vintage 30 16 or 8 ohm?

[hsinn3r]

I'll soon have a framus 2x12 cab, that comes with preloaded 16ohm v30, but I also have a pair of 8ohm v30s. My poweramp is a solid state marshall 8008, and rated at 4 ohm. As far as I can understand (please correct me), the cab ohm rating should be as close as possible to the power amp rating, but never under it (for a solid state power amp at least). Two 16ohm speakers in parallel would give 8 ohm, and two 8 ohm speakers would give 4 ohm. So, math talking, I should use the 8 ohm speakers, right? But! checking prices online, I saw that the 8 ohm are about 100 euros each, and the 16 ohm at about 125! Why is there such a difference in price? All info appreciated.
Thanks

 

[MetallyGuitarded]

I think the 16 Ohm ones are more $ probably because if you're gonna use 4 of them in a cab you almost have to use 16 ohm speakers. I'm probably wrong though. If you want to trade a pair of 16 ohm v30's for a pair of 8 ohms, contact me. I have an old Ampeg 2x12 with 2 great V30's I can't really use with my amp due to an impedance mismatch. My amp has 2 x 16 ohm speakers wired to 8 Ohms and the only way this Ampeg will do 8 Ohms is stereo and I only have one ext speaker jack. Plus that'd be 3 x 8 ohm loads and I'm sure that'd be unstable.

The cab has never been pushed and I'd love to use it but the only way I can is to rewire the speaks in my amp and I don't want to do that.

Here's the cab

It was pretty much closeted since the mid 90's and only ever used with a Ampeg VL-503 ( 50 watt combo with an EV12M 200 watt speaker ). It sounded great with my Triaxis rig ( pictured ). I'm trying to sell the cab if anyone is interested ( asking about $250 + ship/paypal fees ). Unless I can find someone to trade me some speakers...

I can get you more info/pics of the speakers if you're interested. I love the cab, it's convertible and angled. Hard to beat.

 

[Metaltastic]

hsinn3r, you had a few questions in your post, so hopefully this will cover them: with a solid state power amp, you don't have to worry as much about impedance matching, but it's still important, and yes, you only do damage when the cab impedance is LESS than the impedance of the amp, but you also lose (some) tone when plugging the amp into a cab with MORE impedance. However, 4 ohm outputs aren't as common on amps, so I'd only go for two 8 ohms wired in parallel (yielding 4 ohms, as you guessed) if you're sure that you're planning on using this Marshall amp for the foreseeable future; otherwise, stick with the stock 16 ohm speakers in parallel (8 ohms).

And Metally, it is possible to get four 8 ohm speakers in a 4x12 cab to equal 8 ohms, the same way four 16 ohm speakers equal 16 ohms - it's the way most (if not all) 4x12's are wired, a combination of series and parallel (here's a diagram).

 

[MetallyGuitarded]

And Metally, it is possible to get four 8 ohm speakers in a 4x12 cab to equal 8 ohms, the same way four 16 ohm speakers equal 16 ohms - it's the way most (if not all) 4x12's are wired, a combination of series and parallel (here's a diagram).

I sorta recalled that from a thread I had about getting the 2 x 8 Ohm speakers to work with my amp but I didn't wanna google it. It's a bummer cause this Ampeg cab I have totally rocks. I bought it over a Mesa Recto 2x12 horizontal because it sounded pretty much the same and had all the extra options like half-open back, 4 or 16 ohm mono or 8 ohm stereo. It worked great with the 2:Ninety I had. I'm actually considering wiring the 2 x 12's in my VHT to 16 Ohms despite having been cautioned about a 'warming' of the overall tone from doing this. I'm just very reluctant to put a soldering iron to a speaker. I had a bad experience once...

 

[hsinn3r]

thanks for your replies. metally, I live in europe, and I'll probably sell locally the remaining speakers, sorry I can't help.

I guess what I'm really asking for, is why is there such a difference in price, since it's basically the same speaker??

 

[MetallyGuitarded]

Well as I explained in too much detail, I think it's just because of the higher demand for the 16 ohm version since they're what's most likely in most 4x12 cabs.

 

[hsinn3r]

well yeah, most cabs come with 16ohm speakers on them, and people mostly buy them to replace blown speakers or to upgrade, and are more likely to buy the same ohmage. in that way it does make sense

 

[Metaltastic]

If you're worried that 16 ohm V30s are better quality or somehow sound better, all you need to know is that Mesa uses 8 ohms in their cabs

 

[hsinn3r]

well, if it's good enough for mesa...
thx