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Simple Speaker cab question

bherman

bherman

Gold Supporting Member
Apr 30, 2009
5,701
9,085
Grand Junction, CO
#1
OK, this may seem like a dumb question, but I have never used a multiple cab setup and am about to do so (2 - Aguilar 112's and a Genz Shuttle 6.0) and want to make sure that I get this right. My question is, do I hook both cabs directly into the amp or do I connect one to the amp and the 2nd cab to the first? They are both 8 ohm, and both have 2 speakon connectors.

Thanks for any help...
 
#2
Connecting them both to the amplifier is good anyways. I'don't know about the connection on your cabs: do you know if it will connect the cabs in paralel, or in series? Paralel is fine as it is the same as connecting them both to the amplifier. Series will work too, but results in a 16 ohm impedance. The amp will put out less power at that impedance.
 
#3
Matthijs said:
Connecting them both to the amplifier is good anyways. I'don't know about the connection on your cabs: do you know if it will connect the cabs in paralel, or in series? Paralel is fine as it is the same as connecting them both to the amplifier. Series will work too, but results in a 16 ohm impedance. The amp will put out less power at that impedance.
Click to expand...

Not sure, I will check with Aguilar - appreciate your comments.

Ben
 
#4
Almost every speaker is wired for parallel. The Aggie 112's are 8 ohm. Either daisy-chained or both cabs into the amp will work, presenting a four ohm load. Both cabs into the amp is better if one of the two cabs has a melt down, the other will still work and get you through the song and into your mourning period. In pretty much all other cases it doesn't matter.

KO
 
#5
And the chances for one cabinet "having a meltdown" that'd cause the other cabinet to stop working is pretty slim. The jacks on every commercial speaker cabinet I've ever seen are wired in parallel. The speaker jacks on almost every amp I've ever seen (the Music Man amps from the '70s into the early '80s are an exception) are wired in parallel. So, as KraigO says, it doesn't matter, but running both out of the amp is a little bit of extra insurance.

John
 
#6
JTE said:
And the chances for one cabinet "having a meltdown" that'd cause the other cabinet to stop working is pretty slim. The jacks on every commercial speaker cabinet I've ever seen are wired in parallel. The speaker jacks on almost every amp I've ever seen (the Music Man amps from the '70s into the early '80s are an exception) are wired in parallel. So, as KraigO says, it doesn't matter, but running both out of the amp is a little bit of extra insurance.

John
Click to expand...

thanks to you both, into the amp it shall be!
 
#8
Exploiter8 said:
Pardon the hi-jack, but is there anything wrong with using two cables to connect one amp to one cab that has two jacks? Just wondering.

X8
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What's the specific scenerio here? In most cases, doing that would destroy the amp as the 2nd jack is meant to attach an extension cabinet. If each jack is connected to separate speakers and the impedances match, then there should not be a problem. For example, some 8x10 cabs have separate jacks for the top 4 and bottom 4 speakers, but they also should have the option to power all 8 speakers through one jack.
 
#9
Exploiter8 said:
Pardon the hi-jack, but is there anything wrong with using two cables to connect one amp to one cab that has two jacks? Just wondering.

X8
Click to expand...

It depends... MOST solid-state amps merely have the speaker jacks wired in parallel with no switching, and that's how most speaker cabinets are wired. So, running two cables from the amp to the speaker shouldn't hurt anything.

BUT- many tube amps have the speaker jacks wired to separate taps of the output transformer, and have switching circuits built into the jacks. In that case it would very possibly lead to release of the magic smoke that tells the amp techs "Charge out the wazoo, the owner's a moron!".

And, because there's really absolutely no real-world advantage to running a redundant speaker cable, it seem that you're taking a chance on causing damage for no reason.

John
 
#12
Lol I went to demo a hartke 3500 and a hartke 4x10 at a guitar shop, and the guy working there did the exact same thing. Connected both 8ohm outs to the ins of one 8ohm cab, I was pretty sure it will blow, but didn't say anything as I would love to see that guy blow his amp :p, but nothing happened...the amp worked just fine. Although i then told him this is wrong, and he replied - "there's two outs on the head, there's two ins on the cab, ur meant to connect both to get full power" ;)
 
#14
Rather than start a new thread, I'll post this question here since I'm going to be picking up a second 410 cab for my rig. I think I know the answer, but I want to be sure. My head is a Hartke LH1000, which I have hooked up via Speakon cable to a Hydrive 410. I currently have the head set to bridge mode, which means the one 8-ohm cab sees 750w. The Hydrive cabs two Speakon inputs, and two standard speaker cable inputs. Would I simply run a second Speakon from input on cab A to input on cab B?
 

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