So should i get rid of the EBS or the Ampeg - let me hear your opinion..
It doesn't matter which cab I like best...I won't be playing through your gear, and my tonal preferences and performance requirements are most likely different than yours. I might choose to sell all of your gear and buy something totally different.
Asking someone to choose the cab that you think sounds best is about the same as asking the someone to choose your favorite food (IMHO ridiculous
). Since you have the gear already, it's best to do your own tasting, and make your own decision. Try all cabs individually with both amps and keep the combinations you like best.
Consider factors such as sound quality, sized & weight (portability), volume, modularity, etc. Think about how you will use the gear and which factors will be most relevant.
Factors such as
power handling, sensitivity, and
impedance are also important to consider. Impedance is already a factor because your amps are rated for 4 ohms minimum. This means you can only run one 4 ohm cab or two 8 ohm cabs.
Power handling is probably not a big deal currently because both of your amps are fairly low powered. But if you buy a high-powered amp in the future, this is a very important factor. What you may not know is the RMS power rating on most cabs is actually the thermal rating, I.E. how much heat the drivers can dissipate. With bass you need to know mechanical power handling below 100hz can be lower than the cabs RMS power rating. So if you like to run big fat lows, it's possible to blow drivers with less than their rated power.
Sensitivity tells you have loud a speaker will play, typically with one watt, measured at a distance of one meter. The SPL goes up by 3dB every time you double power. For example, 1,
2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512. If your amp makes 512W you double the power 9 times from 1W (count the bolded numbers). Multiple the power doublings by 3db. 9x3=27dB. This is the decibel change that occurs when you increase the power from 1W to 512W. The Sensitivity rating of an Ampeg 810e is 100dB 1W/1m. If we add the decibel change the results from increasing the power from 1W to 512W, the answer tells us how loud the 810e can play with the available power. 100+27=127dB
One possible issue is Sensitivity is sometimes expressed at 2.83V. Here's the problem 2.83V into an 8 ohm load results in
1W and 2.83V into a 4 ohm load results in
2W, so it's not a fair comparison. In order to accurately compare, you need to convert the 2.83V at 4 ohm rating to the 1W/1m rating. You can do this by simply subtracting 3dB from the 2.83V at 4 ohm sensitivity rating.
For example:
[Sensitivity 100dB 2.83V/1m at 8 ohms] = [Sensitivity 100db 1W/1m]
no conversion required at 8 ohms
[Sensitivity 103dB
2.83V/1m at 4 ohms] = [Sensitivity 100db 1W/1m]
at 4 ohms subtract 3dB for the 1W/1m rating
Keep in mind amp/cab pairings can sometimes result in serendipity that you would not expect. So you may find that you like the Ampeg 810 better with one amp and the EBS 810 better with the other amp.
Good luck!
