What speakers for Epi Valve Jr head

[stealthdkm]

5 watt amp

OK well to me you do need a 5 watt speaker for a 5 watt amp tho you could use a bigger watt speaker .. but it could overheat your amp after a while playing it. to me the 5watt speaker (load)is easyer for the 5 watt amp (driver)to push.

[Carlsoti]

I've got a slightly modded EVJ, as well. I play a stock MIM strat through it. I picked up a orange ppc12 cab for a song. The speaker in it is rated at 60w. It sounds great, to my ears. As has already been posted, you don't need to "match" a speaker's rating to an amps output. The mention of speaker sensitivity was correct. a speaker with a higher sensitivity rating should sound louder. If I remember correctly, a difference of 3db will sound twice as loud (or twice as quiet.) For reference, to get an additional 3 db, you need 10x the power. For example, a 100w amp is NOT twice as loud as a 50w. THough a 50w amp will (or should) be twice as loud as a 5w amp. Additionally, if you double the cone surface of a speaker set-up (2 12", instead of just 1) you will double the apparent volume. With that all being said, if you change from a speaker that has a DB rating of 96, and you swap it out for speaker with a rating of 102db, the second speaker should sound quite a bit louder than the first, regardless of it's power handling.

[Enzo]

For reference, to get an additional 3 db, you need 10x the power.

Not quite. Twice the power is a 3db increase. Twice as loud is a 10db increase. To make something twice as loud requires a 10 times increase in power.

OK well to me you do need a 5 watt speaker for a 5 watt amp tho you could use a bigger watt speaker .. but it could overheat your amp after a while playing it. to me the 5watt speaker (load)is easyer for the 5 watt amp (driver)to push.

And you are welcome to do it that way. I'd have to observe I think your approach is based on a notion of how things ought to be rather than the actual electronics. Running the 5 watt amp into a 10/100/400 watt speaker doesn't work the amp any harder in the slightest. it is the speaker impedance that the amp reacts to, not its power handling capability.

Power handling is determined by the thickness of the wire used in the speaker voice coil, and teh way it is wound on that coil. The diameter of that voice coil has an effect, as does the material of the coil former. Some speakers have a vent for voice coil cooling. None of this affects the amp.

The load on the amp is 4 ohms or 8 ohms. The heavy dutiness of the speaker is not the load. Look at an extension cord. SOme are small and thin - like mom uses for her table lamp. SOme are thick and heavy - like what we might use for power tools or running a 1000 watt PA amplifier. If we grabbed that heavy 14 guage extension cord and plugged mom's table lamp into it, the lamp would not have to work any harder.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with matching a speaker to the amp power, well other than trying to find a 5 watt speaker. But the reasoning you are presenting here is faulty. A 25w speaker would offer no added stress to the amp.

[Carlsoti]

it's been awhile since I worked at RoFo... Must've forgotten more than I remember.

[Steve A.]

FWIW I have been taking my Kustom Tube 12 practice amp to small gigs at bars and it really kicks butt since I replaced the 8" Celestion speaker with an Eminence Beta-8 bass speaker rated at 225 watts:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.c...ker?sku=667720

For something like a 5E3 tweed deluxe there may be good reasons to put in a speaker rated at 20 or 25 watts, but the Epi Valve Jr is a little crunch machine and many people use it to drive a 4x12 cabinet... lots of square inches to push the air.

Just my opinion, folks- your mileage may vary and objects in mirror are not only closer than they appear- but they are backwards, too!

Steve Ahola

[theunrulychef]

I seem to remember reading something on Ted Weber's site about how a higher powered speaker rating will give you a darker sound & one rated closer to your amp's output will be brighter - something to do with the voice coil thickness & sensitivity. Of course, I can't find that on his site at the moment. For anyone who hasn't seen this from the Weber site, it's a good read about speakers.

I've also done the VJ into big cabs & it's the way to go in a band situation hands down +1. Sounds like a big amp when you're pushing all that air.

[Carlsoti]

Chef, that's a very broad generalization, but it is somewhat true. In the context of "the old days", when there wasn't all kinda of analytical equipment to find out WHY something sounded good or bad, it is somewhat true. Weber can build you almost anything you want, at this point. Low power "dark" sounding speaker, high power "bright" sounding speaker, low wattage large diameter speaker w/ late "break-up", high wattage small speakers w/ "early break-up", etc. Their abilities show that, in current manufacturing, those old idioms don't really hold water anymore.

[theunrulychef]

Carlsoti, thanks for the clarification. I know I haven't had any trouble getting super bright tones out of my amps with high wattage speakers, but I have noticed they seem to throw out a little more "umph" than the lower wattage ones I've used. I'm sure the original text I was trying to paraphrase was a little more accurate.

[Steve A.]

I seem to remember reading something on Ted Weber's site about how a higher powered speaker rating will give you a darker sound & one rated closer to your amp's output will be brighter - something to do with the voice coil thickness & sensitivity. Of course, I can't find that on his site at the moment. For anyone who hasn't seen this from the Weber site, it's a good read about speakers.

I've also done the VJ into big cabs & it's the way to go in a band situation hands down +1. Sounds like a big amp when you're pushing all that air.

I think that Ted was referring to really nice vintage style amps, with a lot of subtlety and finesse in their sound and response. The low powered speakers really seem to communicate well with those kinds of amps.

A VJ is not exactly the epitome of subtlety and finesse... I think with amps like that- or any high gain low powered amps- the more speaker wattage the better.

Kinda like tubes- expensive NOS tubes can bring out the best tones in your old vintage style amp but are often a waste in a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier cranked up to 11.

Steve Ahola

P.S. Sometimes a darker sound is exactly what those high gain low wattage amps need so that you don't think that they are a damned mosquito buzzing around your ear!