ACME LOW B 210 views -worth this?

[HaphAsSard]

For the 1000th time you cannot kill speakers by underpowering them.

Yes you most certainly can! Check out this link at the JBL website:

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I'm going to disagree with that technical bulletin written in the 70's or around there as indicated by the font.

For the umpteenth time:

the JBL paper refers to HIGH FREQUENCY DRIVERS, i.e. tweeters;
driving an amp whose "RMS" rating is less than the thermal rating of the speaker into clipping is not "underpowering" if it ends up frying the tweeter: if it happened it's because the transducer has received too much power, not too little;
also, if it happened it's because the operator has cranked the amp (likely in order for it to supply the needed volume even if it was too under-powered for the job) not because connecting an amp to a cab rated higher magically and automatically drives the former into clipping (in the situation described - death of a tweeter - the outcome wouldn't have changed with another cab matched to or rated lower than the amp - it might've if the cab had been more sensitive, regardless of power rating, in that the operator may not not have needed to push the amp too hard);
in the somewhat unlikely event a bass-worthy woofer dies a thermal death the culprit is again too much power, not too little, and if it happened when connected to an amp rated (continuously and at a certain distortion level) lower than the woofer it's because the power that the amp was able to deliver when driven into clipping, again, exceeded what the woofer could take.
And before anybody mentions it, square waves aren't DC, drivers don't stop when reproducing square waves etc.

 

[BassmanPaul]

@eselow

Yes you most certainly can! Check out this link at the JBL website:

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So you brought back a dead thread from 3 months after you joined TB to try and reinforce a myth?? How many times does this subject have to come up before folk stop misquoting information??

 

[robd]

Let's get this back on track - Acme cabs kick butt!! -

 

[bassyboyg]

Just picked up this Low B cab today the Phil Jones amp likes the 4 ohm Acme cab
what a gem best I've tried so far, it is like listening to a studio playback monitor and its easy to carry
I'm thrilled with it.....

 

[Liltoes]

I have 3 Acme Low B-2 cabs. I play out with them regularily and have been for many years. I have never damaged a cone, midrange driver or high frequency driver. Why? The correlation between how great and how loud a musician is tends to be a negative one. If I have to wear ear plugs to play in a band for example, I am sorry but that is a clear indication I would probably be happier somwhere else. The more accurate a speaker is (and this is true with headphones as well) the lower the loudness perceived by the human brain wich is why very high end headphones like HD800’s and LCD X’s are more likely to create ear damage than an average pair of headphones if one is not careful. There lies part of the problem with Acme’s. The distortion being so low people feel they can feed them more and more power until it’s too late. Many recording engineers believe that one needs to bring some distortion to an otherwise clean bass guitar track to make the bass « sit » in the mix properly. The same often applies to live situations. There are countless ways to do this, each with its own sound signature. For most indoor gigs I use two Low B2 cabs rated at 4 ohms each pluged into you’re not going to believe it... a single, all tube Ampeg V4B. The V4B is rated at just 100 watts. And yes, I play in a rock band with a drummer and two guitar players. I often don’t even send my signal to the monitors. Why does it work? It does because the low efficiency of the Acme drivers ensure I can push my head between 80 to 100% of its capacity, the most proven way to get the most glorious overdriven tones in rock bass history. Output tube tones, not just preamp tube or pedal overdrive. And I do it knowing that no matter how far I push the head it will never damage the cabs. Do I feel my rig is underpowered at times? Yes but that too is not necessarily a bad thing. It is too easy to get carried away in a band: you turn up, they turn up, you turn up, they turn up and so on... if my rig can help set limits for the band, protect our ears and sanity that is fine with me. If others think they just have to keep up with the guy who walked in late with a six pack in one hand and a Plexi in the other, good luck.