speaker cab question

[Black Mariah]

Alright, I have a Carvin 4x12 that's 8 ohms and a Jackson 4x12 that is roughly 10 ohms, due to the way the speakers are wired. If I want to use them both, how should I hook them up and what impedance should I set my head to? I can either run both cabs out of my head, or run from the head to the Carvin cab then to the Jackson cab. What would be the best setup to keep things from exploding?

*EDIT*
Forgot to mention. My head is switchable 4/8/16 ohms.

[ April 20, 2003, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: Black Mariah ]

[taxistationary]

Re: speaker cab question

I would think that you would put it your head at 4 ohms. I could be wrong though...

[slayer]

Re: speaker cab question

I run my 2x12 combo VHT and a Madison 2x12 togeher with the VHT in the main and the Madison plugged into the secondary speaker slot on the VHT. Both Cabs are 8 ohms, in my situation, what should I have my amp set at: 4-8-16 ohms, I have a switch also, I have been running it at 8 ohms, am I right or going to cook my tubes [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Jack.

[rodrigo_echeverri]

Re: speaker cab question

dude, you need to be more specific... you want the thing mono I assume, right?...

Ok, if you connect them in parallel (+ with + and - with -) you should end up with a cabinet that is slightly over 4 ohms (4.44 in theory for your case)... that's good for your amp if it has a 4 ohm output on it. If your rating is below this and you connect it to the amp, sit back and watch the fireworks.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DONT CONNECT THAT THING TO YOUR AMPLIFIER WITHOUT TESTING THE IMPEDANCE WITH AN OHMETER!. I ASSUME NO LIABILITY! IF YOU CONNECT A LOAD (CAB OR SET OF CABS) THAT IS BELOW THE IMPEDANCE OF THE AMPLIFIER, THEN IT WILL MOST LIKELY SOUND REALLY COOL FOR THE LAST THREE SECONDS OF ITS LIFE AND THEN BLOW UP!

For more information go to:

http://www.madisonspeakers.com/

Go to contacts, check out the model there, now go to the products page, go to the click where it says: "tech info". That page gives you diagrams of speaker wiring.

[ April 20, 2003, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: rodrigo_echeverri ]

[Chuckracer]

Re: speaker cab question

Slayer, I believe you should be running 4 ohms on the selector.

BM, if you run both cabs out of the amp run it at 4 ohms. If you daisy chain them, run it at 16 ohms.

Impedence mis-match on TUBE amps isn't that big a deal, and generally and amp set for a lower ohms load that the cabs is safe-ish. When the load is lower than the amp you will burn tubes faster and POSSIBLY cook an output tranny.

[Black Mariah]

Re: speaker cab question

Thanks for the info guys.

[slayer]

Re: speaker cab question

Thanks guys!! I do know each ending output of the cabs are 8 ohms each, I was told 2- 8 ohm cabs should equal 8 ohms on my amp, but that info came from a freind, so who knows? So, I think what you guys are saying is 2 8 ohm cabs running together should be set at 4 ohm? I don`t want to kill it, but it does seam to be makeing some crackling sound once and a while, but comes and goes, the ohm thing could be the problem? Jack.

[slayer]

Re: speaker cab question

Madison got back to me and said 4 OHMS [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] Jack.

[rodrigo_echeverri]

Re: speaker cab question

First of all I gotta say Madison cabinets rule big time!... best bang for the buck...

When you say "connect together" you are being very vague. You have to be specific by saying if you want to connect in series or parallel.

Madison cabs have two 16 ohm speakers in them... the mono output is a parallel configuration of both speakers and it gives you 1/2 the original impedance of the individual speakers. The stereo output is 16 ohm per channel.

If you connect two 8 ohms cabinets in series, then you have a 16 ohm total load for your amp.

If you connect the two 8 ohms cabinets in parallel then you get 4 ohms in total.

This is the formula so that you are never in the dark on this again:

series = add the impedances of both cabinets

1/imp_parallel = 1/imp_1 + 1/imp_2

If you do the math for your case you have:

1/imp_parallel = 1/8 + 1/8

1/imp_parallel = 1/4

imp_parallel = 4 ohms

Thats what they did at Madison when you asked.

[ April 23, 2003, 04:24 AM: Message edited by: rodrigo_echeverri ]