10" speakers

[StingEye]

Anyone ever had any issues with blowing 10" speakers. I mean everyone at some point has blown a speaker or two but I mean anyone ever had multiple ones go out on them. I've had the same setup now for about a year with 0 issues with the 10's but in the past 2 months, I've gone through 3 of them...with multiple cabs. Which is weird because the cab I use is rated at 950 w while the head is only 600w. Hell even the little single 10" combo amp I have is distorting. *shakes fist in anger at the bass gods* Besides I thought Mesa Boogie was supposed to be the "be all, end all" of bass equipment...

 

[Psychicpet]

hmmm..... I've never blown any speakers but have grown a little tired of how 10s break-up with anything below a low E. Could it be something with your head? or cables from the head to the cab shorting things out?
weird.

 

[Aussie Mark]

It's a long shot given that you have 600 watts at your disposal, but if your preamp is overdriving the power amp you could be sending a clipped signal to the speakers. A square clipped signal means death to speakers.

A common misconception is that speakers must have a higher power rating than the amp that is driving them. It's far safer to run an amp that puts out more power than your speakers, since then you have extra headroom to avoid sending a clipped signal to the speakers. The general rule of thumb is to choose a power amp that puts out double the RMS rating of the speaker cabinet.

That's not likely to be the issue in this case, so I'd check your gain structure throughout your signal chain and avoid overdriving the power amp stage.

 

[shaver]

not true at all Aussie. how could u possible have head room with more signal going into a lesser power handling unit. thats how cliping accours. More Power handling from the cab means more head room becuse the lesser powerful amp has more room to go places....what your saying is like, saying a person should live in a house with lesser headroom then their actual hight... but what is realy needed it a house with higher celings so that incase the person grows he can still fit.

as lame as that analogy is, it kinda makes sence hah...

also the higher power amp you have, the more head room you will have because theres more singal out put...

but on another note, no i have never blown any speakers and i've oned one speaker cab for about 2 years and its 4 10's.

 

[Aussie Mark]

Shaver, let me give you a practical example. Let's say you have a 100 watt amp and a speaker cabinet that is rated at 400 watts RMS. If you drive that amp flat out trying to be heard over the rest of the band, or overdrive your preamp and distort the **** out of the power stage, you will send a clipped signal to the speaker cabinet and likely fry the speakers. Woofers don't function very well with a square signal being fed into them.

On the other hand, if I have a 800 watt power amp driving the same 400 RMS cab (which can handle 800 watts program power ie. double the RMS rating) I can run that sucker at high volume most of the time and not hurt the speakers, because there is power to spare.

I'll say it again, in case you still don't get it. The single most common cause of blown speakers is underpowering them with an amp that has to work too hard to keep up with the speaker's power handling capabilities. Look at the number of amateur DJs who blow up their systems by cranking the preamp on their CD decks and overdriving their power amp because they can't get enough volume out of their underpowered systems, sending a death signal to their speakers. Happens all the time.

As well as playing bass for close to 30 years, I own and run PA systems, so I know what I'm talking about.

 

[Psychicpet]

Absolutely, just like in all PA settings, you want to have twice the power you'll use. Being able to set an amp at 4 on the output means that its got from 4.1-10 waiting and not used up so it can deliver transients and nuances in your playing like nothing else. Hence a nice big power amp of 800 watts into a speaker cab of 400wattRMS rating is a good thing, just don't turn the power amp to 10, let idle low so you get a tone of CLEAN volume and transient response.

.... sorry to repeat you Aussie Mark


merely an echo

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

I'm with Mark ( and PP)

 

[bovinehost]

Truth and clarity! It's almost like he's not Australian at all.

 

[Psychicpet]

Truth and clarity! It's almost like he's not Australian at all.

LOL!

 

[shaver]

if you have a 100 watt amp, thats the problem because its not putten out enough power to be heard, the cab in fine becuase it can handel that power anways, the cliping is originating from the amps preamp because its turned up so loud its transiting or clipping.

ok i will admit i've only been playing for a fraction of the time you have, but i do go to a music oriented high school, and take lessons and everything music involved. when i has purchising my cab, I talked to many profesionals about the choice, power handling, company, ect.. they all told me the same tihng about the power handling, your need more power speakers to handel the output of the amp, thats why i said b4, the more powerfull amp you have, the more headroom you will have because it would be hard to over drive an 800 watt amp.

maybe i'm on crack and everything i've learned in the past six years is ****.

who knows

 

[Psychicpet]

I think all that we're saying Shaver is this,
It's good to have speakers that handle alot of CLEAN power. But when you've got an amp dimed because it's only a 100 watt head the signal coming from the POWER SECTION of that amp is not clean, it'll clip and send out some very harsh SQUARE WAVE distortion, it doesn't matter if soeakers can handle 1000 watts, you send them some good old square wave clippage at 200watts and the cones in that 1000 watt cab won't like it.

Call some PA companies and talk to those guys about wattage and speaker loads and power amp clipping into speakers.

 

[Aussie Mark]

Truth and clarity! It's almost like he's not Australian at all.

It was early in the day, before beer.

 

[Lync]

I never had a problem with blown speakers until I started playing a Fender Bassman 400 (w/ 2X10's). I've blown 4 of them. A friend who uses an SWR Super Redhead says that it is just a fact of life w/10's. Punch like crazy, but the low notes do a number on them.

Now...I tend to agree w/ Aussie...although in my case, I think and have heard whispers that Fender under spec'd the 10" speakers on the 400 to the point where blowing them is pretty common. The new 400 Pro has different speakers. Thing is...I have replaced them w/the factory spec as to not mess with the engineering of the amp (I like the tone). The next time it happens though, I'll put the 400 Pro speakers in it.

Never had a problem with 15's....

Lync

 

[skydivepr]

I agree with everybody here except shaver

More power on the amp, more headroom, power to spare clean signal at output, warmer sound, etc.!

Also remenber to boost the frequencies in the amp that are in the same range on the freq respnse of the cab, especially the lower ones, those are the ones that hurt speakers more.

 

[shaver]

maybe i am wrong i probably am, what ever

 

[blueyedmule]

I'm with you fellers!
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Anyone care for some gopher?




mule