Clarus + cabinet impedances: Acme B1 vs. Euphonic CxL-110?

Welcome here, as much as I can individually offer welcome.

"Watts" is a function of volts into ohms. Over-simply, 200W into 8 Ohms "is" as much power as 400W into 4 ohms. The quotes around "is" reflect that it's more complex and not exactly one-to-one from the engineering perspective. From the player's perspective, there shouldn't be any substantial, audible, gig-worthy difference.

The measure of a cabinet's efficiency is the dB/power figure. You can probably find them on the manufacturer's websites.

Hope this helps.

 

Originally posted by David Allport

The Clarus specs . . Does this mean that the Clarus itself functions more or less efficiently with different loads, and if so, is high or low Ohms better?

I don't know. (How ABOUT that?) My suggestion is to give them a call and ask. Seriously, it's not like you're calling Gibson!

this is not an apples to apples comparison. Is it possible to derive an approximate "bottom line" comparison between the two sets of specs

These two specs don't seem to match up, unless someone out there knows how to reconcile them. I suspect that the answer is that the Euphonic guys' were running one watt and providing more detail, and that the Acme is in fact considerably less efficient. I know the Euphonic guys are great to talk with and will answer your questions.

Hope this helps.

 

The proper standard of measure is 1Watt@1Meter. This means: how many db (or spl) will be produced at a distance of one meter from the speaker when the when the speaker is being driven by one watt. When a company wants to make their efficiency sound higher they'll quote the 2.83 number: it's a way to get a higher number. However, this only makes a difference of (I would say in this case) about 3-5 db. So the acme is still much more ineffecient of the two. Regarding the 4ohm/8ohm question, I really don't know, but I can tell you this:

I'm getting ready to get a clarus myself, and I ruled out the acme for it's low efficiency. The 4-ohm issue adds a new wrinkle which I don't fully understand, but regardless, the low efficiency isn't a good match for even a 200 watt head. You have to double wattage to get a 3 db increase in sound, so for the acme output to equal the euphonic cab at 120 watts you'd need about 960 watts if we assume that the euphonic is about 99 db 1W/1M. The acme doesn't sound like a good match with the clarus. Bag end, aguilar, and euphonic all have efficiency around 100db.

Hope this helped.

 

The EA cxl110 is 103db.

 

Bassboy, did you read my post?

The euphonic is using a different standard of measure. Theyr'e telling you how many dbs will be generated at one meter w/2.83 watts through the cab. This means the actual efficiency of the cab is more like (now that I really think about it), 98 db 1W/1M., which still means that you'd still need about 800 or 900 watts on the acme to equal 120 into the euphonic.

The euphonic is still more efficient than the acme, just not quite so much as it might appear at first.

 

Sorry about that!! I think I was a little distracted. I was cooking some pizza while reading the posts tonight and I think I missed it altogether! You are 100% correct, I didn't read your post.

 

That is not correct. If you revisit their page, you'll see that the Euphonic efficiency is not stated in watts, but @1M w/2.83 vrms -- the same standard measure.

 

2.83V is the incorrect test to run if the cabinet is a 4-ohm model. Since P = V^2/I, if I=4 and P=1, V=2, not 2.83.

 

I recently ordered an ACME b-1 at 4-ohms for precisely the same reason. I also ordered a lowb-2 to use with a walter woods ultra high head. When I was placing the order I specifically asked Andy Lewis of Acme about the impedance factor. I said I wanted to buy a Clarus in the future to use with the b-1 and he said since I wanted to use it for upright and electric upright low volume gigs that the Clarus would be able to drive the b-1 if I got the speaker at 4ohms.
The acoustic image website also has a quote from a player who uses the Clarus with an Acme B-1 and says he is very happy with it (in the testimonials section).
Of course the playing situation is very important. A loud drummer will probably make the Clarus/B-1 combination hard to hear but that's the way it goes.
I'm also assuming that two b-1s at 4 ohms will allow the Clarus to deliver 300 watts into the 2ohm impedance. I'll let people know how I like the ACMEs when I get them. I'll be using that two-week period the company gives you to test the hell out of them.

 

While the specs on it don't look as good as the EA's do, I've logged a little bit of time with the Bergantino 1x12 cabinet and I thought it was great. I've found the EA VL series speakers to be a bit too flat for my tastes, but another thread mentioned that EA's new CXL series are "punchier" than the VL's. Actually, someone mentioned some similar sonic characteristics to the Bergantinos.

Also, Epifani's 1x12 is pretty strong, but I found it to be a little bit too silky, and the significant cone movement concerned me a bit - it didn't inspire confidence for louder, low-range applications. YMMV.

 

The individual impedance(s) of the speakers within, along with the crossover network, if applicable. If you peruse a pro speaker catalog you will often see the same speaker available in 4, 8 and sometimes 16 ohms; they just use a different coil. The ohm rating is a function of design specs, and while you can measure the resistance of a speaker with an ohmmeter to get a likely ohmage, the actual resistance (and ohm spec) varies with the frequencies being fed to the speaker.

While Ohms Law is more mathematically complicated, it's not as hard with two like speakers. In series, add their rating (two 8 ohm speakers = 16 ohm load), in parallel, half the rating (two 8 ohm speakers = 4 ohms). But that's just a general rule for like values; there are other factors.

The parallel also usually applies when you daisy-chain a pair of , or plug them both into the same head, speakers (most every one I've seen has been parallel) e.g., two 8 ohm cabinets are a 4 ohm load to the amp.