Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: everton_fc on November 12, 2007, 02:31:22 PM

Title: Ohm converter
Post by: everton_fc on November 12, 2007, 02:31:22 PM
Not sure if there is a device that does this, but say I have an 8ohm out on my amp, but the cab is 16ohm, is there a device out there that can sit between the amp and the cab and convert the output to match the cab?

Thanks
Title: Ohm converter
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on November 12, 2007, 03:18:17 PM
ou would need a 16 ohm resistor wired in parallel withe the speakers in the cab to reduce it down to 8 ohms

Not sure how you would do this in practice though
Title: Ohm converter
Post by: jpfamps on November 12, 2007, 03:54:40 PM
To match the impedances without loss of signal you will need an impedance matching transformer. The only one I am aware of is the Weber Z matcher:

https://taweber.powweb.com/store/zmatch.htm

Whether ordering this is worth the expense I don't know as I haven't used this item.

You will also be adding another reactive component to the output of your amp which might potentially affect the sound and/or cause stability problems.

By the way what amp/cab combinantion are you trying to use?
Title: Ohm converter
Post by: Elliot on November 12, 2007, 04:57:48 PM
Most valve amps can take up to a 100% upwards mismatch (i.e. 8ohm amp - 16ohm speaker), I've done it with no ill effect or fires  :D
Title: Ohm converter
Post by: Oli on November 12, 2007, 05:55:11 PM
Quote from: FELINEGUITARS
ou would need a 16 ohm resistor wired in parallel withe the speakers in the cab to reduce it down to 8 ohms

Not sure how you would do this in practice though


This isn't really good for the amp, as it isn't a reactive load, it'd probably damage the amp. JPF has the right idea, but unfortunately those things are pretty expensive.

Assuming your cab has more than two speakers, you could probably re-wire it to be 8ohms, but we'd need more info on the speaker config as it is at the moment :)