Can you actually...

There is no problem with underpowering a cab unless you are driving the amp so hard it is clipping.

People have run GK 800RBs through 8x10s for years and they are "only" 300W. I've even seen people play V-4s through 8x10s, and they are 100W.

 

Sweet! That was my 500th post!

 

There is no such thing as "underpowering" really. Also, an amp doesn't have to reach enormous volumes in a studio, you know!

 

Underpower is only bad at high volumes.. will kill your speakers..

for 200w speakers it's ideal to have 250w amp, and don't turn it up too much.

 

That really depends on WHICH cabinet and WHICH amp we're talking about, doesn't it?

If you don't get the volume you desire out of the amp you have, it doesn't matter if the cabinet's power rating is higher than the amp's or not. In any case you don't have enough power!

 

You can't underpower a speaker; you can only overwork an amp.

 

Yay! Maybe the "underpowering" myth is finally going to die.

I think people equate power to move loudspeakers with power to move an automobile or bicycle or what have you. It's not the same. With the latter, you *do* need more power when you have to push more of them around because of frictional and viscous losses in their motion. But loudspeakers don't suffer from the same mechanisms - you can put 1 watt into one loudspeaker or a microwatt (a millionth of a watt) into 1 million loudspeakers, and it won't matter: the cones will still move a tiny amount, but multiply that by 1 million, and you have a sound that's probably significantly louder than the 1 watt into one speaker.
- Mike

 

Yup.

 

Thank god. someone has put that underpowering myth to rest.

 

You can also overpower a speaker though right?

 

If you run 150w through a 10000 set of speakers you just get the volume of 150w? So it would be a good idea to get a good amount of cab and in the future upgrade the head?

 

You bet!

 

yes, but you need to turn up your amp so its pretty loud to do that.

In my case, I have an amp that puts out 900 watts into a cab that handles 600. Technically, this amp could really "put the hurt on" my cab, but Id have to turn it up really high for that to happen. 600 watts makes for a lot of volume, and I usually dont have to turn my amp up that high for it to be overpowering my cab.

This is whats known as "having good headroom."

 

So technically, I could build the ultimate rig with head room; a Carvin 4000 watt amp with a 50 watt 8 inch cab?

 

If you want ultimate headroom, you put 50,000,000 W of power into a Sony earbud.

Just be careful with the volume knob.

 

yeah i got a lot of warnings from morons at local shops about running by GK800 (at only about 200 watts at 8ohms) to my Bag End 4x0 (800 watts at 8ohms) and havent found any problems with it. I am even thinking about adding a 15 to add some more lows and run it full range so i get the full 300watts of power.

 

yes. absolutely. Im not joking here, you can use as much wattage as you want. Its not the wattage rating of your amp that kills your speaker, its how loud you have it.

 

LOL! The old "exploding head" trick. Headroom = fragments of your head filling the room.
- Mike