That may make a difference, as not all companies use 'real world' ratings.

And what amp do you have?

 

[lokikallas]

No such thing as under powering so get the bigger wattage cab.

 

[Staccato]

Think of it as a rating, or better yet- a limitation. Example: when the amp output said to be 450 watts at 8 ohms, and the cab is rated at say, 350, you might find a recommendation to limit the volume (definitely not dimed).

It's a risk, and many have exceeded reasonable volume settings and damaged (or killed) the speaker(s).

If you're taking a risk, don't let another dude walk over and change your setting for the worse.

 

[chris_b]

You've got a 500 watt @ 8ohms head. How far do you turn that up? Which cab sounds better?

For instance I never ran my amp with the master at more than 12 o'clock. So either of those cabs would be safe. If you are regularly pushing your amp further than 12 o'clock you probably need the more powerful cab, or plan for 2 cabs.