Do Speakers Like To Be Pushed?

['59]

I was thinking, it is a widely held belief that for the most part a low wattage amp run at full tilt will sound better than a high watt amp run at extremely low volumes. This is generally because there is an amount of natural distortion that comes with volume.

I was wondering, I have a 5w head going into a cab built to handle 240w. Is this similar to having "undercooked" tube amps?

 

[Demanic]

Re: Do Speakers Like To Be Pushed?

Well, not quite. You can push the power section of your amp to the max, and get the resultant effect. But the speakers aren't going to distort the same as if they were hit by a signal from a higher wattage amp, say a 50 or 100 watt tube, or 200 watt SS.
Give it a try though, it might sound good.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Do Speakers Like To Be Pushed?

So the distortion that comes with volume is a lot of stuff going on. There is the fact that more air is physically moving, the fact that ears/brain perceive the frequencies of loud sounds differently than low volume sounds, The fact that we perceive certain midrange frequencies as louder than other freq's to begin with (and the guitar is centered in the midrange), the tubes overdriving and creating 2nd and 3rd order harmonics, the speakers might be breaking up too.

The thing you're almost certain not to get with your setup is speaker distortion but not everyone even likes speaker breakup so I'd say for now don't sweat it. If the sound is loud and your amp's running on high you should get most of what you're after, shouldn't by a long shot be "undercooked" sounding.

Sometimes for really tight rhythm sounds you actually don't want an amp at full tilt, with speakers breaking up. It can sound too loose, mushy, or woofy or not clear enough. Sometimes you can get really heavy, clear, but saturated sounds from a 100W high-gain amp with a good master volume set really low. And because the power amp isn't anywhere close to topping out, when you ask the amp to deliver power, it delivers it with punch and immediacy.

So... it all really depends on the sound you want!

 

[LLL]

Re: Do Speakers Like To Be Pushed?

If you asked them, they would tell you, "yes".

 

[some_dude]

Re: Do Speakers Like To Be Pushed?

I was thinking, it is a widely held belief that for the most part a low wattage amp run at full tilt will sound better than a high watt amp run at extremely low volumes.

1) Just because a belief is widely held doesn't mean it's correct.

2) A low wattage amp running full tilt is a lot f*cking louder than a high watt amp running at extremely low volumes.

I was wondering, I have a 5w head going into a cab built to handle 240w. Is this similar to having "undercooked" tube amps?

Yes.


But, just because the speakers are under driven doesn't mean it doesn't sound good.

A 1x12 typically doesn't sound better than a 4x12 even though a single speaker would be driven harder than four speakers.

 

[stef89]

Re: Do Speakers Like To Be Pushed?

It really depends on the room, how big it is and so on. If you rehearse with a band in a small sweathy room maxing a small amp with one speaker will sound bad mostly. If you have a high watt amp with 2x12 or 4x12 on medium volume it will sound allot better. But if you max a small amp for recording it will sound good. Playing a medium venue small miced up will sound better then a high watt amp at medium to low volume. When the speaker is moving allot with high volume it really comes alive.