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Underpowering Orange terror bass

#22
As far as this post goes, there is no danger in "under powering" your cabinet.


Under powering a speaker is a thing though (though its not dangerous). Take 5 watt Fender Champ and put it into a EV speaker rated for 200 watts (compared to a 25watt greenback) and you'll see under powering is definitely a thing.
 
#23
Before we completely throw out the possibility of "under powering" a cab, let me put this out there. This has happened but there are a lot of "ifs" that go along with it and does not apply to the OPs case. If an amplifier connected to a speaker cabinet with a tweeter is under powered for obtaining the desired volume and the user pushes the amplifier into clipping, the tweeter could be damaged if the ensuing excessive high frequency energy caused by the clipping exceeds the tweeter's power rating.

It is quite possible that given a more powerful amplifier which did not go into clipping, the tweeter would have been just fine at the desired volume level.

Like I said, a lot of ifs.

- John
 
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#24
Motown_Phenom said:
hey guys, I may have the opportunity to get my hands on an Orange terror bass 500. The only issue I have is that I've recently learned or underpowering an amp. I currently have a 2x12 800 watt 4ohm speaker. My question is do you think I would have any possibility of damaging either the speaker or the head from underpowering the setup? Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys!
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Did you learn that from the same guy that said you use 15" speakers to get bass and 10" speakers to get mid-range punch?
 
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#25
Just make sure the switch on the back is set to the 4 Ohm position and you'll be fine. You can't see it all that well in this photo but it's to the right of the speaker (speakon) outputs:

serveimage?url=https:%2F%2Forangeamps.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F05%2FBT500-H_19818.jpg
 
#26
JKos said:
Before we completely throw out the possibility of "under powering" a cab, let me put this out there..... a speaker cabinet with a twitter is under powered.... the twitter could be damaged .... the twitters power rating... the twitter would have been just fine at the desired volume level.
Click to expand...
latest?cb=20160826222827.jpg


primusfan1989 said:
Under powering a speaker is a thing though (though its not dangerous). Take 5 watt Fender Champ and put it into a EV speaker rated for 200 watts (compared to a 25watt greenback) and you'll see under powering is definitely a thing.
Click to expand...

That would just result in a rig with no speaker breakup. I know people who replace low wattage speakers with Jensen C12Ks (rated at 100w) in Fender guitar amps to get a loud clean sound for jazz. In fact I think that and higher headroom tubes is the only functional difference between the George Benson signature Fender amp and the non-sig.

About a month ago, just to see what would happen, I plugged my 5w Hotone bass head into a 4x10 cab rated for 500+ watts. Sounded great.
 
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#27
JKos said:
Before we completely throw out the possibility of "under powering" a cab, let me put this out there. This has happened but there are a lot of "ifs" that go along with it and does not apply to the OPs case. If an amplifier connected to a speaker cabinet with a twitter is under powered for obtaining the desired volume and the user pushes the amplifier into clipping, the twitter could be damaged if the ensuing excessive high frequency energy caused by the clipping exceeds the twitters power rating.


JKos is correct. While it may not be possible to under power an instrument speaker cabinet, it is entirely possible to under power a component quality hi fi stereo speaker. I know because I've had first hand experience doing it. When the amp starting clipping, it will burn out tweeters in short order.
Click to expand...
 
#28
Motown_Phenom said:
hey guys, I may have the opportunity to get my hands on an Orange terror bass 500. The only issue I have is that I've recently learned or underpowering an amp. I currently have a 2x12 800 watt 4ohm speaker. My question is do you think I would have any possibility of damaging either the speaker or the head from underpowering the setup? Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys!
Click to expand...

Forget what you just 'learnt'.

That setup is just fine.

With a single 212 cab, regardless what the rating says... don't go crazy boosting the lows, but you'll be fine if you are sensible.
 
#31
Thanks for the replies guys. Definitely put me at ease. I definitely don't think I explained the questions properly. I was told you could damage an amp by pushing it into clipping and I was worried that would happen. I don't know too much about the technical side of things so I thought I would ask for advice to be safe. Thanks again!
 
#34
JKos said:
Before we completely throw out the possibility of "under powering" a cab, let me put this out there. This has happened but there are a lot of "ifs" that go along with it and does not apply to the OPs case. If an amplifier connected to a speaker cabinet with a twitter is under powered for obtaining the desired volume and the user pushes the amplifier into clipping, the twitter could be damaged if the ensuing excessive high frequency energy caused by the clipping exceeds the twitters power rating.

It is quite possible that given a more powerful amplifier which did not go into clipping, the twitter would have been just fine at the desired volume level.

Like I said, a lot of ifs.

- John
Click to expand...
Someone should re-tweet this post.

My cab would, but it doesn't use a Twitter.
 
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#38
Motown_Phenom said:
Thanks for the replies guys. Definitely put me at ease. I definitely don't think I explained the questions properly. I was told you could damage an amp by pushing it into clipping and I was worried that would happen. I don't know too much about the technical side of things so I thought I would ask for advice to be safe. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Nobody said you are safe.
 
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#39
Motown_Phenom said:
I was told you could damage an amp by pushing it into clipping
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Even if it were possible, the sound by that point would be quite quite horrible. The logical failings in the concept are fun to think through. The theory seems to be that if you run an amp into too much distortion it will produce more than the nominal power and damage the drivers.
Let's consider this is a thing. So what happens if we have lower rated speakers so we aren't 'underpowered' and turn the amp up to the same volume? And the answer is that they die much quicker. And what happens if we have gigawatts of speaker capacity so we are hugely 'underpowered'? And the answer is nothing at all.
So what does this tell us?
1. Be sensible with the volume knob
2. If you can't be sensible with the volume be massively 'underpowered'.
Is that fair ladies and gents?
 
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#40
primusfan1989 said:
As far as this post goes, there is no danger in "under powering" your cabinet.


Under powering a speaker is a thing though (though its not dangerous). Take 5 watt Fender Champ and put it into a EV speaker rated for 200 watts (compared to a 25watt greenback) and you'll see under powering is definitely a thing.
Click to expand...
It'll be quiet and have a hard time running cleanly but it should still work.
 

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