A question I expect entirely subjective answers to.....

[Marko 1]

If you were looking for a cab - SMALL cab - and it was being powered by a 50W tube head - would you want a 2x10 or a 1x15? Why? And don't cheat say "both." Yeah, yeah, yeah. But lets pretend you can literally only bring one to this gig - mid-sized club with a PA.

Fair enough, but unless you present a reason for such a small cab (there are plenty),

it's difficult for some of us to resist suggesting bigger.



That said, I'm gonna suggest a 2x12.

 

[Wood and Wire]

And 2x12 beats both.

That wasn't listed as an option by the O.P. but yeah.

 

[aprod]

My first gigging amp was a Fender black face bassman with a small 2x12 cab. It had 2x6L6 power tubes and was rated at 45 watts I think. I played a lot of gigs and made a lot of money with a bedroom practice amp.

At that time I needed 2 of those Bassmans with 2 2x15s. When I could afford I got an SVT.

 

[GreyBeard]

At that time I needed 2 of those Bassmans with 2 2x15s. When I could afford I got an SVT.

I replaced mine with a Kustom 200 and 2 2x15 cabs. That got replaced with an Acoustic 371.

 

[tshapiro]

I like the laggier feel of a 115

 

[tb-player]

112 w/ a horn.

 

[ashtray]

I was using a bunch of 10" configuration cabs. Recently I've been playing 15's more. The difference in sound? Comes mostly from the brand and model cab I'm using, and not the speaker configuration. So yeah my old 2x10 cabs sounded different than my current 1x15, but my 10's were Genz Benz, and my 15" is an Aguilar DB.

If you asked my to choose between an Aguilar DB210 and a DB115, I'd have to compare the spec sheets for each cab and play each to see if I liked one over the other. And the weight and how it fit in my car would come in to consideration if I were gigging the cab.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

So, like any good GenX player, I've had pretty much every possible amp combo possible, from SVT's to Peavey's to SWR's to Edens and so on and so on.
If you were looking for a cab - SMALL cab - and it was being powered by a 50W tube head - would you want a 2x10 or a 1x15? Why? And don't cheat say "both." Yeah, yeah, yeah. But lets pretend you can literally only bring one to this gig - mid-sized club with a PA.

For me it's easy because I only use one cab for all my indoor venues. That's a DNS-210 cab that handles 700-watts rms and is crazy loud. I run an amp bridged at 800-watts into it but don't come anywhere close to maximum because it's just too loud - painfully so. It takes very few watts to get loud. I used to bring my DNS-410 to medium and large indoor venues plus outdoor and music festivals too. Now I only bring my 410 to outdoor venues and music festivals. So a good high power handling, sensitive 210 cab should do the trick

50-watts should run my DNS-210 up to about 120db of clean sound. A 50-watt tube amp can often run higher than its 50-watt rating because when they start to distort, it actually sounds pretty good. Solid State amps do not sound good when they start to distort, so you may get more power out of that 50-watt amp that what it's rated for because "usually" the rate the amps for watts of "clean" sound they can produce. Overdrive is a tube amp being pushed beyond its "clean" sound limits and pushing the preamp and power tubes into overdrive has a pretty cool sound. So it puts out more sound but it has a higher distortion percentage that, up to a point, sounds good.

 

[Hot Rats]

Fifty watt amp is for bedroom practice.

that's funny, I practice in my bedroom with my 600-watt amps and gig with the fifty-watt amp. strange.

 

[seamonkey]

mid-sized club with a PA

Subjectively, bring a 12" because the PA tops likely have 12"

 

[rooster]

If you use in ears doe's it count...

 

[Jeff Scott]

Every 210 cab I've played through has been utterly useless. They've farted out way to early, I simply avoid them now.

Have you ever tried an EV B-210? They don't have the power of many/most more modern 2-10s, but the two that I had always sounded great regardless of how loud the band got (Rare Blend). I even made a custom 1-10 version for smaller gigs but it did quite well for pretty much any gigs I used it for, usually with my old Walter Woods Electracoustic Super.

 

[Zbysek]

Fifty watt amp is for bedroom practice.

I gig with 20watts all-tube amp…

 

[makanudo]

a 12+6" 2 way cab.

 

[Hawk256]

I would pick a single 15 over a 2 10 but a 4 10 over them both. Give me the fridge and I'm really happy. Not sure about 50 watts though.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Fifty watt amp is for bedroom practice.

A 50-watt 1966 Bassman 212 rig was more than enough in 1966 when I bought it. However, when I started touring with a nightclub group in the early 70s' playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year for three years, I found out within about 2 months that it was not enough.

 

[Gigas444]

I love the 2X10 cabs, they're more mid-high pointed, you get better definition and I prefer the distorted growls compared to the one I got from 1X15/2X15/1X12/2X12 (IMHO of course), and that's what I search in my sound

 

[MtManiac]

210 - the right 210 anyway.

 

[jthisdell]

I love my Berg CN210, with a low watt head look for an efficient cab.

 

[smo]

.... would you want a 2x10 or a 1x15?

Bergantino NV212.
Beefy in the low's to keep a 5 player happy, and loud enough to easily keep up with a loud drummer without PA support.
I'd be concerned 50w of tubes isn't going to supply enough clean volume at band volumes though, gonna be pretty fuzzy!!!