Speaker connection/OHM question.

[hamerhead]

Say I have two normally wired 8 ohm 1x12 cabinets w/ two 1/4-inch jacks on each. I go amp into jack one (cab 1) and out of jack 2 into jack one on cab 2 (normal stack-like config). How many ohms is that?

Now if I ran from jack 2 of cab 2 into a third 8 ohm cab, what's the total then?

Thanks guys.....I'll never get this ohm thing straight.........my head hurts.........

[morningstar]

I hear all this ohm load stuff is somewhat approximate. In general terms chaining up two 8 ohm loads like that is a 4 ohm load.

I also understand that as long as the output jack you are using, or the 2/4/8/16 ohm position switch is a lower number than the actual load you won't fry your output tranny. So if in doubt use the lower "ohm" output or setting.

As for tone effects and other cork sniffer stuff -- I am outta my element.

There is some speaker wiring guide at a site called (I think) Shavano Music. This is it:

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/spkr_wiring.html

morningstar

[tbonesullivan]

If you are daisy-chaining the stacks, it will depend on how the internals of the cabinet work. Usually I believe daisy chained cabinets end up being run in series, so the impedance would add up to 16.

I would avoid trying to daisy chain more than 2 cabinets, as then you'll end up with a very non-standard impedance like 24 ohms.

how many outputs does the amplifier have?

[stobro]

Just about every speaker cabinet ever made with two input jacks has them wired in parallel. Two 8 ohm cabs eguals 4 ohms, three equals 2.667 ohms. The amp may have output jacks wired some other way, but if you daisy chain one cabinet off of the other, you're most likely running in parallel.

[tbonesullivan]

really? I always assumed they were in series. I've never had to daisy chain before, and somehow I like to avoid it. I'd rather have the cabinets hooked directly into the amplifier.

[HSB0531]

4 ohms

[JohnnyB]

It just might be worth $20 for a Radio Shack ohmmeter to ensure that you don't "fry your tranny."

The way to string together 3 cabs and keep the resistance amp-friendly would be to connect two in parallel and the third in series. By this method, 2 cabs in parallel = 4 ohms connected in series to a third 8-ohm cab = 12 ohms.

There are wiring diagrams available all over the Web should you decide to modify a cab's wiring to enable that.

A second method would be to get a slave amp to drive the third cab, assuming the main amp has the I/O's to drive one.