Testing a speaker outside a cab

[parkhill]

Hi. I have a Vintage 30 sitting around the house. It has been at here unused for at least 4 years and I couldn't remember if it worked or not. I decided to test it out using the extension cabinet jack on one of my amps. I didn't have a cab to put it in but I just wanted to know if it worked. I wired it up and when I played something the volume was much lower when compared to the amps internal speaker. It was also much thinner. I assumed that meant it was broken but just to satisfy my curiosity I hooked up a greenback. I recently took the greenback out of a cab I sold and I knew worked fine. I hooked it up the same way as the Vintage 30 and was surprised to get similar results. Do you think the Vintage 30 might be ok afterall? I know cabs have an effect on tone but I didn't expect the difference to be so drastic (both in output volume and frequency response). I know the best way will be to actually get it in a cab and try it out. It's quiet time here though so that will have to wait until tomorrow night at the soonest. Thanks for any thoughts/insight.

[wizard_23]

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised. The few times I've tried out loose speakers they sound horrible and thin.

['58Bassman]

Hi. I have a Vintage 30 sitting around the house. It has been at here unused for at least 4 years and I couldn't remember if it worked or not. I decided to test it out using the extension cabinet jack on one of my amps. I didn't have a cab to put it in but I just wanted to know if it worked. I wired it up and when I played something the volume was much lower when compared to the amps internal speaker. It was also much thinner. I assumed that meant it was broken but just to satisfy my curiosity I hooked up a greenback. I recently took the greenback out of a cab I sold and I knew worked fine. I hooked it up the same way as the Vintage 30 and was surprised to get similar results. Do you think the Vintage 30 might be ok afterall? I know cabs have an effect on tone but I didn't expect the difference to be so drastic (both in output volume and frequency response). I know the best way will be to actually get it in a cab and try it out. It's quiet time here though so that will have to wait until tomorrow night at the soonest. Thanks for any thoughts/insight.

A speaker will sound thinner without a cabinet because the sound from the front and back of the cone doesn't have a baffle to minimize cancellation of certain frequencies. You could place the speakers in a bucket or a piece of plywood with a hole of the same diameter and get better results.

[mcdes]

Yup, I tried it with a V30 too, to break it in. Left the house for a while...... But was nasty.

[donnyjaguar]

A speaker will sound thinner without a cabinet because the sound from the front and back of the cone doesn't have a baffle to minimize cancellation of certain frequencies. You could place the speakers in a bucket or a piece of plywood with a hole of the same diameter and get better results.

As the cone extends outwards the air its pushing is sucked into the back of the speaker to fill the low pressure area. The more you can separate the front and back the more efficient it'll become. :) The speaker is probably fine.

[qingcong]

As mentioned, a speaker outside of the box will cause phase cancellations. The speaker isn't just creating sound from the front, the rear is doing exactly the same thing as the front, except in opposite direction - both front and rear are creating equal and opposite sound. So when there is no baffle there, the front and rear sound waves essentially cancel each other out.

[dspellman]

Careful with that -- you can actually blow certain kinds of speakers if they don't have the kind of cabinet loading they were designed for.