cab worries

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Duggan

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Hi there I have a marshall AVT150head and am now looking to buy a cabinet. A have two options at the moment.

A hughes and kettner 100 watt unit into 8 ohms with mono and stereo wiring. Its four celestion greenback G12's. I have a 4/8 ohm socket and a 4/ohm socket on my amp. To get it in stereo would i have to connect both to the speaker cabinet
?

* Model: B - Straight
* Speaker: 4 x 12“ Greenbacks
* Power Handling: 100 W mono, 2 x 50 W stereo
* Impedance: mono: 4/16 ohms, stereo: 2 x 8 ohms
* Connectors: mono/left + right
* Casters: yes
* Dimensions in mm: 740 x 740 x 360
* Weight in kg: 37
* Special Features: Steel grips, cover included

This model I believe.

Next is an orange cabinet 4x12. this is 16 ohms. I was thinking this wouldnt work with my head? but any advice would be appreciated.

Power Handling

240 Watts
Speaker Config.
4 x 12
Speaker Type
Celestion Vintage 30
Impedance
16 Ohms
Input Type
1/4" Jack

the h and k seems better value for money like but would be interested to see which would work better.

Duggan
 
first and formost,


listen very carefully,.....



you must match the ohms on your amp, or risk totally burning it up.....




I will repeat that for the record, and to save a musician heartache over a mistake.......



you must match the output ohms from your amp....

If there is a 4 ohm output and an 8 ohm output,.. that does not mean you can hook them both up to get stereo......

it only means you have the potential to hook up either type of cabinet.....

if you do both at the same time, you will be likely replacing an amp head.....


it is best to use what the manufacterer recomends for a cabinet as far as the ohms are concerned,.... ask your dealer, or local music store what is the norm for that head,....

based on that info,... you can better match the head to a cab of your choice.....


it is usually up to the person playing thru any cab as to what speaker they prefer, you mentioned two different types of Celestions,... a Greenback in the H&K cab, and Vintage 30s in the Orange cab,..... the H&K is either 4, or 16 ohms in mono,..... and the Orange cab is 16 ohms....
unless your amp has a 16 ohm output choice,.... do not hook up this cab,...... using a lower ohm output will put a strain on your amp,..... and NEVER ... hook up a cab of LOWER ohms than the amps output,... it will fry the output transformers ......


you can go a bit higher with the ohms, but you will lose power.....but usually no more than double the output of the amp,.... in other words,... if you hook up a cab that is 8 ohms, to an amps 4 ohm output,... you will be OK,.. but do not hook up one that is 16 ohms to that output.....


Having said all the above,.... what you buy depends on what sound you are looking for,... a greenback sounds more bluesy,... a vintage 30 a bit more twangy,..... I would maybe look at either building one,..... or buying an empty cab and loading it with your choice of speakers,..... Eminence makes some good choices, as does Celestion,.... you can buy some finished cabs either loaded or not from several good dealers,... Avatar speakers is one,... and Steel sound is another,.....there may be someone near you who builds cabs too,.... and you can buy an empty cab, and speakers .and wire it. with minimal experience, not real hard....


good luck in the purchase,....

Steve
 
A cab that has 4 Greenbacks has a power rating of 100 watts. That doesn't mean you can just hook up any 100 watt head though. You will need to ask other people around here or elsewhere, but a 100 watt tube head like a Marshall SLP outputs more like 180 measurable watts which will eventually destroy the speakers. So for that case, you need a full stack to obtain a 200 watt power rating.

Now for a solidstate 100 watt head, I don't know if that is all it will ever output or not, but its something to look into before you go purchasing the one and only cab you will be using full time. But then again, if you never turn it up that far volume wise, it won't be outputing 100 watts, but I am sure a time will come and those times are not worth ruining stuff...IMO.
 
so the best thing would beto go for a new marshall 1960 really?
 
Duggan said:
so the best thing would beto go for a new marshall 1960 really?
Click to expand...


Why?

Does it sound good to you? There are multiple speker configuations to the 1960 cabs. That is an important factor.

And you should be able to hook up a 16 ohm cab to a 8 ohm output. Look to see if it says "minimum" anywhere around it. Example....my SuperReverb I just sold had a "2 Ohm minimum" speaker load, but the stock speaker configuration was 4 8ohm speakers in series/parallel giving an 8 ohm load.
 
one the thingy i have this

4 ohm socket 4/8 ohm socket

Minimum load 4 OHMS
 
Your marshall AVT has one preamp tube but it does not have a tube output section so it's not that big of a deal. That's why all it says is "minimum 4 ohms", and isn't real specific. It's not a tube amp.

I would base your decision on what tube amp you may buy in the future. I think a lot of them are 8 ohms. A lot of them also have a switch to choose what ohmage you want.

I would probably get an 8 ohm cab if I were you.


And I understand all the technical reasons why a tube power section and tranny melt down when you use too high a load/impedance- so I am not confued or giving bad advice that will harm your amp.

Your amp is not a tube amp so you don't have to worry.

Marshall stuff is overpriced. They spend their money on marketing instead of on making a good product.

I would go to Avatarspeakers.com and get a 2x12 with Eminence Governors or with a Celestion V30 and G12H30 combo for $300.
 
Duggan said:
I live in england:-(
Click to expand...


So Marshall stuff should be cheaper then...hopefully...

Look for a used JCM800 1960 cab. Those are 8 ohms.

If not, then you are in luck becuase the current 1960 cabs have a 4/16 ohm selector for their mono use. Put that on 4, plug into your amps '4' and you are good to go. But for fun, you could also put the cab on 16 and plug into the one that says 8 and see how it sounds. It wont hurt anything.
 
If that amp has a solid state output stage, the impedance doesn't matter as long as you are above 4 ohms. With a tube output stage, you have to match the cabinet with the impedance of the amp.
 
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