As far as the cab thing goes....impedance varies with frequency, there is no 8ohm, or any other ohm speaker that has the same reading flat across. The numbers we use, 4,8,2.67, etc. are nominal impedance. A figure we use to be safe and keep from blowing our amps.
A speakers coil resistance (the reading you get when you put a meter on the terminals) is always lower than the nominal impedance and is the lowest and is the lowest impedance it will show along the frequency band. A speaker with a coil resistance reading anywhere from the low 5's up to close to 8 are all considered 8ohm speakers.
From the BGM article, the TC cabs look to bottom out around 7ohms. That's on the high side of what are considered 8ohm speakers.
So.....you probably could chain 3 of them to a "4ohm" amp and get away with it, at least if you're not pushing the amp into the upper ranges of it's capability. Assuming it was a decent amp, it would go into thermal protection shutdown and protect itself. Or maybe play just fine at lower levels. You likely couldn't do that with "8ohm" speakers who low point along the curve was say 5.5.
So, TC chose to come at this by saying you could use 3 of "their" 8ohm cabs on their 4 ohm amp but nobody elses. This may have been partially true if they hadn't changed to amp rating to 2.67. If it really was a 4ohm minimum amp, 3 of another companies "8ohm" cabs who's low point was in the 5's may have shut it down.
At the time, I said it wasn't quite enough to be a blatant lie as there's some wiggle room when it comes to impedance but that it certainly was confusing/misleading to the average (and not so average) bass player. Now they've changed the amp spec to 2.67 which means you should be able to run 3 of anybody's 8ohm cab. Regardless, with the amp limited to 236 watts, you won't get any power increase from lowering the impedance it's playing to. You'll still gain a little by increasing speaker count, but not as much as you would on a normal amp where speaker count and power increase together.
I don't know why, I'm sure it has to do with the gadgetry in these little amps but I see that a lot. Ratings like 200 watts @ 8ohms / 250 watts @ 4ohms. Not the increase you used to get with regular ss amps.
A speakers coil resistance (the reading you get when you put a meter on the terminals) is always lower than the nominal impedance and is the lowest and is the lowest impedance it will show along the frequency band. A speaker with a coil resistance reading anywhere from the low 5's up to close to 8 are all considered 8ohm speakers.
From the BGM article, the TC cabs look to bottom out around 7ohms. That's on the high side of what are considered 8ohm speakers.
So.....you probably could chain 3 of them to a "4ohm" amp and get away with it, at least if you're not pushing the amp into the upper ranges of it's capability. Assuming it was a decent amp, it would go into thermal protection shutdown and protect itself. Or maybe play just fine at lower levels. You likely couldn't do that with "8ohm" speakers who low point along the curve was say 5.5.
So, TC chose to come at this by saying you could use 3 of "their" 8ohm cabs on their 4 ohm amp but nobody elses. This may have been partially true if they hadn't changed to amp rating to 2.67. If it really was a 4ohm minimum amp, 3 of another companies "8ohm" cabs who's low point was in the 5's may have shut it down.
At the time, I said it wasn't quite enough to be a blatant lie as there's some wiggle room when it comes to impedance but that it certainly was confusing/misleading to the average (and not so average) bass player. Now they've changed the amp spec to 2.67 which means you should be able to run 3 of anybody's 8ohm cab. Regardless, with the amp limited to 236 watts, you won't get any power increase from lowering the impedance it's playing to. You'll still gain a little by increasing speaker count, but not as much as you would on a normal amp where speaker count and power increase together.
I don't know why, I'm sure it has to do with the gadgetry in these little amps but I see that a lot. Ratings like 200 watts @ 8ohms / 250 watts @ 4ohms. Not the increase you used to get with regular ss amps.
