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Hydrive 112 Power Handling - Did I Goof?

Obese Chess

Obese Chess

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Supporting Member
Sep 4, 2005
4,713
5,595
Portland, OR
#1
Howdy y'all,

I'm thinking I goofed here. I managed to pick up a Hartke Hydrive HX112 for $150 a few months ago. I can't figure the power handling out here. What I mean by that is that the HX112 has a maximum power handling of 300W, but Hartke regularly pairs it with the LX5500, which is 500W. I have also found threads on here from the past where people were pairing the HX112 with a Mesa D-800, which is 800W.

Hartke also only mentions running the Hartke at 8 Ohms if you're running two of the HX112s together.

I also have a GK MB2-500, which is 500W at 4 Ohms and 350W at 8 Ohms.

Am I going to blow my cabinet up if I run my MB2 at 8 Ohms (350W), provided that I also run my Hartke (which has selectable impedance) at 8 Ohms?

What am I missing here?

Thanks!
 
#3
agedhorse said:
As long as you are reasonable and have good judgement you will be fine. Don't run that 112 at 4 ohms however as that would be (very) risky.
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if I am understanding you correctly - run them at 8ohms, and as long as it sounds good and isn’t audibly distorting I’m probably in the clear? Honestly it’s louder than I could ever need with the volume on the GK at 2 so that shouldn’t be an issue.
 
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#4
Obese Chess said:
if I am understanding you correctly - run them at 8ohms, and as long as it sounds good and isn’t audibly distorting I’m probably in the clear? Honestly it’s louder than I could ever need with the volume on the GK at 2 so that shouldn’t be an issue.
Click to expand...
Correct.
 
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#5
Yeah just leave them both set to 8 ohms. Maybe even use a strip of tape or something to keep the switch set. One or two as needed but neither should be set to 4 ohm, unless there's a different amp in play.

Keep the low frequency in check as the volume goes up! I unofficially use kinda a 2:1 rule. For every "2 clicks" I go up on the volume from the starting point, I tick back AT LEAST 1 on the "bass" or "low" knob. It's not scientific or precise and sometimes it is probably more like 1:1 or even 1:2; however once I can't talk over the room volume the bass is cut only as volume moves up.
 
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#6
Obese Chess said:
if I am understanding you correctly - run them at 8ohms, and as long as it sounds good and isn’t audibly distorting I’m probably in the clear? Honestly it’s louder than I could ever need with the volume on the GK at 2 so that shouldn’t be an issue.
Click to expand...
I had a Hartke LH500 and two Hydrive 12's and I worked them hard at gigs. Always use the 8ohm setting. I sold the Hartke and got a Mesa WD800 and they were wicked loud at 4 ohms. With one cab you should be ok just keep and ear out for farting sounds and back off bass or volume. ;)
 
#7
Yeah, at 8 ohms even at low volumes the low B and E on my 5s are “farting” pretty loudly. Might be time to either sell the cabinet or find another cheap one - I think I paid $150 for this one and the only other on Reverb right now is $400, so no big loss. Still annoying, though.
 
#9
agedhorse said:
Might have been damaged by somebody putting unreasonable power into it switched to 4 ohms. Why? Because some players think that more is always better... ugh
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maybe. High notes sound fine. I will say I played it extensively at high volumes before buying it (through a Hartke TX300) and even when I mistakenly VERY BRIEFLY switched it to 4 ohms upon purchase of the MB500 I kept the volume down and never got any distortion. This is a silly question, but it doesn’t appear that I can set the MB500 to any certain set of ohms - is this only done at the cabinet level? The manual for the MB500 makes no mention of this, just that it works with 4, 8, and 16 ohm cabinets.
 
#10
Well, this is embarrassing. I took a look at the front panel of the MB500 and I had the gain absolutely dimed because the last time I took the head out of the house I was filling in for a death metal band AND running it through an Ampeg 8x10. Put the gain back to where a normal person would have it and it sounds fine - better than fine, actually. Good job, me. :rollno:
 
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#16
dbase said:
I had a Hartke LH500 and two Hydrive 12's and I worked them hard at gigs. Always use the 8ohm setting. I sold the Hartke and got a Mesa WD800 and they were wicked loud at 4 ohms. With one cab you should be ok just keep and ear out for farting sounds and back off bass or volume. ;)
Click to expand...

would you explain why you sold the Hartke? Something you didn't like, just like to try something else...?
 
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#18
aaaaand it’s toast. Finally got the tone dialed in how I wanted so I brought it to a gig, cranked the gain up to “2,” sound checked and was immediately greeted with the smell of burning electronics out of the front of the cabinet.

oops.
 
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