cabs with a minimum power setting?

[GearHeadBassMan]

So I was looking at the Basson 4x10 and I noticed that MF said "This cab is a power-hungry animal and will need an amp rated at 750+ watts at 8 ohms." I called Basson and got a bunch of stuff about "recommend power" and things like that, but they didn't actually answer my question.

Lets say (hypothetically, of course) I have a Hartke 3500a pushing 350 watts at 4 ohms (240 watts at 8ohms) and I hook it up to this cab, turn it on, and start playing. Would no sound come out? Would the cab start audibly chuckling at me? would my bass explode? I would really like a definitive answer!

-Alex

 

[Richard Lindsey]

So I was looking at the Basson 4x10 and I noticed that MF said "This cab is a power-hungry animal and will need an amp rated at 750+ watts at 8 ohms." I called Basson and got a bunch of stuff about "recommend power" and things like that, but they didn't actually answer my question.

Lets say (hypothetically, of course) I have a Hartke 3500a pushing 350 watts at 4 ohms (240 watts at 8ohms) and I hook it up to this cab, turn it on, and start playing. Would no sound come out? Would the cab start audibly chuckling at me? would my bass explode? I would really like a definitive answer!

-Alex

No, none of those things. What they probably mean is that it's a cab that will take a lot of power to get LOUD (i.e., relatively insensitive, or inefficient). It doesn't need a minimum amount of power to work; that's a misconception.

So all that would happen is that you might not be as loud as you would like (which would depend on your specific application), or as loud as the cab is capable of being (which, in itself, is not really important; it's only potentially important if you can't easily get enough volume for your situation).

 

[will33]

True. Can't underpower a cab, it just might not get as loud as you want. Speakers are powered for testing and measuring SPL etc. using 1 watt of input. You can power yours with 1 watt too if you want to, just won't be very loud.

 

[GearHeadBassMan]

haha, that gave me an idea... imagine having a stage setup with 1,000 speakers and putting 1 watt through each of them... haha that would be ridiculous!