Owner`s manual

Owner's Manual 444

But even if the power decreases by almost one third compared to a matching load, the subjective

impression will be the volume is nearly the same (as long as the phases of the speaker cabinets are the

same). This is simply because more speakers are now driven by the amplifier. You will notice a slightly

different feel, which is caused by a different damping factor the power amp of your amplifier 'sees'.

Hereby a lower impedance from your cabinet will feel more 'loose', a higher impedance will give you a

more 'tight' feeling. There is a simple reason for that. As seen before the higher impedance causes the

amplifier to emit more power, more 'headroom'. Because the bass frequencies require more power than

the higher frequencies, it can be amplified more accurate, more 'tight' as it's often called. The dynamic

does not drop when especially palm muted low strings are hitted. In contrast there's a natural sag with

the lower impedance because of the lowered power.

But don't expect these changes to be drastically, we are talking about nuances in sound. This will be

even more hard to notice because the number of speakers has changed.

Having said that, we recommend to undermatch the cabinet load when using 2 cabinets at the same

time.

– one or two 16 Ohm Cabinets (=8 Ohm) → Impedance switch 16 Ohm

– one or two 8 Ohm Cabinets (=4 Ohm) → Impedance switch 8 Ohm

– one or two 4 Ohm Cabinets (=2 Ohm) → Impedance switch 4 Ohm

It is also possible to mix cabinets with different impedances, you only have to be aware that the power

to the cabinets will be different as well, to be precise it will be twice as high at the cabinet with half the

impedance.

– one 16 and one 8 Ohm Cabinet (=5,33 Ohm) → Impedance switch 16 Ohm

– one 8 and one 4 Ohm Cabinet (= 2,66 Ohm) → Impedance switch 8 Ohm

In any case do not exceed the power handling of the speaker cabinet! Be aware of, that the setting of

your volume control is not an indicator for the power your amplifier emits.

This is just a rough overview on the interaction between a valve driven power amplifier and a

loudspeaker. Believe me, that process is far too complex to put it in such a manual, and to be honest in

it's entirity it would exceed my knowledge. And even if the era of valves is long gone, this is why some

very few people - including me - are still researching on it.

… and we keep you informed!