mixing cabs yay or nay

[SteveHeissner]

What brand are the cabinets you plan on mixing? Are they of the same brand or different?

One of my best sounding rigs was an Avatar 212 and 210.

 

[Stevorebob]

Many threads about this already. And has been mentioned, many strong opinions on both sides. You'll find great information if you search mixing cabs, mixing drivers, 210 + 115, 410 + 115, etc.

If you like the sound you're getting with your 210, getting another identical cab is a sure way to end up with something you like. If you're looking for something more, mixing cabs might get you what you like or it might not.

Mixing driver sizes does not always end up with the best of both. Sometimes you get the worst of both. If you opt to go the mixed-driver route, let me suggest you try the cabs together and comparing them to two of the same before you buy. Another of the same cab yields predictable results. Adding a different cab, not so much.

I've gone the mixed driver way, but I followed the advice of some here and am very pleased with my matched cabs today. YMMV.

 

[red_rhino]

You can do whatever you want, but nobody can guarantee you'll like the outcome. The most basic reason for "no mixed cabs" is if you like cab A but want it to be louder then buy an identical cab and pair them up. If you buy cab B nobody can say for sure what impact it will have.

Pretty much sums it up. You can do it, but it may or may not work out well. In my (very) humble opinion, you probably increase the likelihood of a good outcome if you stick with cabs from the same manufacturer. I used to run SWR 4x10 and 1x18 (bi-amped & full-range) with okay results. I currently have 4 Accugroove cabs: 2 Tri-110's and 2 Tri-112's. The Tri-110's stacked vertically is a killer mini-rig; a Tri-110 stacked on its side above a Tri-112 sounds amazing!

Bottom line is that you won't know until you try.

 

[karl_em_all]

If budget is a factor or you're looking at a great deal you can't say no to, you can get a different cab to go with your 210 and it can sound great. Or it might not. If you go this route the 115 will at least give you decent power distribution between both cabs.

If you like that 210 cab of yours, another one just like it will compliment it best. Every speaker will receive the same amount of power (optimal power distribution) and you'll get better sonic performance from your rig. The vertical stacking of cabs works great as well.

Also, pay attention to the Ohm rating of your amp and cab(s). Lots of info on TB on this topic.

 

[Ric5]

I cant seem to get a straight answer. i have a 2x10 and want to add a 2nd cab do i add another 2x10 or 1 x 15? My band mates are all 10 inch speaker fans but i read so much of 15inch.

I built 6 8 ohm cabs

3 2x10
1 1x15 with horn
1 1x15 without a horn
1x18

All cabs are similar in size and all are 8 ohms so I can mix and match without ohm problems. I have 3 ampeg heads so I can daisy chain the amps together and run 2 cabs off of each head and run all six. But I never do. I have found that the 10s and 15 don't sound good together. The 2 15s work well together, and the 10s work nice when I run 2, and a 2x10 and a 1x18 work quite well together.

Anyway that is my rig ... you may have different results with yours ...

 

[Worldeeeter]

Look, Ma! It's another "don't mix your cab speaker sizes" thread!

In the 80s and 90s, everyone was playing through 1x15" and 4x10" cabs together. Something happened, and it all changed. I think that technology has shown musicians that there are a lot of great speaker combinations that produce better sound than we've ever experienced. This does NOT mean that 115 + 410 = poop.
Doug Wimbish is the best example I can think of; he STILL uses the 115 + 410 cabs combo. If that combination was tantamount to sonic disaster, I'm sure the good folks at Trace-Elliott (or whatever company swallowed the company that bought them) would advise Dougie to go in a different direction.
In conclusion, you could totally go 115, or more 10s, or sell what you have and buy 12s or 18s. Your best bet is to go to a music store and play through different cabs. See what does it for you. I would trust your ears vs. the opinions of a bunch of armchair sound experts online.

 

[JR Roxx]

Look, Ma! It's another "don't mix your cab speaker sizes" thread!

In the 80s and 90s, everyone was playing through 1x15" and 4x10" cabs together. Something happened, and it all changed. I think that technology has shown musicians that there are a lot of great speaker combinations that produce better sound than we've ever experienced. This does NOT mean that 115 + 410 = poop.
Doug Wimbish is the best example I can think of; he STILL uses the 115 + 410 cabs combo. If that combination was tantamount to sonic disaster, I'm sure the good folks at Trace-Elliott (or whatever company swallowed the company that bought them) would advise Dougie to go in a different direction.
In conclusion, you could totally go 115, or more 10s, or sell what you have and buy 12s or 18s. Your best bet is to go to a music store and play through different cabs. See what does it for you. I would trust your ears vs. the opinions of a bunch of armchair sound experts online.

Trace Elliott is owned by Peavey now, along with Buddha amps.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

I used a 115 and 210 combo for many years and really liked it. I use an 810 now.

