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Stupid Question

calebbarton

calebbarton

Aug 25, 2007
835
6
Oregon
www.bridgecitysound.com
Disclosures
I manufacture for several companies including but not limited to: Bridge City Sound, Catalinbread, more.
#1
Iv been playing for about 5 years now and iv upgraded equipment a few times.

I went from an Ampeg svt5pro to a mesa400+. Overall, this was a good choice. I enjoy the sound much more from the mesa.

I just upgraded my speaker cabinet, or downgraded, whatever. I went from an Ampeg 810E to a Carvin BRX 10.4NEO. Now the difference is about 400 watts RMS. The Carvin handles 1200w whereas the Ampeg handles 800w.

The question is: will i need to get a power amp to help support the mesa and not underpower the cab?
 
#2
The 'power rating' of a cab is only a recommended maximum power input, and has nothing to do with minimum wattage requirements, or even optimal wattage. So, you are absolutely fine. As has been posted many times, there really isn't any such thing as 'underpowering' a cab.

Just make sure you have the impedance matched correctly with your tube head, and you are good to go!
 
#4
calebbarton said:
i just dont want it to sound "farty" by not using enough power.
Click to expand...

Again, there is NO relationship between the maximum power rating of a cab and the 'required power to sound good'.

The more important measure is SPL.... which represents loudness per watt. However, with your very powerful Mesa 400+, even that is relatively unimportant.

A '1200 watt cab' needs nor requires more power than a 600 watt cab.
 
#5
KJung said:
The 'power rating' of a cab is only a recommended maximum power input, and has nothing to do with minimum wattage requirements, or even optimal wattage. So, you are absolutely fine. As has been posted many times, there really isn't any such thing as 'underpowering' a cab.

Just make sure you have the impedance matched correctly with your tube head, and you are good to go!
Click to expand...

KJung is correct, however, you can damage your speakers by trying to drive your amp too hard. The amp, at clip (maximum power) will start to distort (in a very bad way) and send squared off waves to your speakers. They will in turn heat up and burn the voice coils. That is why many people have an amp that is 1.5 to 2 times the size of power output as the cabinet can handle so they send the speaker a clean, undistorted signal. This is called headroom. By driving the cabinet with the maximum power that it can handle and have pleanty in reserve to keep it clean.

So, if you watch what you do and keep your amp out of clipping you ought to do fine. However, if you find that you are clipping your amp in order to have a higher stage volume, get a BIGGER amp.
 
#7
calebbarton said:
you would think i wuold know all this stuff after reading it over and over again but i guess not. thanks everyone!

ill stop being a moron now
Click to expand...

It's not a dumb question at all, and there are still lot's of threads with some very 'in the know' TBers heatedly discussing what impact, if any, 'overdriving a low powered head into distortion' has on speakers.

The key is, again, with that powerful 400+, you don't have to even think about not having enough power for any cab in existence:bassist:
 

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