I have a pair of 1972 Acoustic model 301 sub cabinets. Any suggestions on what I should do with them. They sounded earthmoving when I had them hooked up but amp took a crap and fried the cv's. I was going to get them recon ed but magnets were cracked. I want to use them for live sound or just get rid of them and get powered subs.
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Acoustic 301 cabinets
- Thread starter Jtorg98
- Start date
Those cabinets are not subs. They are speaker bottoms for the Acoustic 370 bass guitar amp. There isn't anything much sub happening nor possible, hence your blowing of the drivers trying to use them as subs.
Sell them empty for what they are, bass guitar cabinets for a 370 amplifier. There are many who own the head, but don't have the matching speaker cabinets. If they were near me, I'd be interested for that very reason.
Sell them empty for what they are, bass guitar cabinets for a 370 amplifier. There are many who own the head, but don't have the matching speaker cabinets. If they were near me, I'd be interested for that very reason.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Drivers got smoked by a bad amp. Should have never hooked that amp to them. It was a unknown amp I got with a bunch of equipment. Before that I had them hooked to my regular amp and crossover and they rocked. Thank you for the info. Very helpful. Won't waste my time with these and move on to bigger and better things.
Not a matter of them not being good, it's just that they are bass guitar speaker cabs, not subwoofers. Many products are more prone to wear/damage when used in an entirely different application than that which they were designed for.
Well a 301 certainly wouldn't be the most efficient subwoofer and wouldn't get down as low as many dedicated subwoofer designs, but just using it as a sub (without a radical EQ) certainly shouldn't hurt the CV drivers. Almost identical 188 drivers were used in the CV Earthquake cabinets for Sensurround theater subs. Back in the day (late 1970's), we used the a pair of smaller Sunn 118H half w-bins with that same 18" CV driver as PA bass bins -- they kicked, and never blew.
The OP didn't say, but if he paralleled both 301 cabinets together on a single channel of the amp, then the effective 1.6 ohm impedance could be what smoked the amp which in turn killed the speakers.
The OP didn't say, but if he paralleled both 301 cabinets together on a single channel of the amp, then the effective 1.6 ohm impedance could be what smoked the amp which in turn killed the speakers.
He hooked them up to an unknown condition amp. Even a smaller under 300 watt amp that the output has failed to DC will fry speakers.
No doubt the amp fried the speakers, but since the amp was working initially (before it "took a crap") then what caused the amp to fail was likely either too much drive or an inability to handle the low effective impedance of two 301 cabinets in parallel, not just using 301s as subs.
Yeah I knew about the load. The amp was questionable. It was hooked to some old speakers I was using at a race track to extend pa further into the pits. Someone came while I was working on car and cranked the amp up. When the races were about to start they made an announcement and blew the speakers. At that time I didn't know it fried the amp too. So then after hooking them into these 301s. Well you know the rest of story.
I see alot of folded sub cabinets used in live sound and dj systems. Not sure why it makes a difference with these. It is said the bassist like these cabinets cause of their sound being not only bassy but has some mids and highs too. I also noticed that the head unit made for these cabinets also has an eq. So as long as the speaker has the frequency to handle that sound should be good. Same with using it as a sub. Use the right driver for the application should be good. I would think so anyway.
The fact is that these are really cool cabinets. They are tied in with rock and roll history. I would love to see these go to someone that appreciates that. I really do not want to lug these thing around from gig to gig. I dont want to throw them out. There is much better and lighter stuff I can use.
I hate not having closure also but sadly @Jtorg98 was last seen: Sep 6, 2015.
SEISMIC AUDIO LOGO BEARING 18's bought 1 worked great hartke cab 4 and 8 ohm avail.
