To use the Speakon, or 1/4??

[thrash_jazz]

Don't know for sure but my guess would be that a Speakon-1/4 would be significantly different from Speakon-Speakon, since you still have one jack that wasn't designed to handle the higher current.

 

[Josh Curry]

If your rig supports Speakon, use it! It's the new standard for high power amps for a reason.

 

[Thumper]

So I should go ahead and buy the speakon output only amp, and buy speakon-to-1/4" jack adapter cables?

 

[Big String]

These are all good questions. No doubt a speakon has advantages. My new Walter Woods amp only has 1/4 jacks, of course it's very small and there wouldn't be room. It's a very powerful little amp though and I'm sure if it were a concern Mr. Woods would have made a change. I have thought about getting or making a 1/4 to spkon cable and I don't know if there would be any advantage to having only one Spkon except that it would be on the cab connection end and is a sure way to lock it onto the cab. I have had 1/4 plugs vertually blow out the back from pressure, and if one does come out for one reason or another it's real bad for most amps not to have a load. I'm probably going to get or make one. Also, I always use Monster cables with the gold switchcraft 1/4 ends that always seem to fit a lot snugger than the chrome types and have never had one pull or blow out. They cost a lot but that is one thing for sure that is superior than the average cable. IMHO.

 

[Josh Curry]

I wouldn't buy an amp or cab because it did or didn't have speakon. Get the amp you like. Connections aren't as important as getting the amp that's right for your needs.

 

[2pods]

So what happens when you get an Ashdown ABM 500 ?
One Speakon in the head, and one Speakon on each cab.

I'm using Speakon from amp to first cab, then jack from first cab to jack on second cab.

 

[Josh Curry]

Well, without knowing abything about your Ashdown head, it sounds like it outputs 500w? in which case it only should be running 1 cab anyway. Which is also hard to say cause I don't know what kind of cab you are using. But, if you are using a 500w head to power 2 300-400w cabs which you have daisy chained together, this is a terrible waste of power. Sure you have more surface area pushing air, but each cab is being underpowered so you're not going to get the dynamic range you would if you used used 1 400-600w cab. I know this is getting a little off topic, so I'll stop now.

 

[2pods]

Actually it's two mini 8's - 600 Watts apiece.
The head is 575 watts.
As recommended by Ashdown

Sounds pretty dynamic to me

 

[Josh Curry]

If you don't mind, could you post the specs for the amp and the cabs?

 

[xyllion]

The 1/4" jacks will work. So, if you already going 1/4" to 1/4", you are fine.

The absolute biggest flaw about the 1/4" jack is that it creates a short when the plug is inserted or removed. This includes when someone walks behind your rig and kicks the speaker cable. This short could result in damage to your amp.

Banana plugs avoid the shorting problem by using two connectors. However, banana plugs can still be kicked out inadvertantly.

Speakon connectors are locking and don't short. They are designed to acheive the highest degree of safety since even the contacts themselves can't be accidentally touched.

If you do use 1/4" to 1/4", please be sure that you are using speaker cable and not instrument cable.

 

[Josh Curry]

Here's what I found

the head is 575w RMS, 900 Peak. I can't find the ohm rating, but it's probably 4 ohms.
the cabs are 600w @ 8ohm.

based on that I can't think of a single reason why you would hook up 2 of those cabs to that head. It's simply not powerful enough to drive 2 of those cabs, unless that 600w rating on the cabs is Peak, and the RMS is actually closer to 300. And then, only if the 575w rating on the head is for an 8 ohm load.

Can you shed some light on this?

 

[2pods]

If you don't mind, could you post the specs for the amp and the cabs?

Who, me ?

 

[Josh Curry]

yeah, you we're talking about hooking up 2 mini 4x8's to an ABM 500 right? I looked up the specs anyway, see my above post.

 

[2pods]

The cabs are 600rms, the head is 575rms.
actually the usual version of this Ashdown mini stack is one of the min 4x8's and a mini 15 (300watt rms), but I didn't like the sound of the 15.

 

[Josh Curry]

Well, if you like the sound of it, then cool. However, I definitely think you are seriously underpowering your cabinets. At least you'll never blow them like that.

 

[metron]

There is no such thing as underpowering a speaker. Besides, the amp will put out more power through a 4 ohm load (two 8 ohm cabs) vs. one 8 ohm cab.

 

[2pods]

Originally posted by BassWhore
Well, if you like the sound of it, then cool. However, I definitely think you are seriously underpowering your cabinets. At least you'll never blow them like that.

Well, I think they have enough trouble what with the Sub Harmoniser,Akai Synth pedal etc being squirted down 'em,and I get plenty dynamics and volume.

Anyway, think of the stereo spread if I add another ABM head

If you want to hear seriously underpowered cabs, I was offered an SVTPro3 and two EA cabs (VL110 275w, VL210 350w). The VL110 was OK-ish, but the VL210 was nowhere. 500watts a cab I was told

 

[Josh Curry]

actually by sending a low level signal to a high powered cab you are going to have a higher signal to noise ratio and less dynamic range.

edit: you'll have a LOWER signal to noise ratio.

 

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Originally posted by metron
There is no such thing as underpowering a speaker. Besides, the amp will put out more power through a 4 ohm load (two 8 ohm cabs) vs. one 8 ohm cab.

He means that the cabs cannot be powered to their full power this way, ie cabs handle 1200W as a pair and the head puts out less than half of that. I would rather have the amp able to put out at least what the cabs can handle.

Geoff

 

[metron]

Gotcha!