What would work more efficiently:
Low powered head + High wattage speaker or High powered head + Low Wattage speaker?
Low powered head + High wattage speaker or High powered head + Low Wattage speaker?
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Newbie question..
- Thread starter d3nzi0
- Start date
Maybe the question should be - which will work longer?
Speaker power ratings tell you (theoretically with a grain of salt) how much amp power they will handle. Amp power ratings tell you how much power an amp is capable of delivering.
A bit like tire speed ratings. Driving at 50mph on 200mph tires is fine. The opposite is not.
Speaker power ratings tell you (theoretically with a grain of salt) how much amp power they will handle. Amp power ratings tell you how much power an amp is capable of delivering.
A bit like tire speed ratings. Driving at 50mph on 200mph tires is fine. The opposite is not.
Try this Peavey guide:
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Or this article which deals with Ohms Law:
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Or this article which deals with Ohms Law:
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They are equally as inefficient at producing sound from the energy coming from the wall. With no signal to amplify no difference.
An amp's efficiency is not (much) related to its power output.
A speaker's efficiency is related to (may be the same as ;-) ) sensitivity -- how loud will it get for a given input power. It, too, is not related to its power-handling capability, or how much power it is consuming at any given moment. (Some slight impedance nonlinearities aside.)
What you can _generally_ say is that for a given loudness, speakers with more sensitivity will take less power to get there.
And that what _does_ vary with power production in amplifiers is distortion; an amp operating at 1% of its max will have much, much less distortion than an amp operating at 99% of its rating. (This distortion may or may not be musical...)
You can't underpower a speaker, but you can overpower it in multiple ways...
A speaker's efficiency is related to (may be the same as ;-) ) sensitivity -- how loud will it get for a given input power. It, too, is not related to its power-handling capability, or how much power it is consuming at any given moment. (Some slight impedance nonlinearities aside.)
What you can _generally_ say is that for a given loudness, speakers with more sensitivity will take less power to get there.
And that what _does_ vary with power production in amplifiers is distortion; an amp operating at 1% of its max will have much, much less distortion than an amp operating at 99% of its rating. (This distortion may or may not be musical...)
You can't underpower a speaker, but you can overpower it in multiple ways...
Hmm. Are you asking which should have the higher wattage rating - the amp or the speaker?
If that's what you're asking, the answer is, it really doesn't matter. However, most people have higher powered amps and just don't crank them.
Does that answer your question?
I have a feeling that this is not your actual question. Please explain, in small words for we thickies, what you want to do and we'll all try to answer you properly.
Ya, efficiency has an actual meaning in acoustics, making the question nonsense and opening floodgate to worthless answers.
I wouldn't say most people have amps capable of delivering more power into the speakers they are using. I never have and never will. That is different than saying your amp is rated at higher power than your speakers though. Impedance play a role. I would not recommend running an amp capable of delivering(at the given impedance) more than my speaker cab is rated to anybody, especially a newb since you run the risk of damaging your speakers if you're not careful.
Match the resistance (Ohms), and you'll be good to go. 8ohm cabinet with an 8ohm amplifier works for me.
Cabinets also usually have a spec that tells you how much wattage it can handle, and the amplifier will tell you how much wattage it puts out. I'd rather have a cabinet rated higher than the amp so I don't blow anything up.
Cabinets also usually have a spec that tells you how much wattage it can handle, and the amplifier will tell you how much wattage it puts out. I'd rather have a cabinet rated higher than the amp so I don't blow anything up.
OK thanks.
I have a Peavey Mark 3 CHS head rated at 150w @ 4ohms and saw a GK cab rated at 200w @ 8 ohms. Would this be ok?
I have a Peavey Mark 3 CHS head rated at 150w @ 4ohms and saw a GK cab rated at 200w @ 8 ohms. Would this be ok?
Ok for what? I'd say you would have to be a bit of an idiot to blow it up but it won't be keeping up with a 50w tube stack.
I'm not familiar with the Peavey Mark 3 CHS amp - but as long as the amp is capable of running at 8ohms it would be ok.
That combination is fine. The cab is higher than the minimum ohms the amp will operate at, and (albeit still not newb proof) a 200 watt cab is an ok match for a 150 watt amp. Just don't crank the low end eq or you could kill the cab.
Right-o. I'm currently running it with an 8 ohm passive PA speaker rated at 200w and it hasn't blown up so far =)
Like downunderwonder said, that isn't a whole lot of power as far as bass rigs go, but with a sensitive cab and good amount of cone area, (1x15, 2x12, 4x10, maybe 2x10 if it's a good one) should be passable for rehearsals, jams, and small gigs. Two 8 ohm cabs would be better, or maybe a single 4 ohm 2x12, 2x15, or 4x10. An 8x10 would make that 150 watts very big, too.
