Well… after months of having a debate with myself I have finally pulled the trigger on 1x15 cab. Best part is it really didn’t cost me anything as recently had my 50th B-day and found myself with a healthy Amazon gift card balance along with near $200 in points on my Amazon Visa available to use.
It was a tough choice between the GK CX-115 and the Orange OBC 115. I’ve got a list of pros and cons for both. I have read every review on the internet, and watched every YouTube video available. I really can’t find any bad reviews on either. I also have decided I live in a musical gear black hole, and actually trying out anything I’m interested in without purchasing it first, is nearly impossible. As most local shops near me are very small, and cater mostly to the H.S. band crowd. Or are over an hour away and start at Mesa and Dark Glass price points and go up from there, but they also have a very limited stock. And used gear looses it’s appeal when everything seems to be 3 hours ONE WAY to go get and any savings will be quickly consumed by the cost of gasoline.
Watts wise, the Orange wins with 400 vs. the GK’s 300. But the GK ended up winning by a HAIR because it’s only 35lbs vs the 65lbs of the orange. My thinking here is I’m not getting any younger and at some point I will need to load and unload this cab in the back of my SUV by myself. Plus I had enough to cover the GK without spending any real $$$ out of my own pocket. So cost was a factor.
What am I going to do with it?.. Well, my philosophy on this purchase is that it will be the final piece my current rig, and the first piece of my next rig. It will be an extension cab for my Peavey Max 300 combo amp for now. The next purchase will probably be an Orange OB1-500 amp (a class A/B amp) oh I do love the sound of that amp. Then finally 410 to round out the rig.
I know, I know… get the Orange cab to pair with the Orange amp you’re planning… I get it… I’ve had this argument with myself for a while too. But if I go Orange cabs, they will all be Orange cabs and I just need to save my back, and my wallet a little. All things are upgradable and re-saleable down the road if needed
I’ll do a write up here on the cab once I’ve had it for a little while. I’m very curious to see how the Peavey Max 300 deals with it. As the claim is that is will send 300 watts @ 8 Ohms to the extension itself, while not deflating the power to the onboard 210’s. I even chased a Sweetwater sales guy around that big warehouse of theirs when I bought it to find out if it’s true, and they tell me it works that way too, so we shall see, I’m a little skeptical honestly. Cause it it’s true, then Peavey did a horrible job marketing the capabilities of the Max series of amps.
Awesome. I like GK even if I never really managed to get into their stuff as far as what I own.
Too bad that just yesterday Genzler announced their 1x15 Nu Classic cab. After using the GB Focus line that these descend from (as per Genzler himself, and the guy that designed/engineered both), the Nu Classics are on my radar. Light, strongly built, speakers are a blend of old and modern tones.
I only mentioned it because you were looking at Orange cabs, too.
I bet it’s like the Markbass 121P. It does 300W into its built-in speaker, and will do 500W when paired with an 8ohh cab. It, your Peavey will see a 4ohm load when paired with an 8ohm extension cab, and cram maximum firepower down the throats of all speakers involved.
Or I really misunderstood what you were trying to say.
I have one of these and think it’s a great value, terrific sound and especially so for the price. I don’t really need it any more, but I can’t bring myself to sell it for what I’d get; it’s too good!
I believe that is what is happening here. Different combo amp manufactures handle wattage differently. I believe some of the Fender combos only give you half the wattage until you attach the extension cab. So I just assumed Peavey was the same, but I’m told no and it will send 300 watts @ 8 Ohms to the extension cab in addition to built in 210’s.
It does say right on the speakon connector on the Peavey to connect to 300 watts @ 8 Ohms. But the Sweetwater sales rep told me that some manufactures do it differently. Some will actually send less watts to the built in speakers when you attach the extension cab.
We shall see… I’m not real worried about it. I normally keep the Peavey master between 2 and 4. My studio is a small room, but I like to turn it up and get away from the amp and go wireless in my living room to play along. So 4 is nothing crazy… In a small room.
