Amp help

[sw686blue]

My amp has a 8 ohm 1x12 Celestion Seventy 80 installed in it. It also has inputs for 4 and 8 ohms. What would happen if I installed a 16 ohm speaker???

How bad would that be?

[ZR]

What kind of amp - tube, solid state?

Others will chime in but I believe some (many?) tube amps can handle the mismatch ok as long as the tranny is beefy enough. For instance, I mismatch my Zinky and no problems but I'm not sure a Chinese $99 special could handle it.

I believe you don't want to go lower on a solid state amp but going higher on the speaker will just make the amp less loud? See what others say 1st.

[sw686blue]

The amp is a Randall RG50TC. It's a 50 watt tube combo.

[tafkathundernotes]

In general, putting a higher impedance on a tube amps output transformer is a bad idea. I'd find another speaker.

[kurtsstuff]

You should be just fine. Maybe some power loss since you'll be cutting the OHM load in half but should be ok..

[guitfiddler]

There's a chance that there is a 16 ohm lead (wire) hanging on the output transformer that is capped, not being used. Randall engineers may have chosen to only tap the 4 ohm & 8 ohm leads & provide only 4 ohm & 8 ohm. If so, it's a simple matter to install an aditional output jack on the chassis, connect the 16 ohm lead and label the jack. It won't damage a tube amp if you connect a 16 ohm spkr. to the 8 ohm output jack, but you may lose a noticeable amount of power.

[AdmiralB]

It won't damage a tube amp if you connect a 16 ohm spkr. to the 8 ohm output jack, but you may lose a noticeable amount of power.

That would be a potentially very expensive experiment. I would NEVER go higher on a tube amp - you amplify the flyback voltages by a factor of four.

[sw686blue]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll get the right speaker for my amp. No point in damaging it to save a few bucks.

[guitfiddler]

Again, my most respected technical janitor comes to aid. Thanks for setting me straight, A.B. I shouldn't suggest someone try something I have not actually tried myself.

I HAVE gone lower, 8 ohm to 4 ohm and at high output, without apparent consequence. Didn't consider the flyback consequence, going the other way.

Not everyone may appreciate how fortunate we are to have you as a member of the board, but I for one am.