Built a cabinet

Kane17 · Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2002 9:52 pm Post subject: Built a cabinet

I have made a 4x10" guitar cabinet and I'm still using my 40 watt Peavey Envoy combo to push it. I am running it out of spec at about 50 watts (amp pushes 40 Watts into 6 ohms and the cab is 4 Ohms). Is this dangerous for the amp?? I've run a cheap Fender amp rated at 8 ohms into 4 ohms before and that was fine..Maybe cuz I didn't really care if the amp would be hurt. But I was thinking maybe a Transtube amp would be more susceptable to damage from heat...Do Peavey's have any protection from overheating like an auto-shutdown or something??

Anyways, for now it's great. It has a good big and open sound and gives a lot of definition when I'm shredding. I know it's not really a lot of wattage for a Solid-State half-stack, but I figure If I mic it into the PA it'll be loud enough.

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Jesus Wept.

ACfixer · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2002 2:11 am Post subject: Built a cabinet

Kane, I think Bates might be better to answer this one... But I have experimented with all kinds of speaker combos and I have never (to my knowledge) damaged an amp. I wouldn't do it with a high dollar rig or a serious vintage collectable amp but as far as my $300 Peavey classic or something I'm not going to sweat it. I think if You just keep the levels down below 10 and mic the amp you'll be fine. I could be wrong but...

By the way, I've done it almost exclusively with Peavey stuff. Peavey is tough.

Kane17 · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2002 8:49 am Post subject: Built a cabinet

yea I know what you mean,

I've pushed an old Peavey 4-channel powered mixer down to 2 ohms

I was told by the shop owner that it would be ok for a while and the amp would just shut down if it overheated but I ran that rig for about a year at high volumes and it never shut down nor had any unusual activity or instability..

I don't know why Peavey gets such a bad rep..Lot's of people won't even accept trades on high-end peavey stuff but I've never got something from them that I didn't like.

Anyways thanks for your reply, I feel a little bit more confident.

*keeps on jammin*

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Jesus Wept.

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

I suddenly remebered I had to peply to this mail.... Sorry for the time lapse, no excuse.

Running a 8 Ohm apm on a 6 Ohm cab will wear out your transducers. (not sure if that is the correct US name) Electricity is often compared to water. If you have a big pipeline, a lot of water can flow thru it, if you have a amall pipeline.....

Now you have a huge pipelin (6 Ohm) and you have a small pump (8 Ohm) The pump will want to supply the force needed by the cab but will eventualy run out of power. The electricity will wear out the components.

I have had no problem whatever running my 8 Ohm amp (transtistor, H&K attax 100)) in to 2 Ohm. Read this well, TRANSISTOR !!!

Do not even try running a Ohm TUBE apm at 2 Ohm. Well, you can if You like fire and so on but you will burn your amp 4 sure. That is what happend to my tube amp, yes the one that burned.... I should have known better but I like to experiment a bit.....

And on the Peavey side, The make the best ethernet sound distrubution networks for pro audio. Any soundcompany will know this. Might even own such a divice to split there sound into arrays or stacks and in that way controle each amp and speaker from there laptop. (beats having to run arround to each amp and turning the knobs ill tel you, bad for my weight tho)

They do lack a lot of drive in there speakers. Not that it is bad, but the sound does not carry a long way if you see what I mean.

I know peavey has a nice special pay/lease package specialy for churches, they know we need good affordable stuff but often dont have the cash.

The also make speakers in special colors for houses of worship. They have made nice stuff overall but they just havent convinced the pro-audio world withe there speakers (YET !!)

Nate...

Kane17 · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2003 3:53 pm Post subject: Built a cabinet

I see. What you say makes sence but Im thinking maybe there are some other things to keep in mind too.

Is it possible that the amp COULD be rated higher but would need some weird irrational impedence to get the highest safe wattage? Say that my envoy for example could easily put out 43.7xxx watts but instead of building a special speaker for that amp with its own special impedence they just gave it 6 ohms and it got 40 watts.

OR is it possible that Peavey put some saftey buffer on the amp to prevent from failure in unknown conditions? Say, it could be rated at 40 Watts but say it has a 10 or 20% safety buffer so its really ok to play at 44 or 48 watts?

In either case it would indicate I'm not pushing the amp as hard as the specs might indicate. I'm just wondering if this is might be the case for educational purposes as Im only beginning to get into electronics (Ive got my eyes on a 150 Watt Power amp and a nice Tube Preamp anyways

)

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Jesus Wept.

[This message has been edited by Kane17 (edited January 08, 2003).]

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

For sure there is a level of built in safety. You might even be right with your 10 procent -+. Hey, as long as it works it works....... Ill ask around a bit but if it works for you at the level you like it, and nothing breaks or stops, even proffesionals wont stop me from playing what I like so.... BE Blessed dude...