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Amp, ohms, volt
- Thread starter Brother V
- Start date
What a small world - I just saw this elsewhere this morning and though of my TB brethren. Perhaps I'll post it in the Amps and Cabs forum...
alright - here's my question: why would a bass player insist on 4 ohm? I saw this referenced in an (unfavorable) online review for an amp head, with the only explanation being "if you know, you know" ... but I don't know, so I'm asking.
(FWIW: I also play guitar, and have an old tube amp which requires switching from 8 to 4 ohms when adding an external cabinet, and I did prefer that sound)
(FWIW: I also play guitar, and have an old tube amp which requires switching from 8 to 4 ohms when adding an external cabinet, and I did prefer that sound)
Not quite sure what you're asking, but many prefer a head that is 4 Ohm capable so that you can safely use two X 8 Ohm cabs, Heads that can handle 2.67 or 2 Ohms are even better, so you can run three or four 8 Ohm cabs.
I prefer 8 Ohm cabs, so that I can run more cabs, if I wish to.
I’d assume a majority of bass players don’t know the impedance of their own speakers.
The main point is that multiple matched drivers working with headroom will always deliver more volume, (subjectively) better tone and (objectively) better sound dispersion than a single driver driven hard to the same level. Even at low volumes I much prefer my 2 8-ohm 1x12" cabs together than a single 1x12". YMMV
Sounds like the reviewer was trying to imply he knew something. He probably didn’t know either.
This I can understand -- but then, it's about multiple cabinets, and not specifically about ohm rating. And the comment in question was quite specifically about ohm rating.
I have read something elsewhere (regarding guitar amps) relating ohms and tone, probably analyzing the US tendency for 8 ohms (e.g. Fender) vs British for 16 (e.g. Vox), and claiming lower ohms to have a 'softer' quality.
Again, my own experience tells me little, because it involved an old tube combo, where adding the ext. cab. meant flipping a switch from 8 ohm to 4 ohm -- and issuing sound through both the original combo and the additional cab. So of course that sounded better, as it meant blending three speakers over a wider area. It may also have been louder, which ears would also interpret as sounding 'better'
Confusing matters more: I have another guitar amp with two speaker outputs, which doesn't require the 8-to-4 ohm change. Why not, I asked a tech. Because it's solid state, explained the tech, and can tolerate the change in speaker load better; it's tube amps which require the ohm change.
He then went on to explain more specifically technical details than I can remember, except that it isn't necessarily required to have a lower ohm load when adding another cabinet; it just *might* be -- so it was a good idea, to protect the amplifier from malfunctioning.
Well obviously I'm not going to risk breaking my amp to see what happens. And while it does sound subjectively nicer to add another cabinet, I'm generally not interested in the additional load -- not being the young man I once was
