Eden WT550 - 2 ohm performance??

[el_Kabong]

I've been checking out the wt550 as it can drive a pair of 4 ohm cabs, but I found this in the owner's manual:

'We have designed our amplifiers to operate safely at 2 Ohms only because everyone else is doing it and some users expect it. However, we much prefer operating at 8 or 4 Ohms because of the markedly improved quality of tone and dynamic response.'

Any owners out there like to relate their experiences of running this amp at 2 ohms?

 

[vision]

Hmm...interesting...

 

[Lia_G]

Over on the Eden forum ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed] , there are a few people who claim to be able to tell the difference in tone between the same amp running at 8, 4, or 2 ohms. Then there are some who think those people are hallucinating. In any event, there are a number of people on that forum who run their 550's at 2 ohms all night at gigs, love it, and have no problems.

David Nordschow like 8 ohms, and thinks it sounds best. I think that's why that wording is in the manual. I also think that's why his bridging amps used to all bridge max power into 8 ohms. Now, however, the WT800b and the new WT1205 produce max power bridged into 4 ohms, because that's what people want: it's kind of limiting if you're stuck at 8 ohms and want or need to add a cabinet.

I don't have a WT550, but the WT330 and WT390 (like the WT405) I've owned have worked fine at 2 ohms. YMMV, of course!

 

[permagrin]

I started a 2-ohm thread over there. Eden says you may notice a compromise to tone or power. In the thread I stand by my impression that the tone doesn't suffer. My initial feeling was that I reached full power early and was experiencing some unnatural compression - however, after having played at 2 ohms in a few more situations, I'm pretty sure the effect was from the crappy power in my buddy's rehearsal studio. At this point, I can say that I find no ill effects at 2 ohms, either power- or tone-wise.

Go forth with confidence.

 

[Mcrelly]

David Nordschow like 8 ohms, and thinks it sounds best. I think that's why that wording is in the manual. I also think that's why his bridging amps used to all bridge max power into 8 ohms.

I usually have a hard time hearing the differences to! ok, this may not be apples to apples: but, with the eden wt300 running my two 8 ohm aguilar gs112s, versus running just one gs112 (8ohm) I ACTUALLY LIKED THE SOUND OF RUNNING ONE speaker at gig level than two. THIS IS NOT TRUE when I'm powering them with my RBI/Stewart 1.2???!!! or when I had my SWR bass 350.

 

[bassjam]

I started a 2-ohm thread over there. Eden says you may notice a compromise to tone or power. In the thread I stand by my impression that the tone doesn't suffer. My initial feeling was that I reached full power early and was experiencing some unnatural compression - however, after having played at 2 ohms in a few more situations, I'm pretty sure the effect was from the crappy power in my buddy's rehearsal studio. At this point, I can say that I find no ill effects at 2 ohms, either power- or tone-wise.

Go forth with confidence.

thats interesting.i had a 550 and i defenately noticed a differance in tone when i ran 2ohm.not bad,just different.ive never read the eden thread so im not sure what others opinions are,but that was my observation.i ran it that way several times though and never had a problem.its a great little head.

 

[Bass Clef]

I aslo think runnig any amp at 2 ohms is not the too healthy even if the specs allow it to.

Click on this link, http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229440 I was debating the same issue and got some very interesting comments.

I would recommend going with the advice of the manufacturer's owners manual and run it the head at a minimum of 4 ohms to get optimum performance.

Cheers.

 

[IvanMike]

if a manufacturer says the amp can run at 2, it can run at 2. Think about it, they would not warranty a product and claim that you can run it a 2 ohms if they really felt that the amp would overheat.

however, if you check any amp's noise specs you will notice that they get worse with lower impedances. that said, any difference i've ever heard in amps running at 4 ohms vs 2 ohms dissapear in a gig with all the other instruments playing.

as for liking the tone of the 300 with oen cab at 8 vs two cabs at 4, i think there is more to the story. Running a single cab of any impedance (especially if it is a single driver/2 way cab) will sound different and generally more coherent than running two of the same cab at once. This has zip to do with impedance and all to do with the sound coming from a single point source, no phase cancellation from multiple enclosures, etc.