help finding what ohm my amp is

[man-in-moon]

I have an older peavey classic 50 4x10 and need to replace 2 of my speakers and i want to get one of those hot plates. and dont want to get the wrong thing and mess it up.the problem is is doesnt say what ohm to use my speakers dont even have any stickers or writing on them. so i have no idea if it is 8 or 16 ohm. I emailed peavey about 3 weeks ago and still havent heard anything from them. so does anyone know how i can find out. any info you can give me will help.

 

[Artie]

Re: help finding what ohm my amp is

You can go to Peavey Support Classic 50 and download the manual, or go to their forum and ask. Pretty good folks there. Has the same "feel" that this forum has . . . almost.

btw - As long as I was there, I peeked at the manual. It says that it has output jacks for 16 and 8 ohms. With both jacks engaged, amplifier impedance is 8 ohms.

Specifications list the amp as being 50 watts into 16 or 8 ohms.

Oddly, they don't mention the speakers. So I'd assume that as long as you stick to those values, you should be fine.

Artie

Edit: As I look over my answer, I realize, it may not directly address your question. :blackeye:
Hopefully, someone else will chime in. (Their forum is good though.)

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: help finding what ohm my amp is

Artie has a good idea.

If you're feeling adventurous, buy a digital meter, set it for ohms and measure across the terminals (make sure with the power off) to give you your answer

 

[Rich_S]

Re: help finding what ohm my amp is

No, no, no! You can't measure the output impedance of an amplifier with a meter. Besides, you already know it. As Artie said, it's designed for 8 or 16 ohms. So, you need to know which jack the speakers were originally plugged into, 8 or 16? That will tell you the total impedance of the 4-speaker set.

Once you know whether the whole set was 8 or 16, you're pretty close to knowing what each individual speaker was. These days, they're unlikely to be anything other than 8 or 16. If your total impedance was 16, then they must be 16 ohm speakers, wired in series/parallel. Similarly, if the internal speakers were supposed to be plugged into the 8-ohm jack, then each driver must be 8 ohms, with 4 in series/parallel giving a total of 8 ohms.

But if all you need to know is what impedance replacement speakers to buy, you can measure the existing ones. Keep in mind that speaker impedance is a measure of how much it counters the flow of AC current, whereas a multimeter measures DC resistance. So, the a meter will always read lower than the speaker's true impedance. But... it's close enough for sorting out 8 ohm speakers from 16 ohm speakers. On a meter, an 8-ohm speaker will probably read 5 or 6 ohms, a 16-ohm speaker twice that. Make sure you measure the speaker with all wires disconnected, but that you write down where they go before you pull them off.

Get hold of a meter, and PM me if you need help.

 

[man-in-moon]

Re: help finding what ohm my amp is

cool thanks for the advice everyone. I downloaded the manual from peaveys website and checked it out the thing that confused me was the 8 or 16 ohm jacks mine doesnt have those theres one jack and thats where the speakers that are in it are pligged in i am more owrried about doing some kind of damage with the hot plate when i get one.

 

[Artie]

Re: help finding what ohm my amp is

No, no, no! You can't measure the output impedance of an amplifier with a meter.

I think what Chris was saying is to measure the resistance of the speaker. I think we can assume that Peavey matched the proper speaker to the amp - ergo, if its approximately an 8-ohm speaker, the output impedance would be 8 ohms.