Help Fix This X88IR Rig Hadicapped By A Bad Cab

[Rackman]

So I did some additional experiments. While I think the cab is the #1 contributor, it does seem to be a stackup of a number of factors:

• The cab being darker than a TL806 with the same speakers
• The speakers being dark
• The room being dark
• The 4ohm tap on the SM100R being darker than the 16ohm or 8ohm taps.
• Th X88IR being a little darker than my Synergy SLOII and much darker than the Killer Kali

In light of all this I'm going to install a pair of Eminence Man-o-Wars in the cab wired in series for 16ohms. I'm not sure if I'll like them or not, but they certainly aren't dark and combined with using the 16phm tap that should be a help. They also have very tight bass which should be good for this cab from what I'm hearing.

Results later in the week.

 

[Rackman]

Well I got the Man-o-War speakers and installed them in series for 16ohm. It ended up being a colossal PITA because some of the grommets for the speaker screws stripped, and I had to take the grille cloth off to put in replacement hardware. I'll have to rig it with a velcro grille cloth setup when I'm done with everything.

But other than that it seems decent so far. I just ran the amp a bit completely dry, and it EQed normally and sounded more or less like an SLO. I'll have to rig it up with my typical delay/reverb but I'd say what I heard was a fine starting point.

 

[domguy]

Well I got the Man-o-War speakers and installed them in series for 16ohm. It ended up being a colossal PITA because some of the grommets for the speaker screws stripped, and I had to take the grille cloth off to put in replacement hardware. I'll have to rig it with a velcro grille cloth setup when I'm done with everything.

But other than that it seems decent so far. I just ran the amp a bit completely dry, and it EQed normally and sounded more or less like an SLO. I'll have to rig it up with my typical delay/reverb but I'd say what I heard was a fine starting point.

Dumb question - do you like any of the IR models on the X88IR? Do you think it may worth the effort to explore the stock models and potentially others to better narrow down what you might want in an actual speaker cab?

This may just be a bigger pita than just wiring up a new set of speakers...

 

[Exo-metal]

The tone will get brighter using 8ohm or even more 4ohms, carry on.

 

[Rackman]

Dumb question - do you like any of the IR models on the X88IR? Do you think it may worth the effort to explore the stock models and potentially others to better narrow down what you might want in an actual speaker cab?

This may just be a bigger pita than just wiring up a new set of speakers...

I haven't used them at all so no opinion.

 

[Rackman]

The tone will get brighter using 8ohm or even more 4ohms, carry on.

I did the experiment re-wiring the previous speakers for 16ohm and got the opposite result - brighter at series/16ohm the parallel/4ohm.

 

[Exo-metal]

That's clear as mud...clarity the end description pls. The standard marshall wiring is two speakers in series and then parallel at the jack.

 

[Rackman]

That's clear as mud...clarity the end description pls. The standard marshall wiring is two speakers in series and then parallel at the jack.

The speaker cabinet in question is a 2x12 not a 4x12. The cabinet has 2 8-ohm speakers which can be wired as either 4ohm (parallel) or 16 ohm (series). When wired 16ohm on the 16ohm tap they are brighter than when wired 4ohm on the 4ohm tap.

 

[Exo-metal]

That I can understand.

 

[Shask]

I did the experiment re-wiring the previous speakers for 16ohm and got the opposite result - brighter at series/16ohm the parallel/4ohm.

Interesting. I have 2 4-ohm 212 cabs I was thinking about rewiring this weekend to 16 ohms because I can't use them with any other cabs.

 

[Rackman]

Interesting. I have 2 4-ohm 212 cabs I was thinking about rewiring this weekend to 16 ohms because I can't use them with any other cabs.

I think the effect lies mostly if not entirely in the transformer (where more/fewer windings are used) rather than the speaker cabinet itself.