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Will a better speaker make my combo any louder?

#21
Rick Auricchio said:
No matter how many times YOU KEEP TRYING TO GET THE ANSWER YOU WANT, you will not.

A 15w bass amp is good only for practice. Don't waste time and money trying to make that little amp better; buy a different amp for gigs.
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I wasn't planning on using it for gigs, I wanted something a little louder for practices, as I don't know if my 15 watt amp will be loud enough when up against guitars and drums. It would of been easier to transport then a bigger amp as well.

I'm already planning on getting a new amp for gigs.
 
#25
Sorry met,
your practice amp is just that, a practice amp. It is perfect for the bedroom & the back porch jam with an acoustic guitar player. Once you bring in a drummer it all changes. That is just the reality of it little brother.
 
#27
A 15 watt 8" bass practice amp is fairly easy to improve; most are so bass deficient it doesn't take much to improve the sound.

But even with that, I agree that it is not good for use with a drummer and guitar player.

But I have seen several bands with their bass player using a Peavey Microbass (20 watts) with no PA support.
 
#28
I'll bite,

Yes you can make it louder, simply replace your existing driver with one which is more efficient.

A speakers efficiency is determined by how much sound it makes when driven with a preset amount of power. Generally the more powerful the magnet, the more windings in the voice coil and how freely it moves in its suspension all make a more efficient speaker. But there are trade offs and compromises.
Will you acually be able to hear a difference? I don't know.
 
#30
Speakers have a rated efficiency that is rated in db/watt. A more efficient speaker will be louder for a given wattage. However, speakers that are more efficient usually handle less watts, so big cabs go for higher powered speakers. For a 15 watt amp, I would think they are using a very efficient speaker to start with, but you never know.
 
#31
smogg said:
Once you bring in a drummer it all changes. That is just the reality of it little brother.
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you didn't ask anything about what they are playing or about the drummer. If you are playing lightish jazzy stuff, that amp will work. Or, if you can convince your drummer to use some hot rods for practice, that amp will hold up fine (but hotrods are expensive and less durable compared to normal sticks, so the drummer may want you to pony up for a new amp instead of him paying for sticks all the time)
 
#32
gregoire1 said:
I'll bite,

Yes you can make it louder, simply replace your existing driver with one which is more efficient.

A speakers efficiency is determined by how much sound it makes when driven with a preset amount of power. Generally the more powerful the magnet, the more windings in the voice coil and how freely it moves in its suspension all make a more efficient speaker. But there are trade offs and compromises.
Will you acually be able to hear a difference? I don't know.
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+1. I think this is what he was getting at. A more efficient speaker will be able to make a bit better use out of the 15 watts. While you can certainly tell the difference between more a more efficient speaker when a couple hundred watts are applied, im not so sure about 15. Why don't you try it out and tell US your results? Sounds like you really wanna do it! :p
 
#33
It is possible to improve on the tone of your combo and get a slight volume increase by replacing your driver, provided that you have the knowledge to pick the right driver for your enclosure. That said, it is never going to be anything more than a 15watt combo and I doubt that you would find the upgrade truly worth the cost of doing so. It may sound a bit better in your bedroom, but it is never going to cut when playing with the band.
 
#34
Repeat this to yourself over and over...."15 watts is and always will be 15 watts" That is alll the horsepower under your hood, period. It is possible you could get more sound (louder) out of 15 watts if you found a speaker that is more efficent than the one currently in your combo, BUT like many said before, it isn't worth the time reasearching and the money replacing a functioning speaker in a practice amp, it is still a 15 watt practice amp.
 
#35
HogieWan said:
you didn't ask anything about what they are playing or about the drummer. If you are playing lightish jazzy stuff, that amp will work. Or, if you can convince your drummer to use some hot rods for practice, that amp will hold up fine (but hotrods are expensive and less durable compared to normal sticks, so the drummer may want you to pony up for a new amp instead of him paying for sticks all the time)
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Did you even bother to look at this kids profile? next..........
 
#36
metdistortion said:
I dunno, I thought maybe Marshall would of put a cheap speaker in there to save costs :D. After all, it is a low end amp.
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Hi metdistortion.

I expect that a good company like Marshall designed your 15 watt, 8" combo to be as loud and decent-sounding as possible for its price range.

They'd have a vested interest in supplying one with an affordable and positive first bass amp experience in order to garner one's interest in their other products later on.

Even after you get a larger, louder amp, your current little Marshall rig will still play a key role in aiding your ongoing development as a bass player. It's the primary amp you'll use to discover & GROW--big rigs are largely for recitals.

In this regard, the diminutive MB15 is just as important as a behemoth like a VBA 400.

Now GO :bassist:!!! :)
 
#37
MIJ-VI said:
Hi metdistortion.

I expect that a good company like Marshall designed your 15 watt, 8" combo to be as loud and decent-sounding as possible for its price range.

They'd have a vested interest in supplying one with an affordable and positive first bass amp experience in order to garner one's interest in their other products later on.

Even after you get a larger, louder amp, your current little Marshall rig will still play a key role in aiding your ongoing development as a bass player. It's the primary amp you'll use to discover & GROW--big rigs are largely for recitals.

In this regard, the diminutive MB15 is just as important as a behemoth like a VBA 400.

Now GO :bassist:!!! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I really do admire your positive attitude, it's people like you that make TalkBass such a good website :)
 
#40
metdistortion said:
So is the guy exaggerating when he says the 15 watt amp sounds like 60 watts with a 125 watt speaker?
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To be blunt, he's full of it. To do what he claims would require a driver with far higher excursion than the OEM driver (the Alpha 8 is not a high excursion driver) with a lot more than 15 watts pushing it. This wouldn't be the first time someone has raved about a mod that didn't actually work, nor would it be the first time someone made the whole thing up.
 

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