Speaker sensitivity

nick79

I've been using some Eminence speakers lately in my cab, according to Eminence they have a sensitivity of 102db. If i was to change them to some Celestion g12t75's rated at 97db would i see (or hear maybe i should say) much of a difference in volume for a given amp level? Reading on the net the wisdom seems to vary between not much and a huge amount... 
Interested really to know how much affect it would have louder volumes, i can swap them over but thought i would tap into the knowledge here before i faff about with the soldering iron. 

ICBM

Not as much as you expect. Eminence's ratings are a bit more optimistic than Celestion's in my experience, by as much as 2-3dB in some cases.

The difference in voicing - G12T-75s are quite a scooped-sounding speaker - may matter though, depending on what kind of mix you're putting them in.

ecc83

A few years ago I replaced a blown speaker in a 135 W per ch Peavey . It was a "nothing job"  my son brought me from the jazz club. I had a Celestion 100 watt chassis (K100 rings a bell. BLOODY big magnet!) I reasoned a 16Ohm Cellie instead of a "200W" Peavey (spider?)  at 8 Ohms would be fairly safe but, as the sensitivities were comparably I expected the Celestion to be a bit down on the surviving incumbent? Not a bit of it! You really could not tell the difference in level at least.

As IC says, Celestion err on the side of caution both for power rating and sensitivity. In any case there is at least a  +/- 2dB tolerance and, AFAIK the test procedure is far from cast in stone and consistent?

Dave.

nick79

Thanks guys, kind of what i was expecting. I like the Eminence's (Governors) so will stick with them. Was just trying to think of a way to maybe quieten down my cab a bit so i can run the amp volume up a bit more. In a  situation where my attenuator cuts 3db even when on minimum setting making my rig not quite loud enough for some gigs, but without it i can't turn it up to where i want it (which is admittedly quite high).  

ecc83

nick79 said:

Thanks guys, kind of what i was expecting. I like the Eminence's (Governors) so will stick with them. Was just trying to think of a way to maybe quieten down my cab a bit so i can run the amp volume up a bit more. In a  situation where my attenuator cuts 3db even when on minimum setting making my rig not quite loud enough for some gigs, but without it i can't turn it up to where i want it (which is admittedly quite high).  

Well I would build a bypass switch to take the attenuator out of circuit for the full beans moments (hours?)

I don't know if anyone makes such a thing? Need to be a fairly chunky switch of around a 5amp rating.

Dave.

57Deluxe

...that's what comes from being very short...