Help on head and cabs

Is the hartke a combo? Or do you have to get the head with the cab?

 

The hartke is 8 ohms, which means to pair it with another cab, the other would have to be 8 ohms to give you 4 total which is the lowest your amp wants to see. The trace is 8 ohms I think, but the peavey could be either 8 or 4. The second problem though, is If you pair either with the hartke, they’d be getting the same amount of power and the hartke cab would be close to dangerous levels while the other larger cab would be barely breaking a sweat. I’d personally try to get the head separate and pair with either of the other cabs, or if you have to buy the hartke as a pair, maybe see if the big cab is enough by itself and use the 1x15 as a portable solution or to leave at practice/home.

 

The amp should say what the lowest resistance is it can take, usually 4 ohms but could be 8 or 2 rarely. Ohms are halved when you have two cabs with the same ohms rating, i.e. 8+8=4. As for over/under powering, it’s more complicated but mostly look at speaker cone area. A 15 is about half of what a 4x10 has and definitely half of a 2x15.

 

If you have to get the Hartke stuff as a package, do that and then sell the cab.

Buy the Trace cab to go with the head.

Be happy.

You're not going to gain anything by pairing any 2 of those 3 cabs together, and the Trace is by FAR the best among them. Even running the Hartke at 8 ohms through that thing should give you PLENTY of volume, amazing tone (assuming the speakers are original and not replaced with something not as good), and a buffer of enough wattage that should keep the cab in good shape as long as you don't overdo the low EQ and compression.

If you absolutely had to add another one of these cabs, I would go with the Peavey 4x10. But it could sound like total garbage either by itself and/or with the Trace.

 

Mixing cabinets like that is like rolling dice. They may "play well together", or they may not. Personally, I'm with Omega Monkey in that the quality of the Trace cabinet should be better than the others, and maybe you should just pick that one and sell of the rest. But you should maybe see how it sounds to you first, if you can.

 

I believe the 1528 cab should be 8ohm but you never know if it has had a driver transplant along the way. Should be plenty loud all by itself with 250w anyway.

 

I miss my 1524 (4 ohm version) every day. I powered it with an LH500, and it was heaven.

@Downunderwonder has a good point about the impedance though. If you can confirm it's still an 8 ohm cab, snatch that bad boy up! You will not be disappointed. And even if it IS 4 ohm....EVEN BETTER! You won't need to pair it with your VX.

 

I will second @Sid Fang's comment about mixing two different types of cabs being a complete unknown. I would go with either the Trace Elliot or the Peavy 410, but not both.

 

This may help to understand how the amp will supply its power to differing speaker cabinets.
How Multiple Speakers Share Power - Geoff the Grey Geek