lscolman Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Hi, I've got an Aguilar 112NT and GS112 cabinet, both of which are rated 300 watts @ 8 ohms. I want to pick up a second hand head unit to use with these. Any advice on what I should get? Can head units put out specific ohm level to drive a cabinet, ie. can a headunit that states 300 watts into 4 ohms, then drive a cabinet at 150 watts at 8 ohms? I want to try and match the amp to the cabinets as best possible, and not end up with mismatched kit. Also if an amp is rated at 300 watts @ 8 ohms, but has two outputs, does that mean the output is split across these outputs, ie. 150 watts on each output? Any help would be gratefully received. Cheers, Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 [url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOD2 Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Almost all amps with two output speaker jacks have these connected in parallel. This means that if you connect your two 8 ohm 300 Watt to the dual outputs of an amp, then the total load seen by the amp is 4 ohms and the power handling of the speaker cabs together is 600 Watts. If you want to use both cabs at the same time, then you need to look at the power rating of the amp into 4 ohms. This should be 600 Watts or less. You can go above this (e.g. 750 Watts into 4 ohms) as long as you don't plan on running the amp at full volume and you use your ears to listen for any unexpected distortion and turn down if/when it occurs. The power output into 8 ohms will be less, but not as much as half that into 4 ohms. If you are running the amp into 8 ohms then you would only have ONE of your cabs attached (two 8 ohms cabs = 4 ohms). You can match actually match any power amp to any power cab as long as you LISTEN and do not drive the amp or the cab into distortion. There's nothing to stop you running a 100 Watt amp into a 300 Watt cab, or a 1000 Watt amp into a 300 Watt cab, as long as you are careful with the volume control. But since you have 600 Watts of cabs it makes sense to look for something near that power. (and please everyone ... do NOT quote those articles on the net that claim a lower powered amp can be damaged by driving a higher powered cab - we are sensible players here and turn the volume control down long before the amp makes distorted noises) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lscolman Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 Hi BOD2, That's very helpful. Thanks for that explaination. Much appreciated. Cheers, Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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