Plug Two Amps Into One Cab?

[::::BASSIST::::]

I know this may be a stupid question but...

What would the result be if you Plugged Two Amps Into One Cab?

I have two 500w heads and one cab that's rated for 1000w.

Just more curious than anything.

 

[mlwarriner]

i'm fairly sure you would let the magic smoke out of at least one of the amps...

 

[Bass Mule]

Don't do it.


...but if you do, be sure to record a video of you doing it, and post it on youtube.

 

[uglybassplayer]

I know this may be a stupid question but...

What would the result be if you Plugged Two Amps Into One Cab?

Think of it this way...

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm a little fuzzy on the whole "good/bad" thing here! What do you mean "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr. Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal!
Dr. Peter Venkman: That's bad. Okay. All right, important safety tip, thanks Egon.

 

[BassicJohn]

Only do it if you want a good reason to replace both of your amps.

 

[anderbass]

Just more curious than anything.

I'd think it could be done if you rewired your two 12" drivers for
separate stereo inputs and just left the horn connected to one side.

 

[theshadow2001]

Instinctively its a bad thing to do but I also wonder what would really happen....

Essentially the output of the two amps would be connected together. So a possible difference in potential between zero volts of the two amps could cause damage to one of the amps. I believe the speaker cabinet would be ok though. If the both amps could last long enough to make some noise maybe there would be some weird signal peaks and cancellations as well.

Thats my theory on it. Maybe some one like bob lee from qsc could shed more light on what would actually happen to the amps and cab

 

[::::BASSIST::::]

ooooh, good answers!

Love to hear from some electro wizards!

 

[thebassist1234]

ooooh, good answers!

Love to hear from some electro wizards!

Hate to say it man, but it doesn't take an electro wizard to figure this one out

 

[Vin_MM_Sabre_79]

Hate to say it man, but it doesn't take an electro wizard to figure this one out

hey- I think its a fair question. We know its not good- but why? ...and what does it damage- the output transformer?

 

[BassicJohn]

It is really hard to know exactly what will happen. Best case it will just sound horrible and the amps won't be damaged. Worst case would be if the two amps had no output protection and were out of phase. The output FETs on both amps would see double their normal maximum voltage and burn up.

 

[Roma75]

Think of it this way...

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm a little fuzzy on the whole "good/bad" thing here! What do you mean "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr. Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal!
Dr. Peter Venkman: That's bad. Okay. All right, important safety tip, thanks Egon.

"What about the Twinkie?"

 

[!Rob!]

I'll sit back and wait for the YouTube Video.

This will be so cool!

kidding...don't do it...kidding...do it....what were we talking about?

 

[::::BASSIST::::]

Someone stupid/brave/irresponsible could rent two amps and a cab at a rehearsal space and see what happens.

Then again, maybe not.

 

[BassmanPaul]

There was a Dynaco SS power amp that had a connection that paralled both channels fo allow for a lower total load (4 ohms/channel or 2ohms in parallel). I have acidentally done this with a stereo amp, one amp did the work while the other amp just got hot! Connecting two tube amps this way is feasible, there was actually an artical in the AudioExpress magazine by Norman Thaggard (SP?) the astronaut who did this with eight stereo amps. A better way is to bridge connect the two amps and connect the speaker between the "hot" terminals of each amp. The bridging could be accomplished using a centre tapped audio tranformer or phase splitter (tube or SS) to feed each amp 180 degree different signals. There is always a way!

 

[billfitzmaurice]

I have two 500w heads and one cab that's rated for 1000w.
.

It may be electrically rated for 1000w but the displacement limited power is more like 250 watts, so even if you could plug in both amps without blowing at least one of them- and you can't- it would be a futile gesture anyway.

 

[unclejam]

What about Biamping?

 

[Hawaii Islander]

You can chain the heads together using the send/return jacks. It won't give you 1000 watts though.

 

[unclejam]

Yes you can! And your amps Won't Go Ka Blewie!

Its Bi-amping in short

 

[uglybassplayer]

Yes you can! And your amps Won't Go Ka Blewie!

Its Bi-amping in short

Nope, Bi-amping is very different. Bi-amping is sending the signals from two separate amps into two separate speakers (via separate connections), which usually just happen to be in a single cabinet. Most of the time Bi-amping is used to send the lows to the woofers and the highs to the tweeter. You'll notice that bi-amp setups require either two separate cable connections, or a 4 wire Speakon type cable/connector which keeps both signals separate. In the cabinet, one set of speakers is connected to one set of wires (say the mid range and/or tweeters), and the other set of speakers is connected to the other set (the woofers). What ::::BASSIST:::: is asking is if one can safely wire the outputs from two amps into a single speaker (or pair of speakers).