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Mixing Speaker Cabs - Definitive Answer!

#21
UncleBalsamic said:
Remember that driver size does not affect tone. This is what leads people to often mix cabs - believing that bigger drivers produce low frequencies better. This isn't true.
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I'm running a 115 and a 210. I guess I really don't know if its due to driver size but the 115 definitely has a darker (lower?) sound than the 210. You could A:B them for me blind folded and I know I could pick the 115 out every time.
 
#22
ogrossman said:
I'm running a 115 and a 210. I guess I really don't know if its due to driver size but the 115 definitely has a darker (lower?) sound than the 210. You could A:B them for me blind folded and I know I could pick the 115 out every time.
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Yes, but it's not because the drivers are different diameters, it's because the drivers are different in many other ways.

Alex
 
#27
CapnSev said:
I've never had a good experience mixing cabs of different brands for one thing. Every time I've tried it, it sounds terrible.

On the other hand, I've mixed speaker cab sizes of the same brand plenty of times before with no issue.
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That's just it, some combinations work well together, some don't, and without trying a few dozen of the thousands of possible permutations you've got no way of knowing what might work best for you.
I've been mixing cabs and driver's for many years and never had any problems sound wise. As long as the cabs ohms are the same. Sometime I use my 112 with a 210 or my 115 with my 112
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Almost any two cabs together will sound better than either one alone, that's just a property of how speakers function. But as to whether you'll prefer a pair of 2x10s or a pair of 1x15 to a 2x10/1x15, as a for instance, the only way to know is to try all three combinations. That's seldom, if ever, an option for most players.
 
#28
I run a Avatar 2x10 on top of a custom made 1x12 with a Eminence Delta II 12"..with a SWR 350x..and it sounds great..I use it for smaller gigs and rehearsal..I run a 2x10 Avatar/4x10 Ashdown cabs..with a Carvin HD 900 Poweramp bridged at 4 ohms and I can hear the difference in tone..using all 10's..but not so much to shun the cab mixing..its up to the user ears..
 
#29
billfitzmaurice said:
Pretty much. The assumption is often made that tens, twelves and fifteens each have a characteristic tone and/or frequency response, so using one from column A and one from column B will give you a 'best of both worlds' result. That assumption is just plain wrong. There is no difference in either tone or frequency response that can be attributed to driver size in and of itself. Where the average musical instrument driver is concerned there's actually very little difference between the three sizes. But there are differences in the phase responses of different drivers and cabs, even different cabs loaded with the same driver, and when you mix and match them the results are at best unpredictable, the worst case being the cabs will detract from each other as much as they augment each other. So if you must take on item from column A and one from column B do so it a Chinese restaurant, not a music store.

That's not to say that there isn't any benefit in using different size drivers together. There's a great deal of benefit in that when the drivers are dedicated woofers/midranges/tweeters with a crossover insuring that each operates only in their own bandwidth.

If this information isn't in the FAQs it should be.
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It is now. Thanks! :)
 
#31
scuz said:
While this thread is around I may as well try to sneak a question of my own in here.

What's a good cab to pair with an Avatar B212N? I need an 8-ohm to connect to my 800RB's 100w power section and was thinking of just getting an Avatar B112.
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That would be the best bet, assuming it's loaded with the same driver.
 
#33
UncleBalsamic said:
Remember that driver size does not affect tone. This is what leads people to often mix cabs - believing that bigger drivers produce low frequencies better. This isn't true.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right on that, just in my case it holds true, just not because of the size of the drivers. The old eden speakers don't have it to give way low, they're made to work in a smaller box with edens signature midhump. The carvin is pretty efficient in the lows, winISD puts the f3 on that one in the low 50's. To the ear, it really does add "15ish" sounding bottom to the package.
 
#34
People just attribute certain tonal characterisitcs to the wrong thing a lot for the time. This is normally driver size as it's an obvious and easily observable difference between cabs and the myth has existed for a long time now as well (pushed by ads and the like).

This ends up causing a lot of confusion about cabs.

But, yeah, you may well find that a specific 115 does handle lows better than a specific 210 - it just doesn't pay to generalise or draw connections between driver size and tone.
 
#35
interesting thread...and timely...i have 2 aggie gs212's that i thought i'd be using for gigs, but turns out 1 does the job....now i'm thinking about selling or trading one of my cabs (which has barely any mileage) and picking up a 2X8 cab instead. then i could pair up the 212 and 2X8 - has anyone tried this combination?
 
#37
UncleBalsamic said:
It would depend enitrely on the specific 2x8 you'd be using.

You can't judge anything tonal from speaker size alone.
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+1. If you were to combine a 2x12 with a 2x8 with the eights being true midrange drivers with a crossover sending everything below 1.5kHz or so to the twelves and everything above that to the eights you'd get a good result, in effect something akin to a fEarful style 2x12/2x8. But use any old pair of eights running full range with a 2x12 also running full range what you'd most likely get is the eights farting out at about 1/3 the power that the twelves will take and a midrange with more peaks and valleys than the Rocky Mountains.
 
#38
UncleBalsamic said:
People just attribute certain tonal characterisitcs to the wrong thing a lot for the time. This is normally driver size as it's an obvious and easily observable difference between cabs and the myth has existed for a long time now as well (pushed by ads and the like).

This ends up causing a lot of confusion about cabs.

But, yeah, you may well find that a specific 115 does handle lows better than a specific 210 - it just doesn't pay to generalise or draw connections between driver size and tone.
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+1

Even if someone is trying to use their ears and be objective about it, you have to consider listening position. A lot of people make these judgements standing close to their rig with their ears 3-4 feet above the driver. Considering the dispersion pattern of a 15 it's gonna sound deeper because the mids and highs are flying past you at knee level. I have yet to see anyone line the dustcap up with their nose and have a listen.
 
#39
billfitzmaurice said:
+1. If you were to combine a 2x12 with a 2x8 with the eights being true midrange drivers with a crossover sending everything below 1.5kHz or so to the twelves and everything above that to the eights you'd get a good result, in effect something akin to a fEarful style 2x12/2x8. But use any old pair of eights running full range with a 2x12 also running full range what you'd most likely get is the eights farting out at about 1/3 the power that the twelves will take and a midrange with more peaks and valleys than the Rocky Mountains.
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Wouldn't that depend on the efficiency of the cabs and how low the smaller cab could cleanly go? And wouldn't the smaller cab sitting on top of the other cab affect the smaller cabs low end (floor coupling)? I'm just curious because I've tried the same thing with different results from what you describe... many times. It doesn't always work but more often than not it has for me.
 

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