One Cabinet is quieter on a switcher...

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itsgoodnow

Well-known member
Hey all, hoping for some advice. I have a KHE switcher with some cabinets hooked up. I have two 16 ohm cabinets hooked up and also hooked up an 8 ohm Mesa OS cabinet. I have my amps at 8 ohm to ensure I don't cause some damage. The Mesa cabinet sounds as expected but is noticeably quieter than the other 2 16 ohm cabs. The cable is totally fine and I double checked it with another to be safe. Any ideas why there might be a volume difference?

Thanks all
 
I have no idea why that would happen, but just to eliminate a variable, try to connect the 8 ohm Mesa to another Cab Out jack on the KHE and see if that changes anything.
 
Just checked. Same volume issue. I would assume that if there was some sort of internal wiring issue with the trouble cabinet it would either not produce sound or sounds "wrong." Or am I totally wrong here
 
1. Impedance difference between the cabs results in different volume
2. Speakers are likely to be different between the cabs, and different speakers have different speaker efficiency resulting in different volume

These two points would be what comes to mind. On my switcher I certainly have very noticable volume difference between 8 and 16 ohm cabs. And also volume difference with the cabs of same impedance but different speaker brands.
 
Epiplatys said:
1. Impedance difference between the cabs results in different volume
2. Speakers are likely to be different between the cabs, and different speakers have different speaker efficiency resulting in different volume

These two points would be what comes to mind. On my switcher I certainly have very noticable volume difference between 8 and 16 ohm cabs. And also volume difference with the cabs of same impedance but different speaker brands.
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Thanks for that advice that makes sense to me. I'll try another 8 ohm cabinet up soon to verify but this seems like it could be dead on
 
Do the same volume differences exist when you’re not using the switcher? If you just plug the 8 ohm Mesa cab into one of your amps, is it similarly quieter than if you plug two 16 ohm cabs into that amp?
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Do the same volume differences exist when you’re not using the switcher? If you just plug the 8 ohm Mesa cab into one of your amps, is it similarly quieter than if you plug two 16 ohm cabs into that amp?
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This ^^^
 
My first thoughts are is it quieter compared to the 16 ohm cabinets or quieter compared to itself when not on the switcher?
 
I've had this happen to me before when I first hooked up my switcher ...

it turned out the speaker cable I was using going into the cab worked ......but the volume dropped considerably almost like there was a variac on the Head ..

the problem was the cable .... it passed signal . and when I checked continuity of the ground and the hot leads ... they were fine ...

BUT ... when I checked for " resistance " there was a reading ..... it should say " OL " on the meter but I was getting resistance ... meaning the cable was compromised somewhere .

I would check the cables involved with a Multimeter for resistance .... which is simply having your meter on the Ohm setting .... touching one end of the cables hot ( tip ) ... then touching the other end of the cable's Sleeve ( ground )and vice a versa ...if there's a reading ... the cable is garbage ( or needs to be fixed if it's the plug ) .... if you get the " OL " your good to go ....

you can check just the plug to ... by touching the tip ... and the sleeve of the same plug ... if it reads anything but OL .... there's a problem there
 
What are the speakers in the different cabs? If you have a sensitivity difference you'll hear that as a volume difference. Something like 98dB greenbacks vs 100dB G12H30s would be quite noticable.
 
Somethings up with the switcher IMO. Bad cap or something has drifted in value due to heat. Cabs and speakers are passive devices and just replicate poorly or efficiently what is sent to them. Something else is killing your noise floor and it’s either a bad compromised cable or somethings up with the switcher.
 
BSRIAudio said:
What are the speakers in the different cabs? If you have a sensitivity difference you'll hear that as a volume difference. Something like 98dB greenbacks vs 100dB G12H30s would be quite noticable.
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Mesa v30 - 8 ohm, 60 watt, 100db (the quiet cab)
Marshall MF280 (Hellatone 60L) - 16 ohm, 60 watt
CAA 4x12 - Mesa v30 8/Celestian g-12 greenback, 8 ohm

When I swapped speaker cables and flipped all the jack inputs for the different cabinets they acted the same. So the quiet one was still quiet on a different input. And the louder ones were still loud when plugged into the previous input the "quiet" cab was using.

I'm going to plug into the cab direct with a head and then compare it's volume to when it is in the switcher next.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
Do the same volume differences exist when you’re not using the switcher? If you just plug the 8 ohm Mesa cab into one of your amps, is it similarly quieter than if you plug two 16 ohm cabs into that amp?
Click to expand...
TheGreatGreen said:
Do the same volume differences exist when you’re not using the switcher? If you just plug the 8 ohm Mesa cab into one of your amps, is it similarly quieter than if you plug two 16 ohm cabs into that amp?
Click to expand...
Just checked. Same volume differences exist with and without the switcher and with different cabling.
 
itsgoodnow said:
Thanks man. Yeah I think I'll pop this sucker open and see whats going on
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Check to see if the polarity on all the speakers are in sync. One speaker may be moving opposite of the other three. That would cause some wave cancellation and make it sound quieter

 
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