[quote name='51m0n' post='870528' date='Jun 18 2010, 09:47 AM']A few thoughts/truths for you:-
You can never ever have too much power (thats why god made volume knobs) 500w into an efficient 410 or really good 212 will be enough for almost any pub gig. ANy more and you need a decent PA.
Some rooms are acoustically awful - nothing you can do about that but move your rig into a better position in the room
A rig at ear height sounds better for everyone, a rig on the floor (single cab) is very hard to hear the mids from. Result: you turn up too loud for the audience in the room
A rig close to the back wall (back of cab within 1') gets about +3dB boost from the boundary reflections. Use this to your advantage!
Deep bass sounds great on its own, turns to mud live and gives the FOH guy areal headache. Being heard is all about the mids...
Speaker diameter is not related to cab performance in any meaningful way, neither is port location. It just aint that simple people!!!!!!
Any modern amp putting out 500w into 4Ohm will do the job, its then a question of tone, reliability, weight and features (not to mention labels here but...)
Cabs are more important than amps, they produce more THD (excepting the case of a deliberate overdriving of the amp), have far more to do with the frequency response of the rig than the amp does, and the efficiency of the cab really does define the rigs real world volume.
Go play a bunch of amps and cabs and find something you like the sound of, then ask here if people think its really up to the job, or if there is a better alternative to get the same kind of tone....[/quote]
Excellent post. That "God of gear" tag is starting to make sense!
A good quality amp through a sensitive cab is a no-brainer. Forget power handling and speaker size, good design produces the best sounds. It's all about finding what you like.
An Auralex Gramma pad helps no end to retain consistent sound from stage to stage, as well as eliminating boomy notes. I found this more useful than anything when trying to determine a cab's merits