Amp Speakers

hotpickups

I'm thinking of building an amp one day from a donor amp etc and put it into another cab and speakers etc. However, everyone has their own preferred speaker preference in different amp combinations etc. However, how do you know which? I mean some of these speakers go for around £300. So is it an expensive trial and error scenario or do you send them back if you don't like them etc?

Also if the donor amp came only with a one speaker output and you wanted to have it go into a 2 x speaker output is it complicated to put the extra wires to the amp etc? I am a novice by the way guys

Cirrus

It's trial and error, how else would you know? Maybe you can make an educated guess that if your amp is bassy a bassy speaker might make it too bassy, but how do you know it's a bassy speaker until you hear it? Frequency response graphs and technical specs posted by speaker manufacturers mean little in the real world - in fact I find them totally useless in determining what something will sound like and how it'll work for me.

I've probably tried 20 different types of speakers over the last 5 years. So I know what my preferences are...

hotpickups

Cirrus said:

It's trial and error, how else would you know? Maybe you can make an educated guess that if your amp is bassy a bassy speaker might make it too bassy, but how do you know it's a bassy speaker until you hear it? Frequency response graphs and technical specs posted by speaker manufacturers mean little in the real world - in fact I find them totally useless in determining what something will sound like and how it'll work for me.

I've probably tried 20 different types of speakers over the last 5 years. So I know what my preferences are...

Wow that's gonna be an expensive process then. Shame there isn't a program where you can simulate your amp with a speaker of choice. Then buy the speaker of choice from what you hear. There's a hole in the market so those of you who are computer savvy, get programming. You heard it from me first LOL

ICBM

Ask for opinions, given the type of amp, type of cab and type of music you want it for. You will get many different answers but it will help narrow it down a lot. Even within that there will be most-popular and more personal-taste options. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get it down to two or three at most though.

You try one of those and if it's not quite right you will know in what way, which should make the right final choice quite easy. Only after that you might want to try something more unusual if the mood/budget takes you.

You can easily add another speaker, but you need to know the rules for working out the total load impedance, which is not the same as that of each speaker, and make sure the amp can be safely run like that.

Cirrus

Well there are things like this which help point you in the right direction...

http://www.watfordvalves.com/soundfactory.asp

And you could always plug your amp into a piece of software that uses convolution processing to simulate different speaker types - I think that's how the axe fx and kemper do it.

Unless I thought otherwise, I'd just look at the kind of amp it is, what the manufacturer bundles with it, and use that as a starting point.

BTW, what speakers are you looking at that cost £300?

hotpickups

Cirrus said:

Well there are things like this which help point you in the right direction...

http://www.watfordvalves.com/soundfactory.asp

And you could always plug your amp into a piece of software that uses convolution processing to simulate different speaker types - I think that's how the axe fx and kemper do it.

Unless I thought otherwise, I'd just look at the kind of amp it is, what the manufacturer bundles with it, and use that as a starting point.

BTW, what speakers are you looking at that cost £300?

Interesting I'll take a look at that later. I believe the Celestian Blue is a nice sounding speaker only cos I love it in my Lazy J20. Tayden is another recommended speaker but as mentioned these are really expensive. I'm thinking of a fender amp but rehousing it into another cab or just change the speaker as I know I don't like the Jenson or eminence they come with etc

Cirrus

I had two Tayden Ace25s for a while. They're nice speakers, a little clearer but less gritty up top and marginally less complex breakup in the upper mids than the Celestion Blues but definitely the closest I've heard to a Blue. However both speakers developed cone rub in the time I had them and had to be sent back to be reconed. First was free, second cost about £25.

hotpickups

Cirrus said:

I had two Tayden Ace25s for a while. They're nice speakers, a little clearer but less gritty up top and marginally less complex breakup in the upper mids than the Celestion Blues but definitely the closest I've heard to a Blue. However both speakers developed cone rub in the time I had them and had to be sent back to be reconed. First was free, second cost about £25.

Cone rub? I've never heard of that before with those speakers. Is it a known design fault or were you just unlucky?

ecc83

I don't understand the PM system here?!!!

Hotpicks' PM me I may be able to help.

Dave.

Cirrus

hotpickups said:

Cone rub? I've never heard of that before with those speakers. Is it a known design fault or were you just unlucky?

Maybe just unlucky. It was a really mild scratching noise on certain notes, only really annoying when loud clean tones were used. But I use those tones so it drove me mad. No idea if it was a common issue, or if the two speakers I bought together were part of a small dodgy batch.

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Ask for opinions, given the type of amp, type of cab and type of music you want it for. You will get many different answers but it will help narrow it down a lot. Even within that there will be most-popular and more personal-taste options. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get it down to two or three at most though.

Yeah. And also listen to as many soundclips as you can (especially ones where they try several different speakers with the same amp tone- rivera has a couple of good ones on youtube, and watford valves has some good ones too).

No substitute for trying the thing, but you can definitely narrow it down as ICBM says.

bandmaster188

i just bought a 15" eminence speaker (big ben) after listening to their own sounclips. i was fairly sceptical about them, but i must say that the clips were a fairly accurate representation of the speakers voicing and i'm well chuffed with my purchase!

hotpickups

Cirrus said:

Well there are things like this which help point you in the right direction...

http://www.watfordvalves.com/soundfactory.asp

And you could always plug your amp into a piece of software that uses convolution processing to simulate different speaker types - I think that's how the axe fx and kemper do it.

Unless I thought otherwise, I'd just look at the kind of amp it is, what the manufacturer bundles with it, and use that as a starting point.

BTW, what speakers are you looking at that cost £300?

Just checked those speaker sound files. A few stand out for me but a lot sound just the same. Maybe I'm not as discerning as some of you One thing I did notice though. I was wrong about dismissing the eminence and jenson speakers. They sounded good to my ears some of them. I used to think they were quite brittle sounding. I am humbled