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New cab help!!!

Chacotaco

Chacotaco

Guest
May 10, 2017
46
37
Littlerock, CA
#1
my current bass rig is a Mesa/Boogie Subway D-800+ amp and one 2x10 cab. Yesterday I received a Mesa/Boogie 1x15 cab. I'm running both of them out of the D-800+ Amp, my question is do I need to flip the impedance switch on the back of the Amp from 4ohms to 2ohms? I. Sorry for the noob question but I've never owned this much sound power before,(I'm used to playing through a combo amp) and I don't want to hurt my new rig. Thanks in advance for the help and here's a pic of my new rig IMG_0122.JPG
 
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#11
Chacotaco said:
The 2x10 is 600watts RMS @8ohms. The 1x10 is 400watts RMS @ 8ohms. I no nothing about this kind of stuff but I need to learn about it now, so any will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Several ways to figure this: (these all assume parallel wiring which is what you will see 99.9% of the time.)

Two 16 Ohm cabs = 8 Ohms
Two 8 Ohm cabs = 4 Ohms.
Two 4 Ohm cabs = 2 Ohms.
See the pattern?

or
The total of two cabs of equal impedance will be half of the impedance of one of the cabs.

or (This works for two cabs of equal or non equal impedance.)
The product of speaker A and speaker B is divided by the sum of speaker A and speaker B.
Impedance = AxB/A+B

Impedance is the effect that the speaker or cab has on an amp, it's value is measured in Ohms.
We would say a cab's (or speaker's) impedance is 8 ohms.

And now you know something about this kind of stuff.
Welcome to Talkbass.
 
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#12
Old Garage-Bander said:
Several ways to figure this: (these all assume parallel wiring which is what you will see 99.9% of the time.)

Two 16 Ohm cabs = 8 Ohms
Two 8 Ohm cabs = 4 Ohms.
Two 4 Ohm cabs = 2 Ohms.
See the pattern?

or
The total of two cabs of equal impedance will be half of the impedance of one of the cabs.

or (This works for two cabs of equal or non equal impedance.)
The product of speaker A and speaker B is divided by the sum of speaker A and speaker B.
Impedance = AxB/A+B

Impedance is the effect that the speaker or cab has on an amp, it's value is measured in Ohms.
We would say a cab's (or speaker's) impedance is 8 ohms.

And now you know something about this kind of stuff.
Welcome to Talkbass.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the explanation!
 
#17
Super Bass said:
The Subway 2X10 and 1X15 cabinets were made to go together and they sound FANTASTIC! Don't listen to the mixed driver police! My D800+ with the 2X10 and 1X15 stack is amazing, and incredibly well built. View attachment 1145208
Click to expand...

OP, this is not good advice. While it's true that Mesa designed all of their Subway cabs to play nice with each other(right now, the hot ticket seems to be the 112 and the 115 pairing), that is NOT the case for most manufacturers. It doesn't take an advanced degree in audio technology to understand that matching cabinets will almost always sound better than mismatched cabs. A mismatched pairing of cabs may sound awesome to one guy and sound like crap to everyone else. If you like the sound from a certain cab and you want more, the best option is still to buy another one of those. That will not change.

The reason why all the Mesa cabs work well together is because one of their design engineers is a regular, frequent contributor here. He knows what works and what we as bass players want/need/desire. If every amp/cab manufacturer hung out on the forums regularly, there might be more varied options as far as what cabs will pair well with other, different cabs, but that ain't happening. Mesa is one of the few companies that listen to other players besides pros.

Having said all that, OP, your rig should sound pretty killer. The Mesa Subway cabs all play nice with each other, so it should be easy to get your rig sounding huge. As has been said, keep an ear on the 115 and keep the amp set to 4ohms. Enjoy!
 
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#18
Trust your ears,if it sounds good to you and sounds good out front-job done.
I use an Orange terror 500 with an OBC115 and a SP212 both Orange cabs and they work very well together or on their own but the 15 gets the nod.Both cabs are 8 ohm ,when I use both cabs it,s the 4 ohm setting or one on it,s own 8ohm.
 
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