Parallel versus series wiring for guitar cabs and speaker choice

[shobet]

Having recently bought an empty 2 x 12 Zilla Studio Pro, I've been procrastinating about what speakers to put in it and also if I should wire the speakers in series or in parallel.




I'm trying to decide if I should wire it in series or parallel, however this decision effects the ohm rating of the speakers I need to buy. Obviously buying two 8Ω speakers would give the best option as it would be either 16Ω for series or 4Ω for parallel. It will mostly be used for the Super Bass head in the picture above, but for shiteees and giggles will probably have a MJW Cub put through it sometimes.

However I'm not sure what the for and against arguments are for the different configurations. I've read that parallel is more robust, IE you can blow a speaker and the other will still work. Parallel also seems to give you a smoother response and less boominess. I've also read that that series can give you better breakup and a better texture for your tone. Series also I believe is more prone to something called 'back EMF', which if I've understood it correctly is the signal a speaker can send back into the amp which can interfere with the signal the amp is sending out.

I'd appreciate if any of  you knowledgeable types can chip in with information that can help me decide.

At the moment the front runners speaker wise are a the following pair. Currently I'm liking Eminence's The Wizard and a Swamp Thang. I'm not sure if mixing an American and British voiced speakers is a good or a bad thing. One way to find out I suppose. Input on this combination or other options would be welcome as well.

[gwEm]

when i experimented with this stuff, i found the 4 ohm parallel option gave a bit more top end, better for lower volume playing at home. i'm not really an expert though, and i await further more knowledgeable replies with interest!

[WezV]

i put a series/parallel switch on the back of one of my cabs with 2x8ohm speakers to give 4 or 16 ohms.  

with a on-on-on mini toggle the same wiring would become: both speakers series(16ohm)/ 1 speaker (8 ohm)/both speakers parallel (4 ohm).

That was because i had one amp with 4 & 8 ohm outputs and one with  8 & 16 - but i already had two 8 ohm speakers i wasnt about to change.

not sure if this is completely correct but its the way i wire pickups and my novice electronics brain cant see any reason for it to be different with speakers


i only ever used the different settings with different amps though so cant comment on the tone differences

[Dmoney]

I have a 4x12 with hard wired switching jacks.
it has 16ohm speakers but you can get mono 16ohm, stereo (2x8ohm) or a single pair at 8ohms.
it just has 3 switching jacks on the back all wired up with the same speaker cable.

you could do a similar thing, like wez says.

[Matt77]

Huw your pretty much deaf anyway.
Having heard 'Deathbox' turned up, I'd worry more about building foundations than parallel versus series!

[Ratrod]

The most important thing is that it matches the amp.

[HTH AMPS]

this is not something I've spent a massive amount of time messing with, but heres what I found on whole-tonemusic.com...

"With parallel wiring you will have half the current flowing through each speaker at the same time. (Because there is more than 1 pathway for current to flow.)  In series wiring you have all the current flowing through 1 speaker at a time.  How does this affect tone? The parallel wiring scheme will give you less impedance than the series wiring scheme when using the same impedance speakers. Less impedance generally will have less high end which sounds like more low end to the ears. More impedance will yield more high end with less low end response. So if you wire the same two 8 ohm speakers speakers in parallel you will have a 4 ohm load and here less high end response and more low end response. On the other hand if you wire two 8 ohm speakers in series your total speaker load will be 16 ohms and you will here more high end response and less low end response. It all comes down to what sound you are aiming for. The choice is up to you."

I must say, this runs the exact opposite of my own recollections of switching with 4/16 ohm options on 4x12s where I always find that a 4ohm 4x12 setting sounds brighter and more aggressive while a 16ohm 4x12 cab sounds sweeter and more rounded overall.

For single speakers, I can't say I've ever noticed the difference.

I would just go with some 8ohm speakers and wire them to a switch so you can have 4ohm parallel or 16 ohm series, then YOU can tell US  :lol:

[shobet]

Sweet baby Jesus, there's a lot of stuff on the interwebs about this with various opinions one way or another about it's effect on the sound coming out of the guitar and amp. It's also somewhat complicated by the debate about how tapping the output transformer in different places for 4Ω and 16Ω may also has an effect on the tone. My head $%&#ing hurts.

So I think I'm going to go for a cab that's switchable between series and parallel. I can make my own mind up then. This forces me down the road of buying 8Ω speakers so the cab will be 4Ω (parallel) or 16Ω (series).

I believe the following schematic gives me the required wiring, so I'll be ordering the stuff during the week.



If there's anyone else thinking of dicking around with this stuff, I'll share the following links with you.

http://www.webervst.com/sptalk.html
http://pickroar.com/378/wiring-a-2x12-cab-parallel-versus-series/
http://splawnfans.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=cabs&action=display&thread=5643&page=1
http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175779
http://colomar.com/Shavano/2x12wiring.html
http://www.ronray.com/speakers/speakers.html
http://jumbosunshade.com/swd01.htm