40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

[Open lane]

Hi. Been researching the dirty shirley amp again. I noticed something that seems strange to me. When i asked someone on a forum before about pairing amps with cabs, i was told to always get a speaker that handles AT LEAST double the load the head will belt out. The dirty shirley combo is a 40watt amp with a 65 watt speaker. Whats the deal with this?

Thanks!

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

Well double the wattage handling may be required with a plexi, but in practice, with most amps, a 65 watt speaker with a 40 watt amp is fine. I ran a 50 watt amp into a 60 watt speaker for years with out a problem.

 

[Open lane]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

Ah i see. Ok, ty!

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

Some people say double, I've also heard many times one and a half, which is what I've always gone by. 65w should be fine for a 40w amp

 

[Open lane]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

This is sort of the opposite question but:

Is it possible for a cabs wattage to be too high of a dif from the amps' head? For example, would a 5watt amp sound like crap through 100w speakers?

 

[Demanic]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

It won't sound like crap, but if you like speaker distortion as part of your amp tone, you won't get it.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

This is sort of the opposite question but:

Is it possible for a cabs wattage to be too high of a dif from the amps' head? For example, would a 5watt amp sound like crap through 100w speakers?

Not necessarily. While a smaller amp may not have the power to manhandle the speakers at higher volumes the way a high-power amp can, the five-watter might sound very good if you operate it within its limits. I routinely run my Tubemeister 18 on its 5W and 1W settings into a Marshall 4x12, and I think it sounds great.

 

[Open lane]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

Thanks guys. This place is THE BEST

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

Also, if Friedman specs the speaker with the amp it should be ok.

The little ZVex amp (.1 W?) can drive a 4x12.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

Yeah, I hooked up my Mesa Mark V:25 to my all-EVM Mesa Half-Back 412. Holy CRAP!!!! We are talking some SERIOUS FUN!!!

It ia designed to run with the two Recto V-30 112s for a mini-stack. These are 60-watt speakers. That's how I've gigged it 'til now, but I have an outdoor gig coming up this summer...and that 412 might be...FUN! Heavy as sin, though.

I did the same thing with an original Fender Super Champ into a 212 Bassman cab and a 412 SUNN cab. That band was much louder than my current band, and that amp did not have enough clean headroom. Sounded glorious fully cranked, though!

Manufacturers can voice an amp to work with certain speakers, and other speakers won't sound as good. A SUNN cab I had sounded great with a SUNN SS amp. With a vintage Peavey RockMaster amp, it sucked...too tight sounding. But I plugged the Peavey into that 212 Bassman cab and it was looser and spongier...in a good way.

I think a lot of it is how you are going to run the head and the loudness you want. Running the amp wide open? Yeah, that 25-watt Mesa sounds good with those four EVMs. UNLESS...you LIKE speaker break-up. At a whisper volume, you might want a lighter speaker that will sound fuller at the lower level.

Unless you're just running your amp wide open all the time, you should be fine with the stock speaker. If you need more, consider an extention cab. I almost always use my 112 Mesa combos on top of a 112 Thiele cab.

Bill

 

[ken361]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

I run a DSL40 with a WGS ET65 with no problems!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

The double wattage thing is just a rule of thumb. If a speaker is rated to 40w RMS it will be fine with a 40w amp.
A 40 watt tube amp means that you can get 40watts of clean (unclipped) power on an oscillograph. While an amp can easily exceed 40 watts when running dirty (far into clipping) most speaker manufacturers take this into account when publishing the specs on their speakers. 40 watt amp and 65 watt speaker...no problems at all.

 

[Ascension]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

This is sort of the opposite question but:

Is it possible for a cabs wattage to be too high of a dif from the amps' head? For example, would a 5watt amp sound like crap through 100w speakers?

Depends on the speaker efficiency. If you are running a very low wattage amp with an inefficient speaker that takes a lot of power to push it will cause your amp to be low in volume and lack headroom. I'm running a 90 watt WGS ET 90 in my 25 watt Zinky Velvet because the speaker is efficient and i like the tight thick tone. It's all about how everything works together. You do however want a higer rated speake than the amp to prevent over heating the speaker if you crank the amp. Otherwise it is more about matching efficiency and tone more than power.

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: 40w combo amp with a 65w speaker?

It won't sound like crap, but if you like speaker distortion as part of your amp tone, you won't get it.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

True, but most (certainly not all) people don't care for speaker distortion.