two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

foo3001

New member
Just wondering wether I should buy this AC-30 copy.

It has two Celestion Blue-speakers (15 watts each) in it, and now I´d like Your opinions on wether they will hold against the 30 watts pushed by the amp. I want to have enough headroom, as I sometimeas have to play quite loud and stay as clean as possible..

I´ve read someplace it is recommended that the speakers would rate 20% more than the amp puts out. IS it actually so?

So, will I be able to crank the amp and NOT fry the speakers?
 
Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

As soon as someone says one thing, somebody else will disagree.

For my tastes, I'd prefer to have speakers with a bit more handling capability than what my amp max is pushing. Vox 30 watt amps have been loaded with Celestion Blues for ages though. Unless the Blues come with different ratings (as in different versions), I'd think you'd be okay. Warning though, if you play heavy handed all the time with the volume on 10, you'd be flirting with disaster.
 
Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

Scott_F said:
For my tastes, I'd prefer to have speakers with a bit more handling capability than what my amp max is pushing.

Yes, me too. My GrooveTubes Soul-O 45 has an 80-watt speaker.. I´ve always wanted to be on the safe side with these things. But now that I´ve given it some thought it´s so true the classic VOX sound IS the Celestion Blues.. So I guess they should work fine.

Scott_F said:
Warning though, if you play heavy handed all the time with the volume on 10, you'd be flirting with disaster.

;) AC30 dimed = disaster anyway :) Trust me I´ll never have to be THAT loud. I bet the speakers handle the load allright, but now I´m concerned how they´ll sound when played a bit louder.. After all they´re only 15w each. Guess I´ll just have to wait and see.
 
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Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

Scott's right, you should always have a little more power handling with the speakers than what the amp puts out. However, the Celestion Blues speakers are a match made in heaven with Vox amps (you won't find a better suited speaker). Very rarely will anyone ever dime an AC-30, so you should be perfectly fine (even if you did, most speakers are designed to handle a bit more than what is labeled). :fing2:
 
Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

The original AC-30 (and some of the new ones) run Alnico Blues...as long as you are not running the amp full bore all the time you'll be fine.
 
Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

I agree with Scott. You have to go over a bit, especially with tube amps.

:)
 
Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

While we're on this topic, do you guys know generally what volume setting a tube will be outputing at its rated max? I know all amps are different, Im just concerned as was curious what max output would be on a marshall type of amp. Actually the most of the time, I'm probably going to crank my amp at 4, I'm not sure what the output is, but I'm just guessing that would be about 30%-40% of what my amp is capable of maybe its even less than I think.
 
Re: two 15-watt speakers in a 30-watt amp. Enough?

I know a guy that has 3 Vox AC30s (2 CCs and a 90s TBX) and he runs all 3 at full volume most/all of the time!

How he's not blown a speaker before now is a mystery to me.
 
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