Trace Wattage, I Know, Old Topic, But...

[Count Bassie]

I've got a kind of prog-ish doom style original band, I play bass. I'm in process of getting a Mk IV head cleaned up and installed in a plywood sleeve I made, and I'm thinking about running it into an Ampeg PR410HLF cab, 600w @4 ohms. 

The Mk IV is rated at 250w, 4 ohms. In my experience, Trace heads seem to deliver more than that. I'm thinking this'll be loud as Godzilla with a stubbed toe in a mix with two loud guitars and big drums, playing some melodically complex bass lines.

Can I get witness?

Edited Friday at 16:36 by Count Bassie

[Stub Mandrel]

Not really. The issue is that Trace power ratings are honest continuous RMS ratings so what a 250W Trace is rated at would be described as 1000W by less scrupulous manufacturers.

 

Bear in mind 2,500W is only twice as loud as 500W, other things being equal.

[thodrik]

If that amp and cab isn’t loud enough then your band is too loud, even if it is a doom band.

 

It should be plenty loud and then some.

[Count Bassie]

Thank you guys. 

 

[Count Bassie]

On 06/06/2025 at 13:24, Stub Mandrel said:

Not really. The issue is that Trace power ratings are honest continuous RMS ratings so what a 250W Trace is rated at would be described as 1000W by less scrupulous manufacturers.

 

Bear in mind 2,500W is only twice as loud as 500W, other things being equal.

This about honest ratings hits the mark. My tech friend says similar about how power is now rated at 1k, which isn't really honest low end. It requires more power to reproduce low end, so you get higher, impressive numbers. 

 

[Phil Starr]

Getting an honest rating is a real problem over here too. The current trend is a two way exaggeration. Firstly amp powers are routinely calculated (ie not measured) at 6db above their measured rating, so a 500W amp becomes a 2,000W amp In PA active speakers it is even worse. They add the power of the tweeter amp to the amp driving the bass unit despite the fact that they don't both work together at any frequency other than at crossover where the power is reduced 3db. Then they save money by using the same amps over all the ranges but throttle them back so they can't damage the speakers. The poor old horn driver is likely to be 30W handling. The protection circuitry makes ssure there is no chance of it ever seeing more than that whatever you as an operator do.

 

250W is likely to be plenty through even an average speaker and through your 4x10 will be awesome

[prowla]

At a recent jam my TE 300W at 1/4 into an Ashdown 4x10 matched the loudness of the drummer.

At a previous one my Markbass 500W into two 1x10 wasn't loud enough.

[BassmanPaul]

Twice as many speakers in the 4x10! Simple.

 

The rotational position of the volume control has no real relavaance to  the output the amplifier is producing.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by BassmanPaul

[prowla]

4 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

Twice as many speakers in the 4x10! Simple.

Yup - could well be that!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Exactly that. All else being equal, although it never is, four tens have 6dB higher sensitivity than two tens. That's equivalent to a four fold power increase. It's more complicated when the drivers and enclosure tunings aren't identical, and they're not all parallel wired, but for the most part adding drivers alone without adding power will still go louder.