Bass cab drivers/wiring and power rating question

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:08 pm

It's heavy garbage week here, and a friend spotted a Traynor YSC-9 PA cabinet on the curb and I was able to get my bandmate to nab it for me. The YSC-9 is a 15"/12"/Attenuated horn cab, initially running at 4Ohm, 100W. Now, the 15" & 12" drivers are missing, and I intend to get them replaced so I can finally use an amp head I bought almost 2 years ago

I want to maintain the 4Ohm rating, but up the power handling to about 400W (my amp pumps 350W @4Ohm, 500W@2Ohm, 250W@8Ohm).

I do understand wiring series/parallel to alter Ohmage, but what I don't really get is how to determine/attain certain power handling. I'm not sure what the attenuated horn is rated for in terms of resistance and power, but, what would I look for in the main drivers to get high power rating?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:50 pm

You add the power handling of the speakers together.

Four 65w speakers wired together would yield a 260w max cabinent.
For example, Greenbacks are about 25w each, so they can do 100w, hence the classic pairing with 100w Marshall shit.

BUT, I would make sure my bass amp has at least twice the power of my cab's handling ability, so you can get plenty of clean headroom.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:07 am

Sloan wrote:You add the power handling of the speakers together.

Four 65w speakers wired together would yield a 260w max cabinent.
For example, Greenbacks are about 25w each, so they can do 100w, hence the classic pairing with 100w Marshall shit.

BUT, I would make sure my bass amp has at least twice the power of my cab's handling ability, so you can get plenty of clean headroom.

Ok, I thought it was simple addition of ratings, but I wasn't sure if being wired in series or parallel might change that. Thanks.

I've been playing bass since like... 1996, but I've only ever had combos, so I haven't had to think about matching amps and cabs. When you say that the amp should have twice the power of the cab, that means that for running my Peavey T-Max at 4Ohm (350W output), I should aim to have the cabinet rated for 175-200W? I would have thought I'd want a higher rating on the cab than amp.

plesiosaurus · Post by **plesiosaurus** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:52 am

Cab should have higher power rating than your amp. Unless you're going for that (literally) blown speaker sound.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:30 pm

Yeah, that's what I thought

Ok, now to find the cheapest drivers to give me the right power handling.