Series/Parallel wiring? Is there any difference in sound?

[nbarts]

I was wondering if there would be any sound difference between 2 8ohms in series or 2 16ohms in parallel.

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

suppose this is up for debate, but i'll say yes there could be some deference?


i'm basing my guess on my experience with the deference between 8ohm and 16ohm models of the same speaker, and from talking to a guy from Eminence about the deferences in the ohms. deferent ohms means slightly deferent voice coils.


for the most part, i perceive 16ohms to be a little brighter and a little less bass. if you look at frequency charts for Eminence speakers, there will be a little deference between the 16 and 8ohm models of the same speaker.


other people, including guys who's opinions i highly value, say they don't hear a deference between the 16 and 8 of the same speaker. so what do i know? just my 2 cents.

 

[MrDan666]

I had my Marshall 4x12 wired in series/parallel with made it a 16ohm cab. I also wired it in parallel to make it a 4 ohm cab another time too.

I didnt notice much difference in tone between 4 and 16ohm with my marshall hooked up to it.. but my Boogie MKIII sounded and felt totally different on 4ohm and 16ohm.

I much prefer 16ohm with the Boog as it sounds gainier and also it feels more saturated in a way... running it into a 4ohm cab made the gain sound much drier than normal!

Main thing is.. its not the speakers sounding different.. its the load which the amp is seeing that makes the amp sound different. I think at 4 ohm the output tranny is working a bit harder than on 16ohm, but im not totally sure on that.

 

[blackba]

Part of the difference could be from the amp. If an amp has 4ohm, 8ohm, and 16ohm tap, one of those is using the whole output transformer (always forget which one).

I find my marshall silver jubilee sounds a bit better on 16ohms than 4ohms. I can change my 212 cab from 4ohms (8ohm speakers in parallel) to 16ohms (8ohm speakers in series). It could be a series parallel thing too....

 

[nbarts]

I'm mostly interested if parallel or series wiring can cause any difference in sound & what really bugs me are the top frequencies.

I had a Mesa 1x12 with EVM12L 8ohm and, though I liked the sound a lot, it had harsh top.
Mesa 2x12 with v30s sounded hell of a lot harsher than Bogner 2x12 v30s.
Now the plan is to load a Bogner with 2 EVM12Ls, hoping to have the nice top end of Bogner, without previously experienced harshness, which was probably due to mesa cab & 1x12 configuration.
Now I either get 2 16ohm which would make it 8ohm parallel (I run pretty much everything 8 ohm) or 2 8ohms or 2 4 ohms in series (16ohm & 8 ohm). I know this is a very weird question, but I'm really confused here
Which one will have smoother top end?

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

hell, give EV a call and see if you could talk to an engineer and see what they say.


i've had pretty good luck getting through to somebody who knows what they're doing most times i've tried with these type of things.

 

[Copperhead]

I had my Marshall 4x12 wired in series/parallel with made it a 16ohm cab. I also wired it in parallel to make it a 4 ohm cab another time too.

I didnt notice much difference in tone between 4 and 16ohm with my marshall hooked up to it.. but my Boogie MKIII sounded and felt totally different on 4ohm and 16ohm.

I much prefer 16ohm with the Boog as it sounds gainier and also it feels more saturated in a way... running it into a 4ohm cab made the gain sound much drier than normal!

Main thing is.. its not the speakers sounding different.. its the load which the amp is seeing that makes the amp sound different. I think at 4 ohm the output tranny is working a bit harder than on 16ohm, but im not totally sure on that.

I noticed the same thing with my Rev! It sounds and feels the best with a 16 ohm load. I'll use different cabs depending mostly on how much stage volume I'll need, but I now have everything wired at 16 ohm.

 

[nbarts]

I noticed the same thing with my Rev! It sounds and feels the best with a 16 ohm load. I'll use different cabs depending mostly on how much stage volume I'll need, but I now have everything wired at 16 ohm.

So do you have your amp head on 8 or 16 when you are driving your 16ohm cabinet? Are you saying that 16->16 sounds better than 8->8?

 

[Copperhead]

So do you have your amp head on 8 or 16 when you are driving your 16ohm cabinet? Are you saying that 16->16 sounds better than 8->8?

Yep, 16>16 sounds better than 8>8. So much so that I sent the two 16ohm speakers in my 2x12 back, and ordered 8 ohm speakers. Kind of an accidental discovery as I was playing with the Hotplate, trying to figure out the best way to lower stage volume. Original intent was to have everything at 16 ohm to have to buy only one Hotplate. I was trying different cabs, actually the same model cab with different speakers, and every 16 ohm combination I ended up with just sounded fuller than any of the 8 ohm cabs, and it was more noticeable in the 2x12 cab than the 4x12 cabs.