Is 167 Watts really worth $300

Bemo

Bemo

Feb 17, 2019
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Lincoln, NE
#1
I have an Ampeg BA210 that makes 283W in and of itself. With the 8Ohm extension cab that should go up to 450W. But is the difference in wattage or loudness worth the extra $300 the extension cab is going to cost. IME 167W is negligible in as much as being heard. Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I eating too many carrots?
 
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#3
You get a dB boost from the extra cones too. Id bet you arent really using all 283 watts to begin with, before fart-out, so you would notice the extra speaker headroom allows more volume before speaker breakup.

Edit
He beat me to it lol
 
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#4
Bemo said:
I have an Ampeg BA210 that makes 283W in and of itself. With the 8Ohm extension cab that should go up to 450W. But is the difference in wattage or loudness worth the extra $300 the extension cab is going to cost. IME 167W is negligible in as much as being heard. Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I eating too many carrots?
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If you add a matching 210 you will get near perfect coupling in the frequency range in which the drivers are within 1/4 wavelength. The means the sensitivity goes up in the low end, so the sound will be a bit fuller and you will have a bit more headroom to play louder.

It's up to you to decide if it's worth the cost. Consider if you need more headroom or would enjoy a fuller tone.
 
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#6
Stack your rig vertically and add an adjustable HPF to your signal chain.

Hear yourself better, reduce fart out by removing unused ultralow frequencies(clean up the mud, more head room), improved stage volume, clarity and FOH dispersion. Compensate for poor venue acoutics (cut boominess). Win-win-win-win!
 
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#8
Lifting your cabinet off the floor closer to ear level will help you to monitor better. This might get you to where you want to be without a new cab. If you are playing out and want more volume, the second cab will help.

The added value of an additional $300 investment is difficult to judge. If you sold your amp and took the $300 plus a little more, would you be able to upgrade to a rig that suits your needs better?
 
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#11
You will definitely get a good volume bump with a second cab, and to me, bigger in a bass rig is always better sounding. But you need to ask yourself two questions before you can decide if it's worth it for you...

1. Can I cover all my playing situations with just the BA210 or do I sometimes need more?

2. Will I like having two cabs enough to pony up the extra money and tote the second cab on my gigs?

There are times it's worth it to me and times I need to be as small as I can stand. But it was worth it enough to me that I have a modular rig in a similar vein and a couple of those little BA combos.
 
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#12
JimmyM said:
You will definitely get a good volume bump with a second cab, and to me, bigger in a bass rig is always better sounding. But you need to ask yourself two questions before you can decide if it's worth it for you...

1. Can I cover all my playing situations with just the BA210 or do I sometimes need more?

2. Will I like having two cabs enough to pony up the extra money and tote the second cab on my gigs?

There are times it's worth it to me and times I need to be as small as I can stand. But it was worth it enough to me that I have a modular rig in a similar vein and a couple of those little BA combos.
Click to expand...

IMHO, modular is good! My main rig for local gigs is a GK 700RB/112 Combo. It makes 225W with the internal speaker, and 380W with an added extension speaker. It's nice when I can do the gig with just the combo, but sometimes it's not loud enough. I have never had a gig where I wasn't loud enough with an additional speaker. So in this case 155W and an extension speaker makes a huge difference.
 
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#13
mmbongo said:
Adding 167 watts to your current setup will not give you any more volume.

Adding a second cabinet to your existing setup will give you a butt load of more volume.
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This. Adding a cab to a combo really beefs up the sound and it has nothing to do with watts. My Rumble 200c is a perfect example. The combo by itself is 140 watts and adding a cab only increases the total watts by 60, for a total of 200. 60 watts in itself is insignificant but two 15s moves way more air than a single 15. It’s louder and way more punch with the two 15s. Difference is night and day. Adding an Ampeg 2x10 cab to your combo will make a big difference.
 
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#14
Doubling the speakers counts just as much as fully doubling the power applied, when the speakers handle it cleanly.

With the likely inability of the combo cab to use all the amp can give already, you start to get the idea the mathematical extra 167w is relatively unimportant to the overall effect of adding the extension.

In other words, prepare for a big surprise.
 
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#15
Bemo said:
I have an Ampeg BA210 that makes 283W in and of itself. With the 8Ohm extension cab that should go up to 450W. But is the difference in wattage or loudness worth the extra $300 the extension cab is going to cost. IME 167W is negligible in as much as being heard. Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I eating too many carrots?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the watts, you'll definitely hear the difference. Even with a tube amp you can hear the difference with two cabs and their output wattage doesn't change. You'll get more bottom for one thing and consequently a bigger sound and you'll probably need less volume on the knob.
 
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#16
When you add a second cab to a tube amp the output wattage does not change but the overall volume always increases. So, adding more matching speakers or ones designed to work with a given cab, is usually a good thing, assuming you need it.
 
#17
Adding a second cab will give you a significant increase in loudness. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that question.

An example from my experience: I used to run a Walter Woods stereo head bridged into a single 8-ohm Greenboy F112 cabinet (700 watts output). This worked great for 90% of the rooms I was playing. I then added another F112 cabinet for 1000 watts into 4 ohms. This worked spectacularly for 100% of the situations I was playing in. Incredible tone, volume, headroom, everything. Best stage sound I’ve had in 50 years of playing gigs. It was well worth it to me.

But the difference in loudness and tone was not from the increased wattage but from the added cab.
 
#18
Bemo said:
I have an Ampeg BA210 that makes 283W in and of itself. With the 8Ohm extension cab that should go up to 450W. But is the difference in wattage or loudness worth the extra $300 the extension cab is going to cost. IME 167W is negligible in as much as being heard. Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I eating too many carrots?
Click to expand...

The extra wattage alone... yeah, I would not bother. BUT you also have an additional speaker(s)... and that combination will be noticeable "girthier". If carrying an extra cab is not an issue for you, I'd do it. I'm a fan of extra cabs whenever I can, even if not required for pure loudness, it just feels/sounds better.
 
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#20
Isn’t more always better? ;)

As others have said, it’s the additional speaker area that will deliver the volume. If you need/want it, then it’s worth it. Otherwise.... well, no, more is always better. ;)
 
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