Speaker mixing and Matching Question....

[Slashwannabe1]

Ok so I've said before that my H&K cab sounded a little rough on the cleans... I tracked it down to one blown speaker making things sound flabby.

Anyway I have a Jensen Mod 12-50 50 watt speaker I threw in for a replacement...

My question is can I mix one 50 watt speaker with 3 60 watt speakers without hurting anything? all speakers are 8ohm.

Thanks.

[LivewireBlanco]

Yes, you can mix and match as long as the ohms are the same. The cab would be rated at 200w handling now since the most power you would want throught that speaker is 50w and your cab can only handle as much as its weakest speaker.

[slowpokerhino]

You may want to check the efficiency of the speakers. If they're far apart, one may overpower 3 or vice versa. Wont hurt anything but may sound weird.

[Slashwannabe1]

Ok cool thats great news guys!


So far the mod 12-50 sounds great, its slightly brighter than the Celestion G12Fs but it sounds great as it takes the light edge off but the volume is equal between all of them.

[wharris]

I have a similar question... Can I put 2 EVM12L speakers in my 425A cabinet (leaving 2 Greenbacks in)? I'm thinking of running the cabinet in stereo with my 2266 and 2555 (100W). Would this work?

[ClubAndCountry]

Up to a point, yes. But the EVs are much more sensitive than the G12Ms as well as sounding very different, so the side with them will be a lot louder. If you want the 2555 for clean headroom and the 2266 for overdrive this might not matter. But if you run them separately like that (not both at once) it will sound odd - if you run a cab with only half the speakers driven, and it isn't fully divided (ie really two separate cabinets in the same outer box) then the un-driven speakers act as out-of-phase 'passive speakers', which doesn't sound good.

And the cab will be massively heavier on one side than the other :-). (Although you could swap the connections so the left-right is then top-bottom and put the EVs at the bottom.)

I would try to find some speakers much closer to the sound and sensitivity of the G12Ms that will handle the extra power, if you're going to do this. Celestion G12-65s are a good choice - although fairly expensive since they're only available in a Heritage version, unless you can find some old ones.

If you actually want to run it in *stereo* (ie two identical sounds at the same time), then probably the easiest thing to do is not to change anything, but to set up the 2266 side first knowing that it's not going to overpower the speakers, then bring the 2555 up to the same volume (switch back and forth so you can get it equal), which will be a slightly lower master volume setting - that *should* be safe, especially if you aren't running the 2266 wide open. Or just run the 2555 at the 50W setting, which is definitely safe (I know it doesn't sound the same as the 100W setting). Or pull two power valves, which is safe with this amp. Many options...

[wharris]

Thanks. Sounds like I need one of the following:
1. A new 4x12 cabinet with a divider (and all EV12L)
2. A 2x12 with EVL or V30s (I believe they are rated for 60W each)
3. Just use the 425A mono with 2555 (and "blend" with another
head/cab if desired)

Any opinions on EVM vs. Celestion V30s? (with a 2555)

[ClubAndCountry]

Are you trying to get true stereo (two amps running at the same time with similar tones), blended (two amps running at the same time with different tones) or switchable (two amps running at different times with different tones)?

If you want switching, you need either two separate cabinets, whether or not they're in the same overall box, or a full head-switching system going into one mono cabinet. If you want stereo or blending you can (*usually*, for blending - as long as the sounds are not really radically different which can still cause trouble) get away with a stereo-wired single cabinet.

Do you actually have the EVs already? They're an expensive, heavy, unnecessarily high-rated and fairly inappropriate-sounding speaker for a Marshall amp (in my opinion). I know some players including Zakk Wylde use them, but he also has a Marshall with 6550 valves and down-tunes. (And they do sound great with some other amps, especially Mesa.) I would go with V30s with a Marshall for more normal uses - or other Celestions. V30s do sound very good with a 2555, but again they're more sensitive than G12Ms so you may have volume matching problems with those two amps, unless you're running the 2555 at reduced power - or just turned down.