5w amp with 75 watt speaker? Wtf?

onedaycloser · Post by **onedaycloser** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:24 pm

I've been running my modded Valve Junior with the stock cab/speaker for 3-ish years now. While I enjoy the sound, I've became curious as to why one would run such a low wattage amp with such an over rated speaker?

I've just ordered a VHT Special 6 Ultra combo, which I see also comes with a 60 watt speaker? I don't get it

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:28 pm

Using a higher wattage speaker tends to give the amp more headroom, allowing a lower wattage amp to avoid speaker breakup quite as quick as it would with a lower watt speaker. Mixed with it's tendancies to break up on it's own quite early (as most low watt amps do) a low watt speaker would basicly kill any real clean tone at any usable volume. It might sound great, but for those looking to maximize headroom the higher watt speaker helps.

When I ran my tiny terror, I checked out a bunch of different cabinets to see what seemed right for me. The best match for what I did was using an open back 2x12 avatar cab with 2 100 watt eminence speakers in it. IT gave it about 30% more headroom than a standard closed back low watt cabinet (like 2 v30's). IT also gave it a bit more flexibility tone wise.

mordechaister · Post by **mordechaister** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:30 pm

They probably did that because they know people are gonna crank those things and do god knows what through them, this way they KNOW the speaker can handle it.

With bass, I like to use a head that is rated for less watts than the speakers. I generally play a clean tone, and even if I want some gain, I hate the sound of a speaker breaking up for bass.

Probably it's a common/cheap speaker for manufacturers to get also.

onedaycloser · Post by **onedaycloser** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:00 pm

Both of you make sense, although I don't really "need" all the clean head room that the Epi cab/speaker provides. In my apt I'm lucky to run my VJ over 1/2 volume, which doesn't get any tube breakup, let alone speaker distortion.

Actually the goal with purchasing the VHT amp was to get more OD/distortion at reasonable volumes, as it's got a built in attenuator and 2 12AX7 preamp tubes. I'm wondering if there would be any benefit or need to swap out the stock speaker for something of lower wattage?

I see most commonly available guitar speakers are 25-30 watts minimum, which again seems overkill for a "mere" 5-6 watts?

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:54 pm

I don't think 5 watters would create speaker distortion on any speaker, so best to have a nice clean one. I actually really like the speaker in the Valve Jr series.

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:22 am

honeyiscool wrote:I don't think 5 watters would create speaker distortion on any speaker, so best to have a nice clean one. I actually really like the speaker in the Valve Jr series.

My old Valve JR combo (bought 3 or 4 years ago) did exactly that. Sounded damn good at 1o clock, but beyond that the speaker just started to fuzz like shit. I tried a newer one last year, and it had a celestion speaker and sounded much more stable. If mine would have been like that, I'd kept it I guess.

mordechaister · Post by **mordechaister** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 2:37 am

I mean you could definitely try a lower watt speaker, and maybe one with a flat as opposed to a ribbed cone. Flat cones will break up sooner. tedweber.com and usspeaker.com are my go to speaker places.