But the first time I took the Peavey to a MUCH larger room at work to do a blues jam I left it on 4 (or 5) thinking it would be fine. I nailed an open E and all the dust on all the hanging LED’s in the room exploded off the lights like my own private pyrotechnics show. It was way louder than I expected. But at home I never give the bass soundwaves the 30 feet they need to open up. This room was at least 20x40, good times!!!
The manual says “up to 300 watts of power.” It also says “MAX 300 = 200 W (rms) into 3 ohms” which is a weird number, maybe 3 is a typo o.O It has to be. So I am thinking it is not 300W RMS for the 300, but probably “max” watts (right in the name, amirite? lol…) since generally an amp is not constantly cranking out its max power rating anyway. Barefaced has a good video on this, explaining that input gain and master volume are multipliers.
Either way, a 2x10 and 1x15 at 200-300 watts is going to be really loud. Maybe not “competing against a drummer and two guitar stacks in a metal band loud” but for sure very, very loud.
I’ve had the cab about 48 hours and I think I’m in love. It gave me exactly what I was looking for sound wise to go with the Peavey Max 300 combo.
I was really curious loudness wise what was gong to happen once I hooked it to the combo. So I came up with a simple test to try to figure out what is happening wattage/loudness wise. Please tell me your thoughts on this tests validity, as I’m just hacking at it.
I used a sound meter app on my phone to measure the decibel levels. I connected the 1x15 to the combo with a 10 foot Speakon cable and ran it into my living room away from the combo and closed the doors to my little studio to try to isolate the cabs from each other as much as possible. I set the combo to about 3 on the master, and put the meter about a foot or so in front of the speakers to take the measurement. I used my looper to record a few plucks for consistency to take my fingers out of the game.
Results…
With NO extension cab connected to the combo = 83db on the meter at the combo
WITH the extension cab connected to the combo= 83db on the meter at the combo
Level at the 1x15 in the other room = 83db on the meter at the extension cab
To the human ear they sound the same volume to me, they sound different, but the same volume.
Both in the same room, cabs 90 degrees from each other, both point at the meter = 87db
So what is is safe to take away from this test? Is the Peavey basically giving equal wattage to itself and the extension as I was told it would? I was kind of surprised at the results, so maybe this test is no good? IDK?
I will say that they sound GREAT together, and F’ing LOUD!!! I have to re-evaluate my home alone practice & fun volume because I can feel the difference in my ears from before with everything set the same after I’m done playing.
It tracks. It takes double the watts to add 3db of SPL. The amp sees an 8ohm load with its own combo speakers, and a 4ohm load when an 8ohm cab is connected to it. I don’t know enough about air movement of a given speaker, the math there, etc, but from the little I do know, 87db sounds about right, too. An 8x10 is so f’ing loud because it’s just a ton of speakers and how their sensitivity combines for overall SPL. TL;DR - more sensitive (ie efficient) speakers are better for more SPL than more wattage.
Glad you like it, though. It’s always nice to find a piece of gear, especially a speaker cab, that works well for you.
This seems to be totally right.
dB is a logarithmic scale and 3 dB more is “twice as loud”.
So two times 83 dB should be 86 dB. Your 87 dB is close enough.
I kinda figured it was “close enough for government work” or basically a margin of error in comparison to the 15 vs 2x10 in their respective designs/responses, based off some bass players typically using 2x10 + 1x15, 4x10 * 2, 2x15, or 8x10 setups, etc.
The math is more complicated than it would appear. Yes, when you double the power of an amp that results in 3dB more gain. However, once the sound comes out of a loudspeaker it’s no longer a power ratio, it’s an air pressure ratio which follows 20 log rather than 10 log.
Therefore, it’s possible to place two identical cabinets side by side and get 6 dB of gain compared to each individually. This is unique to bass cabinets because the bass wavelengths are so long that they add in-phase being less that a quarter wavelength apart. If you stack 2 PA speakers the same way, they will add uncorrelated (random phase combinations) to +3dB.
Because you are stacking two different cabinets that may have different sensitivities and can’t measure one without the other being on and can’t isolate the two with a mere mortal door, oh whatever, it doesn’t really matter.
For the math nuts, 3dB per doubling only applies to power ratios. It’s 6 dB per doubling for voltage (or air pressure) ratios adding coherently in-phase.