 

[Chris 'Wighat' Jordan]

Yay! I get to give my stock answer to this quandary! Play through the 210 by itself. Then play through the 115 by itself. You're going to like one more than the other. So get two of the cabinet you like the most.

 

[lildrgn]

LOL. I've been running a 2x10 Avatar and a 1x15 Ashdown for years. It's portable enough to fit in the back of my car and remain hidden in the trunk at all times. I think it sounds great all together. The 15 gives the boom that the 2x10 lacks a little. You can see the rig in my avatar.

 

[Ewo]

+1 to comments above, that mixing cabs with different driver sizes is a crapshoot. Might sound good, might sound bad.

I've long been in the "More volume? Buy another of the same cab." camp, but just recently I had some jingle in my pocket so I splurged on two of Mesa's Subway cabs. (Already had been using their D-800 micro, and been very pleased with it on the gig. Thought I'd try their cabs with it.) In the Subway thread, here on TB, the designer (AgedHorse) has been responding to tech questions about the Subway line, and he had mentioned that the three pieces in the Subway line (the micro amp, the 1-12 cab, and the 1-15 cab) had been engineered to play nice together--and that, yes, a 12 and a 15 would sound good together.

So I bought a 12 cab and a 15 cab. Used the rig on this weekend's gig, and--ta-da!--loved it. This was at a venue we don't play all that often, so I gotta see how it does at our home base where we're one of the featured weekend acts. But I have a feeling the results will be just as pleasing to me.

I'm rambling on with this story because I still do think it's best to use the same size drivers in a stack _in general_. But IME/IMHO it's clearly possible to design cabs so that the problems associated with mixed drivers have been addressed.

 

[Al Kraft]

Over the years I've been equally shocked/surprised by many of the the combinations that have worked well and some that haven't. If you have the time, money and/or opportunity it's always fun to experiment.

While there are probably a few guidelines that can maximize your chances for success, at the end of the day if you're mixing and matching stuff that wasn't specifically designed to work together, it will be a bit of a gamble, a definite learning experience and possibly a good time.

As an engineer (who has coincidentally played with both mixed and matching cabs over the last 40 years) my advice is to forget the math/science/physics/"rules" and go with what sounds good to you, your band mates and the audience/sound person. People will be listening to the music with their ears, not with their scientific acumen. Good luck!

 

[Worldeeeter]

Trace Elliott is owned by Peavey now, along with Buddha amps.

Great. A company that can't stay afloat without screwing all their U.S. workers and moving everything to Asia, now owns one of the first and best boutique amp names in the history of amps. That should go well. Hartley Peavey has a gift for running companies into the ground.

 

[Al Kraft]

Over the years I've been equally shocked/surprised by many of the the combinations that have worked well and some that haven't. If you have the time, money and/or opportunity it's always fun to experiment.

While there are probably a few guidelines that can maximize your chances for success, at the end of the day if you're mixing and matching stuff that wasn't specifically designed to work together, it will be a bit of a gamble, a definite learning experience and possibly a good time.

As an engineer (who has coincidentally played with both mixed and matching cabs over the last 40 years) my advice is to forget the math/science/physics/"rules" and go with what sounds good to you, your band mates and the audience/sound person. People will be listening to the music with their ears, not with their scientific acumen. Good luck!

Just as a real life data point that sort of flies in the face of what I would say is generally good advice about mixing cab sizes being potentially risky, I offer the current success being experienced around the globe by happy Mesa Subway 112 and 115 users. Of course it is worth noting that these cabs were specifically designed to be mixed or matched, but regardless it proves that not all mixing produces a final result that is less than the sum of the constituent parts.

 

[RoeyHaviv]

I do both, for small gigs, Markbass 112 combo, for medium I add a GK 115 cab, for large I use an Aguilar TH500+GS412.

I bought an Eden 112XLT to match my combo and they didn't blend as well as the 15 did, so I sold it and went back to the GK.

I also used different combinations with BiAmp and parallel dry/wet and Guitar/Bass rigs all sounded great but the 412 sounds the best to me. I blend the effects at the pedalboard and send the mix mono to the rig, one DI channel, one mic, easy setup.

 

[cchorney]

 

[P-oddz]

 

[Gaolee]

A bonfire would be good. Toss all cabinets in, watch 'em burn, then start over. That's my suggestion, based on pure scienceness.

 

[tpaul]

I'm trying to stagger my votes so this week I'm saying mix drivers and get the 115 next week I'll definitely be against it.

You're not supposed to give 'em fair warning of your future intentions, you're supposed to just spring it on them.

Unless of course this is a clever ruse, and next week you're going to be even more for it. In which case, carry on.

 

[ZenG]

If you happen to be mixing cabs......are the odds more in your favor if you stick with the same brand of cabs total rather than just arbitrary pairing of different brands?