Want to buy new head - check on power requirement, please?

[andrewrx7]

Hi there,

I want to buy a back up head. I am just a little confused with the old wattage/ohms thing - apologies!

Current set up:

TE AH300-7 head (300w at 4ohms) + 4x10cab (400w at 8ohms) and 1x15cab (300w at 8ohms).

I run both cabs - so does that mean that the head is running at 8ohms and so kicking out a max power of around 150-200w?

I am contemplating several heads with a bit more power:

Ashdown MAG300 (300w at 4ohms) - so basically the sam as I currently use

Peavey Tour 450 (450w at 4 ohms or 300w at 8 ohms)

Hartke LH500 (500w at 4 ohms.....guessing around 300w at 8 ohms).


So with both cabs running off the same head - should I really be looking at the Peavey or Hartke which would be better matched on the power front to the 2 cabs (i.e. pushing 300w at 8ohms, like thte cabs 3-400w at 8ohms)??

I typically run the current TE head between say 5 and 8 on the output stage (input is matched to the LEDs indicators), depending on the venue.

Thanks for any clarification or advice!

Andrew

[yorick]

If you're running two 8 ohm cabs from your head, the total impedance is 4 ohms. If your head is 300w at 4 ohms you'll be ok . The only thing you'll have to worry about is the power handling of your cabs. But from what you've got at the minute it's all hunky dory!!
I've had an Ashdown mag300 head and run it into two 8 ohm cabs and personally it sounded great.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='andrewrx7' post='329719' date='Nov 15 2008, 11:43 AM']Thanks for any clarification or advice!

Andrew[/quote]
It's the rare cab that can actually make use of more than half the power it's rated for, so as long as your amp is rated for at least half the sum total power that your cabs are it's enough to drive them to full output. Having more power is a good thing, as more headroom means less stress on the amp and less potential for distortion, but it won't result in more output, so don't lose sleep over it.