PA Distortion via direct input

[bassnat]

Recently I plugged a PA cab into my bass amp to do a soft check and make sure the head was working before loading it. I was surprised to hear that it the cab distorted at a very low level, much lower than the level the cabs are normally played through. While the bass does not normally go through the PA (only vocals, sax and guitar) the break music played through the cab's includes a lot of bass without distortion at much higher levels. Can anyone provide any feedback in this regard? Is it because the bass is active and the signal is too hot? Thanks in advance for any comments that may help.

 

[konodl18]

If it was at low volume I would assume that indicates clipping at the input level, such as an active bass with too hot of an output. This would be an issue with the amp head having a gain adjustment or separate active/passive inputs. Doesn't sound like anything is wrong with the speaker cabinet.