Impedance Question

[Ian Andrew]

I have an SWR 550X head that runs at 8 Ohms impedance. I have an Ampeg Victor Wooten 410BLH that runs at 4 Ohms. I just ordered an SWR Big Ben which runs at 8 Ohms. What is the best way to wire these together? What will my end impedance be? With said impedance, how many watts are actually being pushed through this setup? The 550X is 550 Watts. Thanks!

 

[Vinny D]

Unless you do some rewiring (if possible) in the 410 cab you can't use those two cabs together with a SWR550X

Here are the specs:
550 watts @ 4 ohms
375 watts @ 8 ohms
(minimum impedance = 4 ohms)

Using the two cabs you have listed connected in parallel you would have a 2.6ohm load.

 

[anderbass]

+1, Vinny D beat me to giving the same reply. A 2.66 load on a 4 ohm minimum amp is a definite no-no.

Here's the SWR lnfo link:
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Ian Andrew]

My next question, can I run my head into a power amp which has a 2 ohm minimum, in turn run that into my cabs? Tapco has an inexpensive 1400 watt one that I'm looking at. What do you think?

 

[Foamy]

My next question, can I run my head into a power amp which has a 2 ohm minimum, in turn run that into my cabs? Tapco has an inexpensive 1400 watt one that I'm looking at. What do you think?

A "line-out" would be OK. It is at line level, not speaker level. I think you would really overdrive the input of the amp if you went from your head's speaker-out to the amp's line-in. Not sure if you could actually fry the input or not, but I am pretty sure it would not work. It would probably clip and then (if it's decent amp) shut down on its own for a while (or for good).

Looks like your SWR head does have a balanced XLR out. That's the guy you want to run into your power amp.