I'm confused...Ohm and cab options for an Ampeg VT-22

[adamthemute]

Hi there.

I have an Ampeg VT-22 with two 8 ohm Vintage 30's in it. Right now the amp is set to 4 ohms, and I believe the speakers are wired in series.

I'm curious what difference I'd get with an 8 ohm setting, and if the speakers were wired in parallel what sort of sound difference it would make? I guess I go for a heavier tone, what would the best option be for what I have?

I'm pretty new to speaker ohms and such, any info would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[WaltC]

if the amp is set to 4 ohms then the speakers are probably wired in parallel and 4 ohms is the correct load.

with 2 8ohm speakers you've only got two choices, parallel (hot wire running to both speaker + terminals, ground wires running to both - terminals) 4 ohms, and series (the hot wire running to one speaker's + terminal, a wire running from that speaker's - terminal to the other speaker's + terminal and the amp's ground wire running to the second speaker's - terminal) 16 ohms.

[DGDGBD]

...and since there is no 16 ohm tap on the OT, you pretty much have one option - wire the speakers in parallel as WaltC described and use the 4 ohm selection. I wouldn't mess around with mismatching the speaker impedance to the OT with that amp. You could always try different (darker) speakers for a change. Also, there is a helluva lot of tweaking you can do to the tone and sensitivity settings to try to darken it up.

[adamthemute]

Thanks folks, it's making a bit more sense to me. Just a bit haha.

What would be my options with hooking a 2x12 cab to it? Could I do another cab with two 8 ohm speakers wired parallel? Or is the load then split 4 ways?

Thanks again!

[DGDGBD]

Originally Posted by adamthemute

What would be my options with hooking a 2x12 cab to it? Could I do another cab with two 8 ohm speakers wired parallel? Or is the load then split 4 ways?

Thanks again!

If you use a 2-12 ext cab w/8-ohm speakers wired in parallel along with the two v30s wired parallel, then you would have a 2 ohm combined load. You also have the option of wiring each pair in series, and when using them together you would have an 8 ohm combined load.