Am I asking for trouble or.......

[donslow]

......is it "safe" to plug two 8 ohm / 250w cabinets into my newly acquired mark bass little mark II?!

I have just acquired a markbass little mark II and I am yet to try it out but before I do, if I plug it in to either one of or both of my ashdown 8 ohm / 250w cabs am I likely to damage something or are new, higher rated cabinets really the order of the day?! My current cabinets are a 1x15 and a 2x10, would these speaker configurations be one of the better matches for this amp or should I be looking at something different i.e. 4x10, 8x10, 2 x 1x15

On the potential subject of new cabinets I have a further two questions,
I am on a fairly tight budget until I sell/trade my current rig so have been looking at second hand cabs (obviously) so the likes of bergantino and ampeg (from reading on here these seem to be amongst the good/popular choices for markbass amps)are out of the window for now, I have been looking at trace Elliot cabinets as they seem to go for reasonable prices but I've never used them, are they decent enough for now or are there others I should be looking at?!
Secondly, what's the best way of attaching cabinets to the little mark II, would it be to daisy chain the cabs and go from amp into one cab or is it better to plug each cabinet into each of the speaker inputs on the back of the amp?!

Many thanks in advance for any help and advice and apologies for over use of the word cabinet hahahah

[ezbass]

I had an LMll and, if I remember correctly, the load recommendation was minimum 4ohms, therefore, your 2x8 ohm cabs would be fine. As to which combination, well that's a matter for your own ears really. Size doesn't always mean a specific tone. I used an Ashdown 2x10 and then a Schroeder 2x12 with the LMll and the 2x12 was far more focused and to my liking. Schroeder cabs are/were quite a popular pairing with that amp, but again it depends on what you like to hear.

EDIT: FWIW I'm using a rig with 8x5 speakers and the tone is not a million miles away from the 2x12, a litter smoother and precise perhaps.

Edited October 4, 2014 by ezbass

[xgsjx]

Like ez says, the LMII runs as low as 4Ω, so 2 8Ω cabs would bring the load to 4Ω (or 4 16Ω cabs).

As for choice of cabs, find one that you like & then when it comes to adding a 2nd, get another the exact same to give you more of what you like.

If you think the cab you like lacks bass, then don't get it. Adding another cab that has more bass won't give that cab more bass, it just means you'll get more random variations in sound.

There's plenty of threads about driver configurations, so it's your choice.

Enjoy your quest & the LMII, they're brilliant little amps.

[donslow]

Thankyou for the info fellas,

I should've maybe been a little more specific, I was referring to mainly the wattage ratings, my cabs are 250w and at 8ohms it's 300 from my amp and 4ohms I believe it to be closer to 600

Hopefully you can see my confusion/dilemma/query

[donslow]

Also, really I was asking for opinions on good quality cabinets that don't go for very much on the secondhand market if anyone has any experience

I hear trace Elliott are good but unsure, I'm relatively new to the bass gear world so am still learning what's hot and what's not as it were

If I had an idea of which brand cabinets would be a good shout for not very much money (asking the impossible?!) I could narrow my search down from the (seemingly) thousands of brands I'm looking at to maybe a few and try out where I can

[xgsjx]

Ignore the watts, use your ears.
Read up on cabs on here then go try them oh until you find what you like.

[ezbass]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1412428124' post='2568868']
Ignore the watts, use your ears.
Read up on cabs on here then go try them oh until you find what you like.
[/quote]+1
The LMll is clean all the way up to wide open if you have the input gain set correctly (500w @ 4ohms IIRC) so if you are hear any distortion then that'll most likely be your cabs, but 500w is super loud IMO and I never had mine beyond 1/2 way with a loud band.