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Wanting to add another cab, need to ask a question

B

Bass4lyf

Guest
Nov 1, 2008
109
1
Sydney
www.myspace.com
#1
I just read a thread about this guy that has two cabs and he wanted to know that when using both, will it evenly split the wattage into each cab, so for example, a 400 watt head will evenly split its watts so that 200 watts will be going into each cab.

ok now for my question about this.

i have a 450 watt peavey tour head and a 450 watt 4x10 ashdown mag cab at 8 ohms (so im only getting like 300 watts from the peavey). I plan to eventually by a second ashdown mag cab, but i am looking at getting the 8ohm 2x10 cab (doubt id fit two quads in my mums car when going to gigs).

But... the whole splitting of wattages evenly and stuff...the 2 cabs will match up to 4 ohms, meaning i will get my full 450 watts, but will my 2x10 cab get 225 watts and my 4x10 cab get 225 watts aswell? Or will it work out so that each speaker out of the 6 will evenly get the same amount of wattage? (meaning that the 4x10 will get around 2/3 the wattage and the 2x10 will get around 1/3 the wattage).

Can someone please help me with this?? sorry if i dont make any sense.
 
#2
Each cab will get the same wattage (225 per cab) - which means the speakers in the 2x10 cab will see over 110 watts each, where-as the speakers in the 4x10 cab will see only 55 watts each.

Not exactly ideal - but not horrible either. If you're looking to add a cab, maybe get a 2x12 if you can find one?
 
#4
Hmm - not really in this case. I was trying to brainstorm with swapping speakers, etc... let me think see...

4x10 cab =8 ohms. That means very likely the speakers are 8 ohms each (wired in pairs in series, then parallel together) The 2x10 cab is 8 ohms - so that's either a pair of 16 ohm speakers or 4 ohm speaker.

Either way you're stuck with the same problem = 2 of the speakers will suck either more or less juice than the rest of them.

Only thing that would give equal power to all speakers is if you had added a 16 ohm 2x10 cab to your 4x10. In that case, you could buy a 4 ohm 2x10 cab which is a pair of 8 ohm speakers in parallel, rewire them for series and make it a 16 ohm cab. Then pair it with your 8 ohm 4x10 cab (in parallel), and each speaker would get the same amount of wattage. You would be running your amp at 16/3 ohms (or 5.3 ohms), so it's close to the output at 4 ohms. (assuming the amp would be putting out about 400 watts, each speaker would get 67 watts - the bottom cab pulling in 270 watts, and the 2x10 cab would get 130)

That would be my recommendation.
 
#5
ashtray said:
Only thing that would give equal power to all speakers is if you had added a 16 ohm 2x10 cab to your 4x10. In that case, you could buy a 4 ohm 2x10 cab which is a pair of 8 ohm speakers in parallel, rewire them for series and make it a 16 ohm cab. Then pair it with your 8 ohm 4x10 cab (in parallel), and each speaker would get the same amount of wattage. You would be running your amp at 16/3 ohms (or 5.3 ohms), so it's close to the output at 4 ohms. (assuming the amp would be putting out about 400 watts, each speaker would get 67 watts - the bottom cab pulling in 270 watts, and the 2x10 cab would get 130)

That would be my recommendation.
Click to expand...


Yup, re-wiring is the way to go.
This is actually a very good solution.
 
#7
That would work pretty well, too bad im inexperienced with rewiring, i could do it, but if i stuff up, i dont have much money to replace stuff.
I guess i will probably just buy another 4x10 cab eventually,it should fit in the car, but id have to get rid of some passengers.

Thanks heaps! really helpd alot
 
#10
I couldn't imagine any tech would charge you more than a McDonald's value meal's worth of money for that job. In a 2 speaker setup, the biggest amount of time would be removing the grill/cones and reinstalling them after rewiring it. Again - it might be something you could even do - but if not, then maybe where-ever you buy it from could do it for you.
 
#13
Bass4lyf said:
with all this wattage splitting mumbo jumbo, would i be better off just buying a 1x15 to add to my 4x10, as long as the wattage of the 1x15 is well above 225watts??
Click to expand...
You'd be better off buying a 210 than a 115, but you'd be way better off with a second 410 just like yours. I'm a big fan of using matching cabs whenever possible. They always sound better to me than mixing different speaker and cab sizes. The 15" won't be any smaller than the 410, either.

And tell Mom she needs to buy a mini-van for you ;)
 
#15
They sound better matched because when you set the EQ on your amp you won't have to compromise to make one sound less shrill mid honky or the other one sound less boomy - OK, that's a simplified blanket statement, but unless you want to get into individual TS parameters, cabinet volume, port tuning, off axis midrange response, it's at least kinda' the gist of it.

You might consider selling the Ashdown and getting either a pair of 2x10s or (GASP) a pair of 2x12s. With 450 watts available, a fairly efficient pair of two driver cabs will likely be just as loud as a pair of mediocre 4x10 cabs.

Any time you re-wire the woofers in a cab with a crossover, you'll need to change the crossover to match it's original spec also, not worth it IMO....
 
#16
Bass4lyf said:
why do they sound better when matched?
Click to expand...
Jaco had a good reply, but the main reason I don't like to mix is because of phasing issues. I hear it to a degree in all unmatched cab setups that I've ever used. Sometimes it's hardly there, sometimes it's there a lot.

If you use cabs or speaker sizes that are different to cover the same frequency range, some notes will sound bigger than others while other notes will sound quieter. Not all mixed rigs will phase noticeably, but most do to some degree. And even if it's a tiny degree of phasing, I don't want it. I figure there's so much acting against good bass tone in a room that I don't want to make it worse.
 

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