Mesa 50/50 & ADA MP1 - What cab & speakers?

[Monkeychunki]

Hi, im relatively new to rack set-ups having only used combo's before. Can anyone tell me what speaker/cab combination would work best with the above. One of my concerns is having speakers more powerful than the amp as in the world of hifi you can damage the speakers running an amp at less wattage.

Oh and by the way i play metal

thanks
Paul

[straycat]

50/50 will do fine with any speaker.V30's would work great.

[MetalMedal II]

One of my concerns is having speakers more powerful than the amp as in the world of hifi you can damage the speakers running an amp at less wattage.

Oh and by the way i play metal

High speaker wattage should not be an issue. 50 watts tube is incredibly loud and it can peak well above that. You want the overall speaker wattage to be above the 50 watts...either by having more than 1 speaker hooked up (like in a 4x12 cab) or a single high wattage speaker. I have a 50/50 and have used a single 12 in rated at 150 watts without any probs, also used it with various 2x12 cabs on the other channel ranging from 100 to 150 watt rating. I never had it maxed out with the single 1x12, but sounded great without blowing out at at least 75% of max.

BTW, I love my mesa 50/50. It was my first piece of quality rack gear I bought over a decade ago and is my cornerstone of a kickass metal rig...also, as it happened, it was my first Ebay purchase! I have other amp heads I bought years later, but the 50/50 quenched my rack urges.

[Monkeychunki]

Fantastic thanks for the info

[Monkeychunki]

Following on from this a q. question re ohms. Do I need a speaker cab that runs on matching ohms I.e I believe my mesa amp is 8 or 4 stereo however I'm interested in an engl 212 cab that's 8 mono or 16 stereo? Will it do damage if I run in stereo?

Cheers
Paul

[Cygnus X1]

Following on from this a q. question re ohms. Do I need a speaker cab that runs on matching ohms I.e I believe my mesa amp is 8 or 4 stereo however I'm interested in an engl 212 cab that's 8 mono or 16 stereo? Will it do damage if I run in stereo?

Cheers
Paul

You won't want to plug a stereo 16 into a stereo 4 output.

[Newc]

You can also rewire the speakers in a cabinet to run at whatever Ohms you need. There's diagrams online.

[jdr94]

yeah but in a 212 with 16ohm speakers theres really no option for him. He would have to get a 212 with 4 or 8 ohm speakers. now if it was a 412 then there are more wiring options. I mean theres no point in having a stereo rig and running it mono unless of course it would be 2 2-12 cabs which then goes back to the whole 4-12 and would be in stereo. now if he runs the 8 ohm outputs to 16 ohms he would lose some volume if i'm not mistaken which then kinda ruins the point of havin the mesa 50/50 although when i had a rack set up with a 50/50 i never went past half on either channel anyway

[MetalMedal II]

yeah but in a 212 with 16ohm speakers theres really no option for him. He would have to get a 212 with 4 or 8 ohm speakers. now if it was a 412 then there are more wiring options. I mean theres no point in having a stereo rig and running it mono unless of course it would be 2 2-12 cabs which then goes back to the whole 4-12 and would be in stereo. now if he runs the 8 ohm outputs to 16 ohms he would lose some volume if i'm not mistaken which then kinda ruins the point of havin the mesa 50/50 although when i had a rack set up with a 50/50 i never went past half on either channel anyway

Yeah, I was gonna write another post about his choice of cab, but your reply is spot on. Even though the manual says the 50/50 can be used mono by not turning the unused channel volume up, I use both just to be safe. When I 1st got my amp, I only ran 1 cab for a while as that is all I had, but I did blow a fuse, which I attribute to using only 1 channel. Whether that was the real reason I can't say, but I used both channels since then and never had another fuse go.

As you said, the 50/50 would best be served with a 2x12 with 8 ohm speakers (4 ohm mono/8 ohm stereo), and use the latter.