How much power do I need for two 800W cabs (8 ohms each)

#21
If you are looking at the most volume from the cabs you have, look at watts RMS at 8 ohms for one cab and 4 ohms for using both cabs. Keep in mind, a large increase in wattage does not yield a huge gain in SPL. Most amps will be rated in watts RMS, but you may need to dig. If it's not stated on the website, read the manual. Maybe read the manual anyway. For used, I would look hard at Fender and Mesa for the transferable warranty, but also discover the details of what you need to do the transfer to your name.
 
#22
You will hear no difference in going from 750 to 800 watts. Double your 750 to 1500 will only be marginally louder.
In order to double the loudness, you need to increase amp power 10 times, or 7,500 watts. Now you've exceeded what the cabs can handle.
If you have two cabs that can handle 800 watts each driven by a 750 watt amp and that isn't loud enough, then something else may be wrong with your setup.
 
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#23
I like having headroom available so I went with the Carvin B2000 to power my 2 BRX10.4's.
No I don't need to crank it, but it's nice being able to drown out my guitarist since he's the
type who will keep turning up his volume.... when he gets too loud I just drown him out, then
he gets the point and we readjust both of our volume levels.
 
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#29
BadExample said:
Headroom is good.
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Only if you don't use it... if you use it then it's no longer headroom.

In the OP's case, an amp that can deliver between 400 and 800 watts RMS at 8 ohms and between 800 and 1600 watts at 4 ohms should be a good match.

For the Golites, I would not recommend exceeding the "RMS" rating, there's little SPL to gain and plenty of reliability to lose in the event of a momentary loss of better judgement or equipment accident.
 
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#30
Hopkins said:
As a GK also running two 800w 410s, I chose the 700rbII over the 1001rbII because it can achieve that GK grind at lower volumes. Headroom is good, but it can also cause some ridiculous stage volumes if you are going for a certain sound.
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As Andy stated, headroom is the unused amount of wattage rating, so it causes nothing. On an amp its like keeping a good healthy balance in your checking account. Cab headroom might be more like overdraft protection. Neither means its safe to dime all the knobs or write a huge check at the music shop.
 
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#33
Crest Audio CA 9.jpg
 
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#37
No one's mentioned it, but most speakers can't make use of more than half their RMS rated power before they run out of excursion, so you don't necessarily need 800 watts to get all you can out of 800 watts of speaker thermal capacity. A good rule of thumb is that your amp can be rated anywhere between half the speaker rating and twice the speaker rating. Less than half and you probably won't be able to get full output from the speakers, more than twice is probably more headroom than you'd ever need.
 
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#38
Rick James said:
No one's mentioned it, but most speakers can't make use of more than half their RMS rated power before they run out of excursion, so you don't necessarily need 800 watts to get all you can out of 800 watts of speaker thermal capacity. A good rule of thumb is that your amp can be rated anywhere between half the speaker rating and twice the speaker rating. Less than half and you probably won't be able to get full output from the speakers, more than twice is probably more headroom than you'd ever need.
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That is very dependent on the driver(s)/cab as well as eq. including HP/LP filters if existential.
 
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