A question about wattage and guitar speakers

[griff]

I have two 30 watt GB clone speakers I wanna try out in my cab. Will wire them in series for a 16 ohm load.
Powering them will be the Power Station that is 100 watts.
With my setup I barely get the PS master above a 9 o'clock with the speakers I currently have in the cab (100 watts each)
Will my two 30 watt speakers be safe at this volume setting despite the much lower wattage rating?

[MogwaiBoy]

Cautionary 'yes'. I reckon it'll be fine if you don't push it.

[griff]

Thanks man.
So would this statement ring true..

"Playing at levels that do not exceed the volume you get from your 1 w amp is perfectly safe for your speaker.

If a 1w head through the same speaker is louder than your 100 w head through the same speaker, the 1w head actually pumps out more power to the speaker than your 100w amp*."

With this said, I was running my Axe Fx through a 20w tube head before I got the Power Station, and it was damn loud. So I guess if I'm running the PS at the same volume as I was the 20 watt head, the wattage output would in theory be roughly the same? (Never more than 20 watts)

[RectifiedAmps]

If you can wire the speakers in parallel (for 4ohms I presume), then their combined rating would be 60w. In series, they’re only rated for 30W.

Nominal speaker rating is usually much lower than their maximum rating, but 30W off a 100W amp might be risky. 60W should be safer.

[sizzlingbadger]

Series or Parallel makes no difference to the total power handling (assuming impedance is matched correctly) which is 60W in total.

[RectifiedAmps]

Series or Parallel makes no difference to the total power handling which is 60W in total.

My bad! Confusing power with current handling.

[griff]

I'm guessing the PS would have to be pretty damn loud to get even near 60 watts RMS?
Is wattage increase linear with volume?
I can't seem to find the sensitivity of the Speakers I'm using. If I knew that and used my phone with a decibel app, I'd probably be able to get an estimate of the power getting fed to the speakers

[sizzlingbadger]

Is wattage increase linear with volume?

No its not, not the same scale for all speakers either due to their compression etc.

[murky]

I thrashed a couple of GB’s for years with a 100w Jubilee. When one finally blew, it cost $60 or something to recone. Lucky the cab was wired in parallel so I could keep playing. While a bit of an inconvenience, I came to the conclusion that it was worth it for the increased toans

Interestingly, it blew when playing cleaner - clean tones causing greater cone excursion than a compressed higher gain tone.

[Jay]

If the power station has selectable outputs, select 4 ohm and then connect your 16 ohm GB speakers. Should be 'safe' for a little while for the speakers. Not sure how the OT would handle that...

[griff]

I thrashed a couple of GB’s for years with a 100w Jubilee. When one finally blew, it cost $60 or something to recone. Lucky the cab was wired in parallel so I could keep playing. While a bit of an inconvenience, I came to the conclusion that it was worth it for the increased toans

Interestingly, it blew when playing cleaner - clean tones causing greater cone excursion than a compressed higher gain tone.

Shit, you got away with it for a while..
So pretty loud most of the time Im assuming?

[griff]

Actually that gives me an idea..
I have 2 x 16 Greenback also. The clones are 8 ohm.
I could wire them all into my quad for a total load of 5.33 and select the 4 ohm out on the Power Station.. not too much of a mismatch.
I mean usually when I wire my 8's up for a total of 16 it reads around 12 or 13 on the meter anyway. Its never bang on.

[Bg]

Not much of a mismatch, the power station is s/s anyway isn't it? Less susceptible to mismatch? Check the manual

[griff]

Nah tube. KT88

[sizzlingbadger]

I mean usually when I wire my 8's up for a total of 16 it reads around 12 or 13 on the meter anyway. Its never bang on.

That is because the DC resistance of the speaker is usually lower than the nominal impedance measured at1Khz.

It will be fine.