What speaker wattage rating for 60watt amp?

[stoneattic]

So I have a couple of 60watt amps that I want to try some different speakers in. Being cheap I was going to try some Jensen MODs. One amp is a 2x12 and the other a 1x12. So do I want two 35 watters for the 2x12 and a 70 watt for the 1x12? That seems logical to me, but am I cutting it too close?

I've always thought that the best tone is when the speaker wattage rating is just a hair over the amp wattage since the speaker will be more responsive because of the light magnet and coil, but is this true?

[blackba]

The general rule I have seen on there is have the cabinet wattage rating at 1.5times higher than the amp output, this is to account for tube amps putting out more than their advertised rated wattage. So for a 60Watt amp you would want 90Watts of power handling in a cab to be safe. Jim at Scumback speakers goes over this with customers all the time it seems.

Now I have run my 50Watt tube amps through 60Watt cabs and had no issues. I was willing to take the risk as the speakers were not rare or expensive.

[freaksho]

sounds like you already know this but just in case: the safe power handling of any multiple speaker setup (no matter how it's wired) is the lowest rated speakers times the number of speakers. so you're right that's 70W in the 2x12 and 70W in the 1x12.

yes 70W is kinda close but obviously it depends on how you run the amps. are they breaking up? or if they're master volume do you run it at or above the volume where it would break up at the cleanest possible setting (i.e. gain knob at it's lowest). anyway, if it were me i'd give it a little more cushion, but i usually play it pretty safe with this stuff.

[stoneattic]

Thanks for the responses. I don't think I would be pushing the speaker that hard, but I think I'll go with a pair of MOD12-50s and a MOD12-110 to be safe. I think that I'm usually not pushing the speaker so it's break up is probably not a big part of the sound I'm looking for, mostly the tone of the speaker. I get plenty of dirt from the amp's gain.

[LPMojoGL]

CL80 sounds good and can handle the wattage cranked. I have no problem using V30s with 50 watt amps, and have used one and pushed it hard with an 80 watt Shiva with no negative outcome.